Michael Maier’s Atalanta Fugiens (1618)
Atalanta Fugiens
Atalanta Fugiens presents alchemical subjects through several forms at once. Its title page announces engraved emblems, accompanying sayings and epigrams, and musical fugues for three voices. In the scanned edition the imprint names Oppenheim, the printer Hieronymus Galler and Johann Theodor de Bry, with the date 1618. The author’s opening epigram introduces the running, following and delaying roles that recur in the music. The first emblem sequences then place musical notation beside Latin pictures and verses and extended Latin discourse. Reading these elements together gives a fuller encounter with the book than treating its engravings as independent occult illustrations.
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In the sources
A work addressed to eye and ear
DocumentedThe title explicitly combines engraved figures, words and three-voice musical fugues.
The author introduces three musical roles
DocumentedThe opening epigram distinguishes a simple delaying voice, a fleeing voice and a following voice.
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
Emblemata nova de secretis naturae chymicaOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Engraved title and imprint, dated M DC XVIII
Actual checksum-verified public Reader scan inspected. Short quotation transcribed from the page, with long s, line breaks and spacing normalised.
- Edition
- IMJ-0287-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0287-E001-P0002
- Original scan leaf
- 9
- Recorded leaf number
- 9
- Current Reader position
- 2
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
Source 2
Atalanta Fugiens
Voce tibi terna dat mea Musa fugasOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Epigramma Authoris, introductory verse
Actual checksum-verified public Reader scan inspected. Short quotation transcribed from the page, with long s, line breaks and spacing normalised.
- Edition
- IMJ-0287-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0287-E001-P0003
- Original scan leaf
- 10
- Recorded leaf number
- 10
- Current Reader position
- 3
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
Illustrations
Continue exploring
The Three Voices in Atalanta Fugiens
Atalanta, Hippomenes and the delaying apple name the three musical roles printed beside Maier’s first fugue.
Shared illustrationEarth as Nurse in Atalanta Fugiens
The globe-bodied nursing figure in Maier’s second emblem personifies earth as a source of nourishment.
Shared illustrationThe Philosophical Egg in Atalanta Fugiens
The egg, fire and sword of Emblem VIII form Maier’s allegory of generation and the appearance of new life.
Shared illustrationThe Wind Bearing an Embryo
Maier’s first emblem pictures an infant inside a personified wind, joining the Latin motto to an image of Boreas.