A Very “Distilled” Emblem in Baroque Rome: Natural Philosophy, Alchemy, and Atomism in the Academy of the Umoristi

Abstract

Created and published in a printed volume in 1611, the emblem chosen by the literary Academy of the Umoristi is intriguing at multiple levels. At a time when the water cycle was still unknown, the image engaged the thorny question of how the evaporation of salty seawater, condensed into clouds, could subsequently pour down as sweet rain. Additionally, the Lucretian motto “Redit agmine dulci” audaciously evoked the philosophy of atoms. The combination of the image and the motto suggested looking at the meteorological phenomenon on display as a sort of natural distillation process, not different from the circulations taking place in the alembic. This enquiry will document how the Academy of the Umoristi was influenced in the choice of its emblem by the scientific Academy of the Lincei and how, towards the end of the seventeenth century, under the patronage of Christina of Sweden, the interconnection of alchemy and atomism alluded to in the academic emblem was reclaimed as a distinctive philosophical banner.