Michael Maier’s Atalanta Fugiens (1618)
The Washerwoman in Atalanta Fugiens
The third emblem of Atalanta Fugiens shows a woman washing cloth in a steaming wooden vessel. Its motto asks the reader to observe her work and do likewise. The following discourse begins with the washing and drying of stained linen, then compares that repeated cleansing with the clarification of the philosophical subject. Maier lists such operations as calcination, sublimation, solution, distillation, coagulation and fixation before drawing them together under one ablution. The domestic scene thus supplies a concrete vocabulary for the work described in the Latin text.
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In the sources
A household task is the starting image
DocumentedThe motto and engraving direct attention to a woman washing cloth beside a fire.
Several operations become one cleansing analogy
DocumentedThe discourse names multiple chymical operations and says that they are accomplished in one ablution.
Context & interpretation
This entry follows Michael Maier’s Latin and German Atalanta Fugiens in the scanned edition dated 1618. Statements are attributed to that historical emblem book. The source links identify the actual image, music or prose page; the interpretation is editorial.
Original passages
Source 1
Atalanta Fugiens
Vade ad mulierem lavantem pannos, tu fac similiterOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Emblema III, printed p. 21, motto and engraving
Actual checksum-verified public Reader scan inspected. Historical Latin wording retained; long s, line breaks and spacing normalised for quotation.
- Edition
- IMJ-0287-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0287-E001-P0022
- Original scan leaf
- 29
- Recorded leaf number
- 29
- Current Reader position
- 22
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
Source 2
Atalanta Fugiens
una ablutione absolvunturOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Discursus III, printed p. 22, comparison with chymical operations
Actual checksum-verified public Reader scan inspected. Historical Latin wording retained; long s, line breaks and spacing normalised for quotation.
- Edition
- IMJ-0287-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0287-E001-P0023
- Original scan leaf
- 30
- Recorded leaf number
- 30
- Current Reader position
- 23
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
