Music from 'Atalanta fugiens' emblem 9
Michael Maier's alchemical emblem book Atalanta fugiens was first published in Latin in 1617. It was a most amazing book as it incorporated 50 emblems with a motto, an epigram and a discourse, but extended the concept of an emblem book by incorporating 50 pieces of music the 'fugues' or canons. In this sense it was an early example of multimedia.
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Atalanta Fugiens
Emblem 9
Lock the tree with the old man in a bedewed house,
and, by eating of the tree's fruit, the old man becomes young.
Epigram 9
In the garden of Wisdom stands a tree, which produces gold apples,
You should take this tree, with our old man;
Let them be locked up in a glass house, wet with dew,
And let them stay there together for many days:
Then, O wonder, he will eat his fill from the tree's fruit,
So that he, who was formerly an old man, becomes young again.
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