Take An Egg and Smite It With A Fiery Sword. Michael Maier's alchemical emblem book Atalanta fugiens was first published in Latin in 1617. It incorporated 50 emblems with epigrams and a discourse, but extended the concept of an emblem book by incorporating 50 pieces of music the 'fugues' or canons. This image is Emblem 8: Accipe ovum and igneo percute gladio. A man holding a sword is standing in a courtyard; on a table before him is an egg, or the philosophers' stone; to the left is a large fireplace with fire.