Atalanta Fugiens

<h2 id="title-page">Title page</h2>
<p>The title page depicts various scenes from <a href="/facts/Greek_mythology/M7k4FvW8">Greek mythology</a> related to <a href="/facts/Golden_apple/MwSf7Keh">golden apples</a>: 
</p>
<ul><li><i>Top:</i> Garden of the <a href="/facts/Hesperides/c6Xtx3oE">Hesperides</a>.</li>
<li><i>Left:</i> <a href="/facts/Hercules/a0GTSxvm">Hercules</a> stretching out his arm to seize one of the golden apples.</li>
<li><i>Right:</i> <a href="/facts/Aphrodite/xW0TH9tC">Aphrodite</a> handing the golden apples to <a href="/facts/Hippomenes/SvmQf3ca">Hippomenes</a>.</li>
<li><i>Bottom:</i> Race between <a href="/facts/Atalanta/0EUana7u">Atalanta</a> and Hippomenes, with Atalanta picking up an apple. Behind them is a temple with lovers embracing each other, while in the background they appear as a lion and lioness.</li></ul>
<h2 id="preface">Preface</h2>

<p>The preface contains a dissertation upon ancient music and narrates the Greek myth of Atalanta and Hippomenes.
</p>
<h2 id="discourses">Discourses</h2>
<p>Each of the 50 discourses contains: 
</p>
<ul><li>A detailed copper-plated engraving by <a href="/facts/Matthias_Merian/9cAoKmfH">Matthias Merian</a>.</li>
<li>An epigram in verse set to music in the form of a <a href="/facts/Fugue/qpUgaHjW">fugue</a> for three voices - Atalanta, or the <i>vox fugiens</i>; Hippomenes, or the <i>vox sequens</i>, and <i>Pomum objectum</i> (Apple) or <i>vox morans</i>. "Atalanta fugiens" is a play on the word "fugue"<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3"><sup>3</sup></a> Forty of the fifty fugues are based on compositions by <a href="/facts/John_Farmer_(composer)/JP5bRRYJ">John Farmer</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4"><sup>4</sup></a></li>
<li>An epigram in German.</li>
<li>A Latin verse with an accompanying discourse.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:5" href="#fn:5"><sup>5</sup></a></li></ul>

<h2 id="further-reading">Further reading</h2>
<ul><li><a href="/facts/Florin_George_C%C4%83lian/1ftwgyyY">Calian, Florin G</a> (2009), <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=de&user=eywnpDEAAAAJ&citation_for_view=eywnpDEAAAAJ:u-x6o8ySG0sC">Spiritual Alchemy and the Function of Image: Coincidentia oppositorum in Michael Maier's Atalanta fugiens</a>, Central European University, Budapest.</li>
<li>Forshaw, Peter J (2010) '<a href="https://www.academia.edu/779423/Oratorium-Auditorium-Laboratorium_Early_Modern_Improvisations_on_Cabala_Music_and_Alchemy">Oratorium-Auditorium-Laboratorium: Early Modern Improvisations on Cabala, Music and Alchemy</a>', in <i>Aries</i>.</li>
<li>Lenke, Nils; Roudet, Nicolas; Tilton, Hereward (2014), Michael Maier - Nine Newly Discovered Letters. <i>Ambix: Journal of the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry</i> (pp. 1-47).</li>
<li>Carla Bromberg, (2015), <a href="https://www.calameo.com/read/0076312910bd4f10e26dc">Musical Knowledge in the History of <i>Atalanta fugiens</i></a>. In: <i><a href="https://www.cle.unicamp.br/ebooks/index.php/publicacoes/catalog/book/95">Crossing Oceans: Exchange of Products, Instruments, Procedures and Ideas in the History of Chemistry and Related Science</a></i> (pp. 117-133).</li>
<li><a href="http://sashachaitow.co.uk/atalantaunveiled/">Chaitow, Sasha, <i>Atalanta Unveiled: Alchemical Initiation in the Emblems of the Atalanta Fugiens</i>, Attic Books, 2020</a></li></ul>
<h2 id="external-links">External links</h2>
<ul><li>Copies at various websites:
<ul><li><a href="https://www.scribd.com/doc/5986531/Maier-Atalanta-Fugiens">scribd.com</a> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190407223250/https://www.scribd.com/doc/5986531/Maier-Atalanta-Fugiens">Archived</a> 2019-04-07 at the <a href="/facts/Wayback_Machine/nmQ3a6JC">Wayback Machine</a> (with engravings; without fugues, German epigrams)</li>
<li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170623152827/http://livres-d-hermes.pagesperso-orange.fr/DOC/ATALA101.HTM">pagesperso-orange.fr</a> (complete scanned text including German epigrams; with appendix, errata; without engravings, fugues)</li>
<li><a href="https://digital.sciencehistory.org/works/pc289j53n">digital.sciencehistory.org</a> (complete high-resolution scan of a 1618 printing, all pages including engravings and fugues)</li></ul></li>
<li>Images and other media at Wikimedia Commons</li>
<li>English translation of Epigram Verse at wikisource</li>
<li><a href="http://www.alchemywebsite.com/atalanta.html">alchemywebsite.com</a> English translation of complete book</li>
<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1a6X-JUL2LE">youtube</a> colored prints with instrumental version of the music for each emblem</li>
<li><a href="https://furnaceandfugue.org">[1]</a> Furnace and Fugue. An open-access multimedia resource published by the University of Virginia Press. This English translation of Maier's work features high-resolution, zoomable images and newly commissioned, manipulable vocal recordings of Atalanta’s music.</li></ul>

<h2 id="references">References</h2>

<ol>
<li id="fn:1"><p>Read, John (1995-01-01). From Alchemy to Chemistry. Courier Corporation. pp. 72–73. ISBN 978-0-486-28690-7. <a href="978-0-486-28690-7" target="_blank">978-0-486-28690-7</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:2"><p>"Alkimia operativa and alkimia speculativa. Some Modern Controversies on the Historiography of Alchemy". scholar.google.com. Retrieved 2022-09-05. <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=de&user=eywnpDEAAAAJ&citation_for_view=eywnpDEAAAAJ:u5HHmVD_uO8C" target="_blank">https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=de&user=eywnpDEAAAAJ&citation_for_view=eywnpDEAAAAJ:u5HHmVD_uO8C</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:3"><p>Peter Forshaw/Ritman Library, at 18:15. <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:4"><p>Ludwig, Loren. “John Farmer’s Sundry Waies: The English Origin of Michael Maier’s ‘Alchemical Fugues.’” Furnace and Fugue: A Digital Edition of Michael Maier’s “Atalanta fugiens” (1618) with Scholarly Commentary. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2020. doi:10.26300/bdp.ff.ludwig <a href="/wiki/Doi_(identifier)" target="_blank">/wiki/Doi_(identifier)</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:5"><p>Count Michael Maier: Life and writings J.B.Craven pub. 1914 reprinted 2003 Ibis Press <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
</ol>

Atalanta Fugiens open-in-new

Atalanta Fugiens