Michael Maier, Atalanta Fugiens (1618)
Mercury and Vulcan at the Hearth
In Maier’s tenth emblem, a smith works at a blazing hearth between two figures carrying Mercury’s staff. The motto pairs fire with fire and Mercury with Mercury. The discourse immediately complicates a literal reading: adding an ordinary substance to more of itself merely increases its quantity. Maier instead distinguishes an inward fire belonging to the philosophical subject from an outward fire that assists it. He also gives Mercury and sulphur the roles of matter and form. The familiar workshop makes these layered meanings visible without reducing either Mercury to a single ordinary material.
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In the sources
A doubled Mercury
DocumentedTwo staff-bearing figures flank the smith and hearth; the motto repeats both fire and Mercury.
Inward quality and outward assistance
DocumentedThe discourse distinguishes internal from external fire, then describes water or Mercury as matter and fire or sulphur as form.
Context & interpretation
The record follows the paired figures and Maier’s inward–outward distinction in Emblem X. Mercury’s alchemical role is separate from the planet’s astrological meanings.
Original passages
Source 1
Atalanta Fugiens
Da ignem igni, Mercurium MercurioOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Atalanta Fugiens (1618), Emblem 10, motto, engraving and epigram, printed p. 49
Original scan and printed heading inspected; short Latin quotation normalizes spacing and ligatures. Historical English text consulted in Furnace and Fugue.
- Edition
- IMJ-0287-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0287-E001-P0050
- Original scan leaf
- 57
- Recorded leaf number
- 57
- Current Reader position
- 50
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
Source 2
Atalanta Fugiens
alium ignem esse internumOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Atalanta Fugiens (1618), Emblem 10, Latin discourse, printed p. 50
Original scan and printed heading inspected; short Latin quotation normalizes spacing and ligatures. Historical English text consulted in Furnace and Fugue.
- Edition
- IMJ-0287-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0287-E001-P0051
- Original scan leaf
- 58
- Recorded leaf number
- 58
- Current Reader position
- 51
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
Source 3
Atalanta Fugiens
aqua seu Mercurius hic materiam praebetOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Atalanta Fugiens (1618), Emblem 10, Latin discourse, printed p. 51
Original scan and printed heading inspected; short Latin quotation normalizes spacing and ligatures. Historical English text consulted in Furnace and Fugue.
- Edition
- IMJ-0287-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0287-E001-P0052
- Original scan leaf
- 59
- Recorded leaf number
- 59
- Current Reader position
- 52
- 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 traditionNaaman’s Washing in Maier
The biblical washing in Jordan becomes Maier’s analogy for the purification of the philosophers’ brass.
Same subject and traditionPallas and the Golden Rain in Maier
Pallas’s birth and a shower of gold at Rhodes become an explicitly allegorical reading of myth and alchemical wisdom.