Si de quattuor unum Occidas, subitò mortuus omnis erit

Death and the Skull as the central motif. From Atalanta Fugiens.

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

Public domain, 1618 printing · Web copy 1400 by 1172 px · Internet Archive, Getty Research Institute copy, leaf 92

What is happening

Michael Maier, 1618 “Si de quattuor unum Occidas, subitò mortuus omnis erit.” Atalanta Fugiens, Emblema XIX, page 85, the motto printed over the engraving.

Symbolica, 2026 Maier’s Latin, put into English here: Kill one of the four and all at once are dead.

Key · 1 motif

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

1Death and the Skullcentral motif as it reads here: Emblema XIX

The picture

Four naked men, one striking another down with a club. 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 Death and the Skull

8 works carry it. The 5 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 92

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 1172 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

Si de quattuor unum Occidas, subitò mortuus omnis erit. Internet Archive catalogues it as: Emblema XIX, from Atalanta Fugiens, page 85

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, “Si de quattuor unum Occidas, subitò mortuus omnis erit”, Matthaus Merian, attributed, for Michael Maier, 1618. thesymbolica.com/work/si-de-quattuor-unum-occidas-subito-mortuus-omnis-erit/