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Title page

The title page depicts various scenes from Greek mythology related to golden apples:

• Top: Garden of the Hesperides.
• Left: Hercules stretching out his arm to seize one of the golden apples.
• Right: Aphrodite handing the golden apples to Hippomenes.
• Bottom: Race between Atalanta 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.

Preface

The preface contains a dissertation upon ancient music and narrates the Greek myth of Atalanta and Hippomenes.

Discourses

Each of the 50 discourses contains:

• A detailed copper-plated engraving by Matthias Merian.
• An epigram in verse set to music in the form of a fugue for three voices - Atalanta, or the vox fugiens; Hippomenes, or the vox sequens, and Pomum objectum (Apple) or vox morans. "Atalanta fugiens" is a play on the word "fugue"³ Forty of the fifty fugues are based on compositions by John Farmer⁴
• An epigram in German.
• A Latin verse with an accompanying discourse.⁵

Further reading

• Calian, Florin G (2009), Spiritual Alchemy and the Function of Image: Coincidentia oppositorum in Michael Maier's Atalanta fugiens, Central European University, Budapest.
• Forshaw, Peter J (2010) 'Oratorium-Auditorium-Laboratorium: Early Modern Improvisations on Cabala, Music and Alchemy', in Aries.
• Lenke, Nils; Roudet, Nicolas; Tilton, Hereward (2014), Michael Maier - Nine Newly Discovered Letters. Ambix: Journal of the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry (pp. 1-47).
• Carla Bromberg, (2015), Musical Knowledge in the History of Atalanta fugiens. In: Crossing Oceans: Exchange of Products, Instruments, Procedures and Ideas in the History of Chemistry and Related Science (pp. 117-133).
• Chaitow, Sasha, Atalanta Unveiled: Alchemical Initiation in the Emblems of the Atalanta Fugiens, Attic Books, 2020

External links

• Copies at various websites:
  • scribd.com Archived 2019-04-07 at the Wayback Machine (with engravings; without fugues, German epigrams)
  • pagesperso-orange.fr (complete scanned text including German epigrams; with appendix, errata; without engravings, fugues)
  • digital.sciencehistory.org (complete high-resolution scan of a 1618 printing, all pages including engravings and fugues)
• Images and other media at Wikimedia Commons
• English translation of Epigram Verse at wikisource
• alchemywebsite.com English translation of complete book
• youtube colored prints with instrumental version of the music for each emblem
• [1] 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.

References

1. Read, John (1995-01-01). From Alchemy to Chemistry. Courier Corporation. pp. 72–73. ISBN 978-0-486-28690-7. 978-0-486-28690-7 ↩

2. "Alkimia operativa and alkimia speculativa. Some Modern Controversies on the Historiography of Alchemy". scholar.google.com. Retrieved 2022-09-05. https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=de&user=eywnpDEAAAAJ&citation_for_view=eywnpDEAAAAJ:u5HHmVD_uO8C ↩

3. Peter Forshaw/Ritman Library, at 18:15. ↩

4. 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 /wiki/Doi_(identifier) ↩

5. Count Michael Maier: Life and writings J.B.Craven pub. 1914 reprinted 2003 Ibis Press ↩