Symbolica
Sapientiæ humanæ fructus Lignum vitæ est

Sapientiæ humanæ fructus Lignum vitæ est

The Tree as the central motif, with the Crown in a secondary part. From Atalanta Fugiens.

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

Public domain, 1618 printing · Web copy 1400 by 1291 px · Internet Archive, Getty Research Institute copy, leaf 120

What is happening

Michael Maier, 1618 “Sapientiæ humanæ fructus Lignum vitæ est.” Atalanta Fugiens, Emblema XXVI, page 113, the motto printed over the engraving.

Symbolica, 2026 Maier’s Latin, put into English here: The fruit of human wisdom is the tree of life.

Key · 2 motifs

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

  1. 1The Treecentral motif as it reads here: Emblema XXVI
  2. 2The Crownsecondary motif

The picture

The crowned woman beside the tree, her banners lettered across the picture. 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 Tree

4 works. The symbol.

Where the detail is the subject

the Crown

This is in the picture without being what it is about. Below, 1 work that is about it.

In the same series

Atalanta Fugiens, 1618

Record

Source
Internet Archive, Getty Research Institute copy, leaf 120
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 1291 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
Sapientiæ humanæ fructus Lignum vitæ est. Internet Archive catalogues it as: Emblema XXVI, from Atalanta Fugiens, page 113
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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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, “Sapientiæ humanæ fructus Lignum vitæ est”, Matthaus Merian, attributed, for Michael Maier, 1618. thesymbolica.com/work/sapienti-human-fructus-lignum-vit-est/