A detailed account is given here of the life and work of the physician, humanist and Rosicrucian Michael Maier (1568-1622). An outline of the reception accorded to his works up to the present is followed by a closely argued biographical study relegating much of what has been written about him in earlier studies to the realm of fable. The heart of the volume is an annotated edition of Maier's »Cantilenae intellectuales«, a multi-faceted allegorical synthesis of alchemico-literary, musicological, and poetological ideas representing a transition from earlier poetic traditions to the mystic contemplation of nature characteristic of the Baroque period.