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Black Bile Purge in Vaporous Bath, 1617

"Rex balneatur in Laconico sedens, atraque bile liberatur a Pharut." (The King is sitting in a Vaporous Bath, and is freed from the Black Gall by the physician Pharut. In early medicine, it was believed that certain moods, emotions, and behaviors were caused by an excess or lack of body fluids called "humors": blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm. Here the King has an excess of black bile. This is Emblem 28 from "Atalanta fugiens" by Michael Maier (1568-1622). Maier was a German physician and counselor to Rudolf II Habsburg, and an alchemist, epigramist, and amateur composer. His Atalanta fugiens, an alchemical emblem book, was published in 1617. Alongside images, poems, and discussion, it included fifty pieces of music in the form of fugues, the form itself being a pun on Atalanta ("fleeing"). Michael Maier had a strong influence on Sir Isaac Newton.
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Title:
Black Bile Purge in Vaporous Bath, 1617
Caption:
"Rex balneatur in Laconico sedens, atraque bile liberatur a Pharut." (The King is sitting in a Vaporous Bath, and is freed from the Black Gall by the physician Pharut. In early medicine, it was believed that certain moods, emotions, and behaviors were caused by an excess or lack of body fluids called "humors": blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm. Here the King has an excess of black bile. This is Emblem 28 from "Atalanta fugiens" by Michael Maier (1568-1622). Maier was a German physician and counselor to Rudolf II Habsburg, and an alchemist, epigramist, and amateur composer. His Atalanta fugiens, an alchemical emblem book, was published in 1617. Alongside images, poems, and discussion, it included fifty pieces of music in the form of fugues, the form itself being a pun on Atalanta ("fleeing"). Michael Maier had a strong influence on Sir Isaac Newton.
Category:
ILLUSTRATION • black & white • Medical: History
Credit:
Album / Science Source / Getty Research Institute
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Image size:
3189 x 2919 px | 26.6 MB
Print size:
27.0 x 24.7 cm | 10.6 x 9.7 in (300 dpi)
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