Atalanta Fugiens

It seems that I can’t begin to look at anything these days without being terminally distracted and blithely following impeccably dressed albos rodentes down into their labyrinthine warrens. Take the example of today’s unexpected find, Atalanta Fugiens. To make a long story short, I started out looking for ancient and medieval hunting techniques and ended up looking at an antique alchemical text from the early decades of the 17^th century.

#Thanks Internet.

No really, this is fascinating, but could keep me away from my actual project goals for some time. So, for now, I’m not going to bite. Instead, I will offer up the link and a brief description to you, or, perhaps, to my future self, and leave it at that.

One of the more interesting features of this book, beyond its antiquity and the fact that the Science History Institute has provided us with such a terrific scan, is its multi media approach to its message. What that message is, exactly, I am unsure, but the text consists of fascinating engravings, songs, poetry and more. It is a pre-modern multimedia extravaganza!

It is also in Latin, so a project for another time, perhaps. I am sure I have seen these engravings before and assume this is a well known tome among medievalists early modernists, but it was news to me and so I share for your enjoyment and our mutual distraction. It is worth a browse! It is downloadable in both large image formats as well as in pdf for reading.