Furnace and Fugue. A multimedia edition of Michael Maier’s Atalanta fugiens

Abstract

Furnace and Fugue is a digital edition of Michael Maier’s (1568-1622) opus magnum, the emblem book Atalanta fugiens (1617/18) in which Latin and German texts are paired with images and musical fugues in an enigmatic way to engage users of the book in deep meditation on alchemical subjects. The digital edition of the text itself, including an English translation based on a 17th century manuscript, is accompanied by a number of scholarly essays. A main feature is the MEI player, which includes a piano roll visualisation that allows users to experience the musicological makeup of Atalanta fugiens even without a background in music theory. The edition is a beautifully designed “haute couture” edition, intended to provide an example for the future of digital scholarly publishing. The project has used digital editing effectively to enable the multimedia experience that Michael Maier had likely envisioned for Atalanta fugiens. but which was previously inaccessible to most users of the book.

Keywords

• mei viewer
• history of science
• history of alchemy
• multimedia edition
• translation