Fit pullus à nido volans, qui iterùm cadit in nidum

Michael Maier, 1618 “Fit pullus à nido volans, qui iterùm cadit in nidum.” Atalanta Fugiens, Emblema VII, page 37, the motto printed over the engraving.

Symbolica, 2026 Maier’s Latin, put into English here: The chick flies from the nest and falls back into it.

Michael Maier, 1618 “Rupe cava nidum Jovis ALES struxerat, in quo
Delituit, pullos enutriitque suos:
Horum unus levibus voluit se tollere pennis,
At fuit implumi fratre retentus ave.
Inde volans redit in nidum, quem liquerat, illis
Junge caput caudae, tum nec inanis eris.” Atalanta Fugiens, Epigramma VII, page 37, the six lines printed under the engraving.

Symbolica, 2026 Maier’s epigram, put into English here: The Bird of Jove had built its nest in a hollow rock, where it hid and reared its young. One of them wanted to lift itself on light feathers, but was held back by its unfledged brother. Flying from there it returns to the nest it had left. Join the head to the tail in these, and you will not come away empty.

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1. Primary motif
2. 1The Birdthe eagle's nest at the top of the rock, with the birds in it

The rock with the nest at its top and the bird between the two, a river town below. By eye

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