Infans Philosophicus tres agnoscit patres, ut Orion

Michael Maier, 1618 “Infans Philosophicus tres agnoscit patres, ut Orion.” Atalanta Fugiens, Emblema XLIX, page 205, the motto printed over the engraving.

Symbolica, 2026 Maier’s Latin, put into English here: The philosophic infant knows three fathers, as Orion did.

Michael Maier, 1618 “Fabula narratur, Phoebus, Vulcanus & Hermes
In pellem bubulam semina quod suerint;
Tresque Patres fuerint magni simul ORIONIS:
Quin Sobolem Sophiae sic tripatrem esse ferunt:
SOL etenim primus, Vulcanus at esse secundus
Dicitur, huic praestans tertius arte pater.” Atalanta Fugiens, Epigramma XLIX, page 205, the six lines printed under the engraving.

Symbolica, 2026 Maier’s epigram, put into English here: The story is told that Phoebus, Vulcan and Hermes sewed their seed into an ox hide, and that the three together were the fathers of great ORION. In just this way they say the Child of the Sages has three fathers. The SUN is the first, Vulcan is said to be the second, and the third, outstanding in art, is his father too.

Tap a motif on the picture, or a line below. Its note opens under the line, with the reading its author gave it.

1. Primary motif
2. 1The DivinePhoebus with his bow at the left and Hermes in his winged cap at the right, two of the three fathers gathered over the hide

Phoebus with his bow, Hermes in his winged cap and a third father in armour, gathered with two others over the ox hide on the ground, the caduceus lying at their feet. By eye

The picture read whole, in the archive's words, from the sources quoted on the marks. Read on, and the picture follows: the motif under discussion keeps its colour.

Decoded: every motif is marked, and each mark carries the reading its author gave it, quoted from the text, or says that it is observed on the picture and not read. The reading above is the archive's own, made from those sources and no others.