Rebis, ut Hermaphroditus, nascitur ex duobus montibus, Mercurii & Veneris

The King and the Queen as the central motif. From Atalanta Fugiens.

Matthaus Merian, attributed, for Michael Maier, 1618. Engraving.

Public domain, 1618 printing · Web copy 1400 by 1303 px · Internet Archive, Getty Research Institute copy, leaf 168

What is happening

Michael Maier, 1618 “Rebis, ut Hermaphroditus, nascitur ex duobus montibus, Mercurii & Veneris.” Atalanta Fugiens, Emblema XXXVIII, page 161, the motto printed over the engraving.

Symbolica, 2026 Maier’s Latin, put into English here: The rebis, like a hermaphrodite, is born of two mountains, of Mercury and of Venus.

Key · 1 motif

The motifs the picture carries, filed by role. The marks on the picture itself come with the entry.

1The King and the Queencentral motif as it reads here: Emblema XXXVIII

The picture

Mercury and Venus embracing below, the two-headed body standing on the mountain above them. By eye

Not yet decoded: the motifs are tagged by eye and the readings above are quoted from their sources. The marks on the picture and the sourced notes come with the entry.

Also carrying the King and the Queen

14 works carry it. The 6 where it is the central motif are here. The symbol.

In the same series

Atalanta Fugiens, 1618

Record

Source

Internet Archive, Getty Research Institute copy, leaf 168

Rights

Public domain. The book was printed at Oppenheim in 1618 and its author, engraver, printer and publisher have been dead for more than three centuries; the Getty Research Institute's scan of it on the Internet Archive carries no further restriction.

Restoration

None. A 1400 by 1303 pixel web copy made from the source file; nothing retouched, nothing upscaled.

Series

Atalanta Fugiens, 1618

Artist

Matthaus Merian, engraver and publisher, 1593 to 1650, to whom the fifty plates of Atalanta Fugiens are attributed by tradition rather than by signature

Titled here

Rebis, ut Hermaphroditus, nascitur ex duobus montibus, Mercurii & Veneris. Internet Archive catalogues it as: Emblema XXXVIII, from Atalanta Fugiens, page 161

Checked

the Science History Institute's catalogue of the same 1618 Oppenheim printing, 4 September 2026: Maier as author, de Bry as publisher, Galler as printer, Merian as engraver, and Public Domain Mark. The engraving is attributed to Merian by tradition and is not signed. The image here is from the Getty Research Institute's scan of the same edition on the Internet Archive; the leaf is named in the source line. Not seen in the hand.

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Cite

Symbolica, “Rebis, ut Hermaphroditus, nascitur ex duobus montibus, Mercurii & Veneris”, Matthaus Merian, attributed, for Michael Maier, 1618. thesymbolica.com/work/rebis-ut-hermaphroditus-nascitur-ex-duobus-montibus-mercurii-veneris/