Michael Maier, Atalanta Fugiens (1618)
The Geometrical Stone in Maier
In Maier’s twenty-first emblem, a geometer draws nested figures around a naked man and woman. The motto asks for a circle from male and female, then a square, a triangle and another circle. The discourse explains the sequence as a physical and alchemical argument. The square corresponds to four elements, while the triangle is related to body, spirit and soul. Maier then connects these with a succession of colours before a final red unity. He explicitly distinguishes this material reading from abstract mathematical speculation. The engraving therefore belongs to the book’s account of transformation, rather than offering a valid geometrical solution to squaring a circle. The nested forms make the movement between unity and multiplicity visible without supplying a reproducible chemical procedure.
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In the sources
A sequence of figures
DocumentedThe plate arranges circle, square, triangle and circle around a male and female pair.
Maier’s own explanation
DocumentedThe discourse connects the square with four elements and the triangle with body, spirit and soul, within a material interpretation of the figures.
Context & interpretation
The entry concerns Emblem XXI, not a universal meaning of circles or triangles. Maier’s alchemical geometry is distinguished from a mathematical proof and from verified chemistry.
Original passages
Source 1
Atalanta Fugiens
Fac ex mare & foemina circulumOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Atalanta Fugiens (1618), Emblem 21, printed p. 93
Original Latin plate or discourse and printed pagination actually inspected; historical English translation consulted for interpretation.
- Edition
- IMJ-0287-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0287-E001-P0094
- Original scan leaf
- 101
- Recorded leaf number
- 101
- Current Reader position
- 94
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
Source 2
Atalanta Fugiens
per usum & institutionemOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Atalanta Fugiens (1618), Emblem 21, printed p. 94
Original Latin plate or discourse and printed pagination actually inspected; historical English translation consulted for interpretation.
- Edition
- IMJ-0287-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0287-E001-P0095
- Original scan leaf
- 102
- Recorded leaf number
- 102
- Current Reader position
- 95
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
Source 3
Atalanta Fugiens
per quadrangulum, quatuor ElementaOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Atalanta Fugiens (1618), Emblem 21, printed p. 95
Original Latin plate or discourse and printed pagination actually inspected; historical English translation consulted for interpretation.
- Edition
- IMJ-0287-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0287-E001-P0096
- Original scan leaf
- 103
- Recorded leaf number
- 103
- Current Reader position
- 96
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
Illustrations
Continue exploring
Ceres, Thetis and Alchemical Nurture
Maier pairs the nurture of Triptolemus and Achilles with the gradual strengthening of his philosophical stone.
Same subject and traditionFour Guides to Alchemy in Maier
Nature, reason, experience and reading become a guide, staff, spectacles and lamp in Maier’s image of inquiry.
Same subject and traditionMercury and Vulcan at the Hearth
Two Mercuries and a furnace introduce Maier’s distinction between the subject’s inward qualities and the heat applied from outside.
Same subject and traditionNaaman’s Washing in Maier
The biblical washing in Jordan becomes Maier’s analogy for the purification of the philosophers’ brass.