Symbolica
Rex balneatur in Laconico sedens, Atrâque bile liberatur à Pharut

Rex balneatur in Laconico sedens, Atrâque bile liberatur à Pharut

The King and the Queen as the central motif, with Fire and the Water in a secondary part. From Atalanta Fugiens.

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

Public domain, 1618 printing · Web copy 1400 by 1309 px · Internet Archive, Getty Research Institute copy, leaf 128

What is happening

Michael Maier, 1618 “Rex balneatur in Laconico sedens, Atrâque bile liberatur à Pharut.” Atalanta Fugiens, Emblema XXVIII, page 121, the motto printed over the engraving.

Symbolica, 2026 Maier’s Latin, put into English here: The king bathes seated in the sweating room and is freed of black bile.

Key · 3 motifs

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

  1. 1The King and the Queencentral motif as it reads here: Emblema XXVIII
  2. 2Firesecondary motif
  3. 3The Watersecondary motif

The picture

The crowned figure inside the sweating box, the fire under it. 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.

Where the detail is the subject

Fire · the Water

Each of these is in the picture without being what it is about. 14 works in the archive are about one of them; the 4 closest are below.

In the same series

Atalanta Fugiens, 1618

Record

Source
Internet Archive, Getty Research Institute copy, leaf 128
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 1309 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
Rex balneatur in Laconico sedens, Atrâque bile liberatur à Pharut. Internet Archive catalogues it as: Emblema XXVIII, from Atalanta Fugiens, page 121
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.
By email · free

One symbol a week, decoded.

This picture is free at full size from its source, linked above. What an address gets is the Sunday letter: one picture, one symbol marked on it, what it meant and who said so, and the master files of the decoded plates as they are verified. Leave any time.

Cite
Symbolica, “Rex balneatur in Laconico sedens, Atrâque bile liberatur à Pharut”, Matthaus Merian, attributed, for Michael Maier, 1618. thesymbolica.com/work/rex-balneatur-in-laconico-sedens-atraque-bile-liberatur-a-pharut/