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Atalanta Fugiens
by Michael Maier (1568 - 1622)

by  Alejandro Franz

Emblems 1 - 5

Alchemical emblem book Atalanta fugiens was first published in Latin in 1617.
It was a most amazing book as it incorporated 50 emblems with epigrams
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.

The Flying Atalanta
 or
Philosophical Emblems
 of the Secrets of Nature
 by
 Michael Majerus (Maier)
 Count of the Imperial Consistory
 M...D... Eq: ex: &c.

 

EPIGRAMMA AUTHORIS.

Hesperii precium juvenis tulit impiger horti
   Dante Deá pomum Cypride tergeminum:
Idque sequens fugientis humo glomeravit adora
   Virginis, hinc tardas contrahit illa moras:
Mox micat is, micat haec mox ante fugacior Euris,
   Alteratum spargens aurea dona solo,
Ille morabatur vestigia lenta puellae
   Rursus at haec rursus dat sua terga fugae;
Tertia donec amans iterârit pondera, cessit
   Victori merces hin ATALANTA suo.
Hippomenes virtus est sulphuris, illa fugacis
   Mercurii, in cursu femina victa mare est.
Qui postquam cupido se complectuntur amore
   In fano Cybeles corrigit ira Deam;
Pelle leonina vindex & vestiit ambos,
   In de rubent posthac corpore, suntque feri.
Hujus ut exprimeret simulacra simillima cursus
   Voce tibi ternâ dat mea Musa fugaes:
Una manet simplex pomúmque refert remorans vox,
   Altera sed fugiens, tertia ritè sequens.
Auribus ista tuis, oculísque Emblemata prostent,
   At ratio arcanas expetat inde notas:
Sensibus haec objecta tuli, intellectus ut illis
   Illicibus caparet, quae preciosa latent.
Orbis quic quid opum, vel habet Medicina salutis,
   Omne Leo geminus suppeditare potest.

 
 

The Author's Epigram

Three Golden Apples from the Hesperian grove.
   A present Worthy of the Queen of Love.
Gave wise Hippomenes Eternal Fame.
   And Atalanta's cruel Speed O'ercame.
In Vain he follows 'till with Radiant Light,
   One Rolling Apple captivates her Sight.
   And by its glittering charms retards her flight.
She Soon Outruns him but fresh rays of Gold,
   Her Longing Eyes & Slackened Footsteps Hold,
'Till with disdain She all his Art defies,
   And Swifter then an Eastern Tempest flies.
Then his despair throws his last Hope away,
   For she must Yield whom Love & Gold betray.
What is Hippomenes, true Wisdom knows.
   And whence the Speed of Atalanta Flows.
She with Mercurial Swiftness is Endued,
   Which Yields by Sulphur's prudent Strength pursued.
But when in Cybel's temple they would prove
   The utmost joys of their Excessive Love,
The Matron Goddess thought herself disdained,
   Her rites Unhallowed & her shrine profaned.
Then her Revenge makes Roughness o'er them rise,
   And Hideous feireenesse Sparkle from their Eyes.
Still more Amazed to see themselves look red,
   Whilst both to Lions changed Each Other dread.
He that can Cybell's Mystic change Explain,
   And those two Lions with true Redness stain,
Commands that treasure plenteous Nature gives
   And free from Pain in Wisdom's Splendor lives.


Emblem 1

Portavit eum ventus in ventre suo.
(The Wind carried him in his belly)

A pregnant man stands, his hands and head emitting currents of wind,
cloud or smoke. Within his belly we see a child beginning to form.

Atalanta Fugiens  1 midi


Epigramma 1

Embryo ventosâ BOREAE qui clauditur alvo
Vivus in hanc lucem si semel ortus erit;
Unus is Heroum cunctos superare labores
Arte, manu, forti corpore, mente, potest.
Ne tibi sit Coeso, nec abortus inutilis ille,
Non Agrippa, bono sydere sed genitus.
 English'd thus:
 If BOREAS can in his own Wind conceive
An offspring that can bear this light & live;
In art, Strength, Body, Mind He shall excell
All wonders men of Ancient Heroes tell.
Think him no Caeso nor Abortive brood,
Nor yet Agrippa, for his Star is good.

 

Discourse 1

Hermes, the most industrious searcher into all the secrets of Nature,
doth in his Smaragdine Table exquisitely thus succinctly describe the
Natural Work when he says: 'Wind carried Him in his belly,' as if he
should have said that He whose father is Sol & mother is Luna must,
before he can be brought forth into the light, be carried by windy fumes,
even as a Bird is carried in the Air when it flies.
 Now from fumes or winds (which are nothing else but Air in Motion)
being coagulated, Water is produced, & from Water mixed with earth
all minerals & metals do proceed. And even these last are said to
consist of & be immediately coagulated from fumes, so that whether
He be placed in Water or fume the thing is the same; for one as well
as the other is the master of Wind. The same the more remotely may
be said of Minerals & Metals, but the Question is: Who is He that ought
to be carried by Winds? I answer: Chymically it is Sulphur which is carried
in Argent Vive (contained in quicksilver), as Lully in his Codicill cap. 32
& all other Authors attest.
[Marginal note: "Lully ibid: 'The wind carries him in his belly;'
That is, sulphur is carried by Argent Vive; & Ch.47: 'The Stone is Fire carried
in the Belly of Air.'"] Physically it is the Embryo, which in a little time ought to
be borne into the light. I say also that Arithmetically it is the Root of a Cube;
Musically it is the Disdiapason; Geometrically it is a point, the beginning
of a continued running line; Astronomically it is the Center of the Planets
Saturn, Jupiter & Mars.
 Now although these are different Subjects, Yet if they be well compared
together they will easily demonstrate what the offspring of Wind must be.
But this enquiry must be left to every man's own Industry, be it remembered.
But I shall point out the matter more plainly thus: All Mercury is composed
of fumes, that is of Water elevating Earth together with itself into an aerial
rarity or thinness, & of Earth forcing Air to return into Watery Earth or Earthy
Water; for when the Elements are in it altogether & mixed throughout & mutually
blended, subdued & reduced to a certain Viscous Nature, they do not easily
recede from one another, but either follow the Volatile flying upwards,
or remain below with those that are fixed.
 Nor is it indeed without reason that Mercury is called the Messenger or
Interpreter & as it were the running intermediate Minister of the other
Gods & has Wings fitted to his head & feet; for He is Windy & flies
through the air as wind itself, which many Persons are really & experimentally
convinced of, to their great damage. But because he carries a Rod or
Caduceus about which two serpents are twined across one the other,
by which he can draw souls out of bodies & bring them back again & effect
many such contrarities, He is a most Excellent figure or representation of the
Philosophical Mercury. Mercury, therefore, is Wind, which takes Sulphur,
or Dionysius, or (if You please so to call it) Asculepius, being yet an imperfect
Embryo out of the Mother's belly or out of the Ashes of the Mother's body burned,
& carries it thither where it may be brought to maturity.
 And the Embryo is Sulphur, which by the celestial Sun is infused into the Wind
of Boreas, that he may bring it forth in maturity. Who, after the complete time of
his Teeming, does bring forth twins, one with white Hair, Called Calais,
the other with Red, named Zethes. These Sons of Boreas (as Orpheus the
Chymick Poet writes) were Companions to Jason amongst the set of the
Argonauts when he went to fetch the Golden Fleece from Colchis, for Phineas
the blind Prophet, being infested by the Harpies, could not be freed from them
but by these Sons of Boreas, & for so great a benefit obtained by their means,
He out of gratitude showed the whole course of their way to the Argonauts.
These Harpies are nothing else but corrupting Sulphur which is driven away by
the Sons of Boreas when they come to full age, & from a thing imperfect and
molested with noxious and hurtful Volatiles becomes perfect & not subject to
that Evil, & afterwards shows Jason its Physician the way how to obtain the
Golden Fleece.
 Basil [Valentine] as well as other Authors takes Notice of these Winds & in
his sixth Key says thus: "For there ought to come a double Wind named
Vulturnus & a single Wind called Notus which will blow impetuously from the
East & the South, upon the cessation of whose motion so that Water is made
of their Air. You may confidently believe that a Corporeal thing will be made of
a Spiritual." & Ripley, Gate 8th, says that our infant ought to be born again in Air,
that is, in the Belly of the Wind. In the same sense may that be taken which we
find in Scala Philosophorum Degree the 6th: "You must know that the Son of
the Wise is born in the Air," & Degree 8th: "Airy Spirits ascending together into
the Air do love one another; as Hermes said, 'the Wind carried him in his Belly,'
because the generation of our Son is made in the Air, & being born in the
Air is born Wisely, for he ascends from Earth to Heaven, & again descends to
Earth acquiring both the superiour & inferiour Virtue."


Emblem 2d

Nutrix ejus terra est.
(The Earth is his Nurse)

A woman with the globe of the Earth around her body, nourishes an infant
held in her left arm at her breast. Withher right hand she gestures
to the ground below, where a goat on the left suckles a child and a wolf
on the right suckles two children.

Atalanta Fugiens  2 midi

Epigram 2d

Romulus hirt a lupae pressisse, sed ubera caprae
Jupiter, & factis, fartur adesse fides:
Quid mirum, tener" SAPIENTIUM viscera PROLIS
Si ferimus TERRAM lacte nutrise suo?
Parvula si tantas Heroas bestia pavit,
QUANTUS, cui NUTRIX TERREUS ORBIS, erit?

 

Discourse 2d

It is determined by the Peripatetic & other Philosophers of sound Judgment
that the thing nourishing must be converted into the substance of the
nourished & made like to it, not before but after it has received an alteration,
& this is admitted as an undoubted axiom. For how should the thing nourishing,
supposing it beforehand to be like to, or the same with the thing nourished,
have need of any change in its essence, which if it should happen would hinder
it from remaining the same or alike. For how should those things be received
for nourishment which cannot be converted into a like substance with the
thing nourished, as wood, stones, &c. As therefore the first is vain so the second
is contrary to Nature.
 But for an infant newborn to be nourished with the Milk of Animals is a thing not
repugnant to Nature, for milk will become of the like substance with it, but more
easily if it be sucked from the Mother than any other Creature. Wherefore
Physicians conclude that it conduces to the health & strength of an infant as
likewise to the conformity of temper & manners if it is always fed & nourished
by the milk of its own Mother, & that the contrary happens if it is done by that of
a Stranger. This is the Universal Harmony of Nature: That Like delights in its
Like & as far as it can possibly follows its footsteps in everything by a certain
tacit consent & agreement. The same thing happens of course in the Natural
work of the Philosophers, which is equally governed by Nature in its Formation
as an Infant in its Mother's womb. And although as Father, Mother & even a Nurse
be ascribed to it by way of similitude, Yet it is not more Artificial than the generation
of every Animal.
 Two seeds are by a pleasurable Artifice joined together by Animals & both
the Human sexes which being united by successive Alteration produce an
Embryo which grows & is increased, acquires life & motion, & then is
nourished by Milk. But it is necessary for a Woman in the time of Conception
& impregnation to be very temperate in heat, Food, drink, Motion, Rest & all
things else; otherwise Abortion will follow & destruction of the conceived Embryo,
which Observation in the six non-naturals because it is prescribed by the
Physicians according to their Art is also Artificial. After the same manner,
if the seeds be not joined together in the Philosophical Work, they ought to
be joined, but if they could anywhere be found joined together as the seed
of a Cock & Hen do subsist together & are contained in one Egg, then would the
Philosophers' work be more natural that the generation of Animals.
 But let us grant (as the Philosophers do assert) that one comes from the
East & the other from the West & are made one: what more is as ministered
to 'em than mixture in their own Vessel, Temperate Heat, and Nutriment.
The Vessel is indeed Artificial, but in this there is no more difference than
if the nest were made by the Hen herself or made for her by the Country Dame
in some convenient place as commonly it is. The Generation of Eggs & Hatching
of Chickens from them will be the same. Heat is a Natural thing, whether it
proceed from the Temperate Heat of furnaces, putrefaction of Dung, from the
Sun & Air, from the Bowels of the Mother, or otherwise. Thus the AEgyptian from
his Furnaces does by Art Administer a Natural Heat for the Hatching of Eggs.
The seeds of Silk worms & even Hens' Eggs are said to have been Hatched
by the Warmth of a Virgin's breasts.
Art, therefore, & Nature, do mutually join hands & officiate one for the other.
Nevertheless, Nature is always the Mistress & art the Handmaid.
 But a doubt may [be] raised how the Earth may be said to be the NURSE of the
Philosophical Infant, seeing it is the Element which is most dry & void of Juice,
insomuch that Dryness appertains to it as its proper quality. It may be answered
that Earth Elemented is to be understood, & not the Element of Earth, whose
Nature we have fully explained in the first day of our Philosophical Week.
This Earth is the Nurse of Caelum or Heaven, not by opening, washing, or
moistening the Infant, but by coagulating, fixing, coloring and converting it into
more Juice & Blood. For Nutrition implies an Augmentation in length, breadth
& Depth which extends itself through all the Dimensions of a Body, & seeing
this can be afforded & administered to the Philosophical Infant by Earth only,
it can in no wise be improper to call the Earth by the name of his NURSE.
But this admirable Juice of Earth has a quality different from other kinds of
Milk which are converted & do not convert for this by reason of its most efficacious
Virtue does mightily alter the Nature of the thing Nourished, as the Milk of the
Wolf is believed to have disposed the Body of Romulus to a Nature that was
Magnanimous & prepense to War.


Emblem 3d

Vade ad mulierem lavantem pannos,
tu fac similiter.
(Go to the Woman Washing Clothes
& do after the same Manner.)

On a furnace on the left water is being heated in a great vessel.
On the right a woman pours water into a large wooded vessel of
steaming water. From a tap at the bottom some of this is drawn off into
a small bucket. The presence of some cloth lying in the foreground
suggests she may be about to wash clothes.

Atalanta Fugiens  3  midi


 

Epigram 3d

Abdita quisquis amas serutari dogmata, ne sis
Deses, in exemplum, quod juvet, omni trahas:
Anne vides, mulier, maculis abstergere pannos
Ut soleat calidis, quas superaddit, aquis?
Hanc imitare, tuâ nec sic frustraberis arte,
Namque nigri faecem corporis lavat.

 

Discourse 3d

When Linen Clothes are soiled & made dirty by earthy Filth, they are cleaned
by the next Element to it: Namely Water; & then clothes being exposed to the Air,
the moisture together with the Faeces is drawn out by the heat of the Sun as by fire,
which is the fourth Element, & if this be often repeated, they become clean & free
from stains. This is the work of women which is taught them by Nature. For we
see (as Isaac remarks) that the Bones of Beasts if they are often wet with Rain &
as often dried by the heat of the Sun will be reduced to a perfect whiteness.
The same is to be observed in the Philosophick Subject, for whatever faeces
or Crudities are in it will be purged & taken away by the infusion of its proper
Waters, & the whole body will be brought to a great perfection & cleanness.
For all Chemical preparations, as Calcination, Sublimation, Solution, Distillation,
Descension, Coagulation, Fixation, & the rest are performed by washing only.
For whoever washes a thing unclean with waters does the same thing as
He that runs through all these Operations. For, as the Rosary of the Philosophers
[Rosarium Philosophorum] saith; "The Inner Clothes Prince Divinick, being soiled
by sweat, are to be washed by Fire & burned in Waters, so that Fire & Water
seem to have interchanged their mutual Qualities, or else the Philosophic Fire
is not to be supposed of the same kind with the common Fire;" & the same thing
is to be said of the Philosophic Water.
 As for the Calc Vive or Quicklime & Ignis Graecus, we know that they are kindled
by Water & cannot be extinguished by it contrary to the Nature of other things that
will take Fire; so it is affirmed that Camphor over-kindled will burn in Water.
And Ansel. de Bood says that the Stone Gagates being set on Fire is more
easily quenched by Oil than Water, for Oil will mingle with it and choke the fiery body.
Whereas Water not being able to mix with the fatness yields the the fire unless it
totally covers & overwhelms it, which it cannot easily do, because although it be
a Stone, it swims upon the top of the Water like Oil; so Naptha, Petroleum & the
like are not easily quenched by Water. Some write that there are Subterranean
Coals in the Country of Liege which, taking Fire under the earth, cannot be
extinguished by water, by by Earth thrown in upon them. Cornelius Tacitus mentions
such a sort of Fire which cannot be quenched but by Clubs & Clothes taken from
the Body & thrown upon it.
 There is, therefore, great diversity in Fires, both in their being kindled &
extinguished, & there is no less in Liquors, for Milk, Vinegar, Spirits of Wine,
aqua fortis, aqua Regia and Common Water differ very much when they are
thrown upon Fire; sometimes the matter itself will endure Fire, as those fine
Linen Clothes which were of great Esteem among the Ancients & were cleaned
by Fire, their dirt being burned away. What is said of the Hairs of a Salamander,
that they will make the wick of a Lamp that shall be incombustible is not to be
Credited. But there are persons who really affirm that there was a contexture
prepared from Talc, Plumous Alumine & other materials by a Cunning Woman
of Antwerp which she said to cleanse by Fire, but that she of envy suffered that
Art to die with Her, & the Temperament could never be found out afterwards.
We do not speak here of combustible matters.
 The Philosophical Subject, whenever it is prepared, must be considered under
all these differences, for their Fire, Water & Matter itself is not Common.
But their Fire is Water & their Water is Fire. Their Water at the same time
washes & calcines, & so does their Fire.; & the Clothes which must be washed
have the same nature with the Fine linen before mentioned or Talk prepared;
but the Tempering of it & the Art in its preparation is not known to everyone.
For the washing of this Linen, a Lye must be made, not of Oak ashes or their
Salt, but from Metals, which is more durable than any other; and it must not be
Common Water, but Water Congealed into Ice & snow under the sign Aquarius,
for this has finer Particles than the standing Waters of Fens and Marshes, &
consequently can better penetrate into the Recesses of the Philosophic Body
to wash and purge it from filth & Blackness.


Emblem 4th

Conjunge fratrem cum sorore
& propina illis poculum amoris:
(Join the Brother & the Sister
& drink to 'em in the Bowl of Love.)

A man and a woman embrace and kiss.
On the right a man stands and offers them a chalice or cup.
At his feet is a jug or vessel.

Atalanta Fugiens  4   midi

Epigram 4th
Non hominum foret in mundo nunc tanta propago,
Si fratri conjunx non data prima soror.
Ergo lubens conjunge duos ab utroque parente
Progenitos, ut sint faemina masque toro.
Praebibe nectareo Philothesia pôcla liquore
Utrisque, & faetus spem generabit amor.


 

Discourse 4th

Divine & Human Laws prohibit those Persons to intermarry who are joined by
Nature in too near degrees of Blood, whether in a Line ascending, descending,
or collateral, & that for very just reasons. But when Philosophers speak of the
Marriage of a Mother with her Son, a Father with his Daughter, or a Brother
with his Sister, these neither speak nor act against the Laws before mentioned,
Because the Subjects distinguish the Attributes, & the Cause the Effects.
For the Persons of whom the Philosophers speak are as much at liberty as
the Sons & Daughters of Adam, who intermarried without the Imputation of any
Crime. The chiefest reason seems to be that the Human Race might be more
strictly United & associated by affinity & friendship, & not be divided by enmities
& Hereditary Factions of families. So nothing hindered the Sons & Daughters of
Adam, though Brothers & Sisters, to be joined in marriage, for mankind did exist
in them alone & their Parents, & therefore, although they were allied in blood,
yet were they to be joined in affinity.
 But the number of men increasing & being distributed into innumerable families,
the true & just Cause was found, why Brothers & Sisters should not marry.
The Philosophers have a different reason why the Brother should marry the Sister,
which is the similitude of their Substance, that Like may be joined to its Like.
Of this kind, there are two which are alike in Specie but different in Sex.
One of which is called the Brother, the other the Sister. These therefore
being in the same liberty & Condition as the first kindred of men, are Lawfully
indeed, & by an inevitable necessity to be joined together in Matrimony.
 The Brother is hot & dry, & therefore very Cholerick. The Sister is cold & moist,
having much Phlegmatick matter in her. Which two Natures, so different in their
Temper, agree best in fruitfulness, Love, & Propagation of Children. For as Fire
will not easily be struck out of the hardest Bodies, Steel & Steel, nor out of those
brittle Bodies, Flint & Flint, but from the hard & brittle, that is, Steel & Flint, so
neither from a burning Male & Fiery Female, nor from both of 'em being cold
(for cold is the unfruitfulness of the Male) can a living offspring be produced.
But he must be hot & she more cold than he, for in Human Temperament, the
hottest Woman is colder that the coldest Man, supposing him to be in Health,
as Levinus Semnius, in his book of the Hidden Miracles of Nature affirms.
The Sister, therefore, & Brother are rightly joined by the Philosophers.
 If a man desire offspring from a Hen, Bitch, or Ewe, or other animal, He joins it
to a Cock, Dog, or Ram, every animal to that species to which it is most like, & so
he obtains his End. For he does not regard the Consanguinity of these Brutes,
but the generosity of each & agreement of their Natures. The same may be said
of the body of a Tree & the Hip that is to be ingrafted into it. So the Metallic Nature,
which above all things has a likeness or Homogeneity of Substance, desires its
like when any thing is to be joined to it. But the Brother & Sister being married
will not be fruitful or long persist in their Love, unless a Philothesium or Cup of
Love be drunk to 'em as a Philtre. For by this, their minds being composed & united,
they become drunk, & (like Lot) all shame being banished, they are joined & produce
an offspring that is Spurious but Legitimate.
 Who can be ignorant that Mankind is very much obliged to Medicine, & that
there are thousands of persons in the World who had not existed unless their
Parents had been freed from Barrenness, either by removing the Cause,
or taking away the impediment, either near or remote, and preserving the
Mother from Abortion. Therefore the Cup of Love is given to the new-married
Pair for these reasons which are three: the Constancy of Love, the Removal of
Barrenness, & the Hindrance of Abortion.


Emblem 5th

Appone mulieri super mammas bufonem,
ut ablactet eum, & moriatur mulier,
sitque bufo grossus de lacte.
(Put a Toad to the Woman's breast,
that she may suckle him 'till she die,
& he become gross with her milk.)

 A man approaches a woman and holds a toad or frog to suckle at her breast.

Atalanta Fugiens  5  midi


 

Epigram 5th

Foemineo gelidus ponatur pectore Bufo,
Instar ut infantis lactea pocla bibat.
Crescat & in magnum vacuata per ubera tuber,
Et mulier vitam liquerit aegra suam.
Inde tibi facies medicamen nobile, virus
Quod fuget humano corde, levétque luem.

 

Discourse 5th

The whole body of Philosophers agree in this, that their work is nothing else
but male & female; the man's part is to generate, & govern the wife, & Her
part is to conceive, impregnate, bring forth, suckle & educate the offspring, & be
subject to the Commands of her Husband. For, as she nourishes the conceived
Embryo before it is brought forth with her blood, so she does afterwards with
her milk. Hence, Nature has prepared for the tender Infant a Digestible & well
proportioned Nutrient in the mother's Breasts, which waits for his coming as
his first provision & sustenance in his Course of Life.
By milk therefore He is nourished, grows, & is increased 'till he be furnished
with teeth, his fit instruments to eat bread withal.
Then He is properly weaned, because Nature has provided him more solid food.
 But here the Philosophers say that a Toad must be put to the Woman's breasts,
that she may Nourish him as an infant with her Milk. This is a miserable & horrid
spectacle, & indeed, an impious thing, that milk designed for an infant should be
given to a Toad, being a Venomous beast & contrary to the Nature of Man.
We have heard & read of serpents and Dragons sucking the Teats of Cows, &
Toads perhaps might do the like if they could gain an opportunity.
 There is a noted story of a Toad that fixed himself upon the mouth & outside of
the lips of a Country man that was asleep, & could not be removed by any
contrivance unless by Violence, which could not be attempted without the hazard
of the man's life, for he would then have spit his poison, which he uses as his
offensive & defensive weapon. A Remedy was found for this miserable man,
from that Antipathy which the Spider bears for the Toad, for they hate one the
other mortally. He was carried to the place where an overgrown Spider had made
his web, who, as soon as he saw the Toad, he let himself down upon his back &
pinched him with his sting; but this doing no hurt, the Spider came down the
second time, & struck him more violently, upon which the Toad immediately swelled
& fell dead from the man's mouth without any harm to him.
 But here the contrary happens, because the Toad does not seize the mouth,
but the Breast of the Woman, by whose milk he increases so much that he
becomes of an extraordinary strength & bigness; but the woman, having her
spirits exhausted, consumes & dies, for poison is easily communicated to the
Heart by the pectoral Veins, & infects & destroys it, as it is evident in Cleopatra,
who applied vipers to her breasts, that by a Voluntary death she might prevent
her coming into the hands of her enemies & being led in Triumph by them.
[In margin: 'Theophilus in Turba makes mention of a Dragon joined to a woman.']
 But, lest any man should think the Philosophers so cruel as to fasten a Venomous
reptile to a woman's breast, it must be known that this Toad is the offspring or
Son of this woman, brought forth by a monstrous birth, & therefore by Natural
Right must be fed with his Mother's Milk, & that it is not the Son's desire that
his mother should die; for he could not infect his mother, seeing he was formed
in her Bowels & nourished with her blood 'till the time of his birth. It is indeed a
thing ominous for a Toad to be born of Woman, which in our knowledge hath
happened otherwise: William of Newberry, an English writer, saith (how truly let
others judge) that in a certain Quarry in the Diocese of Vintonia, a great stone
being split, there was a living Toad found in it, with a golden Chain, & it was by
the Bishop's command, hidden in the same place & buried in perpetual darkness,
lest it might bear an ill omen with it. Such also is this Toad, for it is embellished,
although not outwardly, with an artificial chain, but inwardly with natural Gold,
to wit: that of the Stone which some call Borax, Chelonitus, Batrachites,
Crapaudina, & Garatronium, for this far excels Gold in Virtue against the poison
of all animals, & is commonly set in Gold as a case or Cover, that it may not be
hurt or lost. Regularly it ought to be had out of an Animal.
 But if the Stone be taken out of subterranean Caverns, as it is commonly, it may
be neatly contrived in that shape & used instead of it, being chosen from the
best minerals & most relevant to the Heart. For in these the Philosophical Toad
is really found, not in the Quarry (as that fabulous author asserts), & has Gold in itself,
though its pomp does not outwardly appear. For to what end should a Toad adorn
himself, seeing he lurks in darkness & secret places? Perhaps that he might be very
magnificently accosted by the Beetle, if by chance he should meet him in the Twilight.
What Subterranean Goldsmith should make him that Golden Chain? Perhaps that
Father of the Green children, that came out of the Land of St. Martin, or rather from
the Earth itself, as the two Dogs came out of a Quarry, according to the same Author.

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Michael Maier - A Subtle Allegory