German Jesuit scholar and polymath (1602-1680)
Athanasius Kircher
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Born
| (
1602-05-02
)
2 May 1602
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Died
| 27 November 1680
(1680-11-27)
(aged 78)
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Scientific career
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Institutions
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Athanasius Kircher
(2 May 1602 ? 27 November 1680)
[1]
was a German
Jesuit
scholar and
polymath
who published around 40 major works of
comparative religion
,
geology
, and
medicine
. Kircher has been compared to fellow Jesuit
Roger Joseph Boscovich
and to
Leonardo da Vinci
for his vast range of interests, and has been honoured with the title "Master of a Hundred Arts".
[2]
He taught for more than 40 years at the
Roman College
, where he set up a
wunderkammer
. A resurgence of interest in Kircher has occurred within the scholarly community in recent decades.
Kircher claimed to have deciphered the
hieroglyphic writing
of the ancient
Egyptian language
, but most of his assumptions and translations in the field turned out to be wrong. He did, however, correctly establish the link between the ancient Egyptian and the
Coptic
languages, and some commentators
[
who?
]
regard him as the founder of
Egyptology
. Kircher was also fascinated with
Sinology
and wrote an encyclopedia of
China
, where he revealed the early presence of
Nestorian Christians
while also attempting to establish links with Egypt and Christianity.
Kircher's work in geology included studies of
volcanoes
and
fossils
. One of the first researchers to observe microbes through a
microscope
, Kircher was ahead of his time in proposing that the
plague
was caused by an infectious
microorganism
and in suggesting effective measures to prevent its spread. Kircher also displayed a keen interest in technology and mechanical inventions; inventions attributed to him include a magnetic clock, various
automatons
and the first
megaphone
. The invention of the
magic lantern
has been misattributed to Kircher,
[3]
although he conducted a study of the principles involved in his
Ars Magna Lucis et Umbrae
.
A scientific star in his day, towards the end of his life he was eclipsed by the
rationalism
of
Rene Descartes
and others. In the late 20th century, however, the
aesthetic
qualities of his work again began to be appreciated. One modern scholar, Alan Cutler, described Kircher as "a giant among seventeenth-century scholars", and "one of the last thinkers who could rightfully claim all knowledge as his domain".
[4]
Another scholar, Edward W. Schmidt, referred to Kircher as "the last
Renaissance man
". In
A Man of Misconceptions
,
his 2012 book about Kircher, John Glassie wrote "many of Kircher's actual ideas today seem wildly off-base, if not simply bizarre,"
[5]
but he was "a champion of wonder, a man of awe-inspiring erudition and inventiveness," whose work was read "by the smartest minds of the time."
[6]
Life
[
edit
]
Kircher was born on 2 May in either 1601 or 1602 (he himself did not know) in
Geisa
,
Buchonia
, near
Fulda
(
Thuringia
,
Germany
). From his birthplace, he took the epithets
Bucho, Buchonius
and
Fuldensis
which he sometimes added to his name. He attended the Jesuit College in Fulda from 1614 to 1618, when he entered the
novitiate
of the Society.
The youngest of nine children, Kircher studied volcanoes owing to his passion for rocks and eruptions. He was taught
Hebrew
by a
rabbi
[7]
in addition to his studies at school. He studied
philosophy
and
theology
at
Paderborn
,
[3]
but fled to
Cologne
in 1622 to escape advancing
Protestant
forces.
[
citation needed
]
On the journey, he narrowly escaped death after falling through the ice crossing the frozen
Rhine
? one of several occasions on which his life was endangered. Later, traveling to
Heiligenstadt
, he was caught and nearly
hanged
by a party of Protestant soldiers.
[
citation needed
]
From 1622 to 1624 Kircher was sent to begin his
regency
period in
Koblenz
as a teacher. This was followed by assignment to
Heiligenstadt
, where he taught
mathematics
, Hebrew and
Syriac
, and produced a show of
fireworks
and moving scenery for the visiting
Elector
Archbishop of Mainz
, showing early evidence of his interest in
mechanical devices
. He was
ordained
to the
priesthood
in 1628
[3]
and became professor of
ethics
and
mathematics
at the
University of Wurzburg
, where he also taught Hebrew and Syriac. Beginning in 1628, he began to show an interest in Egyptian hieroglyphs.
In 1631, while still at
Wurzburg
, Kircher allegedly had a prophetic vision of bright light and armed men with horses in the city. Wurzburg was attacked shortly afterwards and captured, leading to Kircher being accorded respect for predicting the disaster via astrology, though Kircher privately insisted that he had not relied on it.
[8]
This was the year that Kircher published his first book (the
Ars Magnesia
, reporting his research on
magnetism
), but having been caught up in the
Thirty Years' War
he was driven to the papal
University of Avignon
in
France
. In 1633 he was called to
Vienna
by the
emperor
to succeed
Kepler
as Mathematician to the
Habsburg
court. On the intervention of
Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc
, the order was rescinded, and he was sent instead to
Rome
to continue with his scholarly work, but he had already embarked for Vienna.
On the way, his ship was blown off course and he arrived in Rome before he knew of the changed destination. He based himself in the city for the rest of his life, and from 1634
[9]
he taught mathematics,
physics
and
Oriental languages
at the Collegio Romano (now the
Pontifical Gregorian University
) for several years before being released to devote himself to research. He studied
malaria
and the
plague
, amassing a collection of
antiquities
, which he exhibited along with devices of his own creation in the
Museum Kircherianum
.
In 1661, Kircher discovered the ruins of a
church
said to have been constructed by
Constantine
on the site of
Saint Eustace
's vision of a crucifix in a stag's horns. He raised money to pay for the church's reconstruction as the
Santuario della Mentorella
[
it
]
,
and his heart was buried in the church upon his death.
[
citation needed
]
Works
[
edit
]
Kircher published many substantial books on a wide variety of subjects such as
Egyptology
,
geology
, and
music theory
. His
syncretic
approach disregarded conventional boundaries between disciplines: his
Magnes
, for example, ostensibly discussed
magnetism
, but also explored other modes of attraction such as
gravity
and
love
. Perhaps Kircher's best-known work is
Oedipus Aegyptiacus
(1652?54), a vast study of Egyptology and
comparative religion
.
[10]
His books, written in
Latin
, were widely circulated in the 17th century, and contributed to the wide dissemination of scientific information. Kircher is not considered to have made any significant original contributions, although some discoveries and inventions (e.g., the
magic lantern
) have sometimes been mistakenly attributed to him.
[10]
In his foreword to
Ars Magna Sciendi Sive Combinatoria
(The Great Art of Knowledge, or the Combinatorial Art), the inscription reads:
[11]
"Nothing is more beautiful than to know all."
Linguistic and cultural studies
[
edit
]
Egyptology
[
edit
]
The
last known example
of
Egyptian hieroglyphics
dates from AD 394, after which all knowledge of hieroglyphics was lost.
[12]
Until
Thomas Young
and
Jean-Francois Champollion
found the key to hieroglyphics in the 19th century, the main authority was the 4th-century Greek grammarian
Horapollon
, whose chief contribution was the misconception that hieroglyphics were "picture writing" and that future translators should look for symbolic meaning in the pictures.
[13]
The first modern study of hieroglyphics came with
Piero Valeriano Bolzani
's
Hieroglyphica
(1556).
[12]
Kircher was the most famous of the "decipherers" between ancient and modern times and the most famous Egyptologist of his day.
[14]
In his
Lingua Aegyptiaca Restituta
(1643), Kircher called hieroglyphics "this language hitherto unknown in Europe, in which there are as many pictures as letters, as many riddles as sounds, in short as many mazes to be escaped from as mountains to be climbed".
[14]
While some of his notions are long discredited, portions of his work have been valuable to later scholars, and Kircher helped pioneer Egyptology as a field of serious study.
Kircher's interest in Egyptology began in 1628 when he became intrigued by a collection of hieroglyphs in the library at
Speyer
. He learned
Coptic
in 1633 and published its first grammar in 1636, the
Prodromus coptus sive aegyptiacus
. Kircher then broke with Horapollon's interpretation of hieroglyphs with his
Lingua aegyptiaca restituta
. Kircher argued that Coptic preserved the last development of
ancient Egyptian
.
[14]
[15]
For this Kircher has been considered the true "founder of Egyptology", because his work was conducted "before the discovery of the
Rosetta Stone
rendered Egyptian hieroglyphics comprehensible to scholars".
[15]
He also recognized the relationship between
hieratic
and hieroglyphic scripts.
Between 1650 and 1654, Kircher published four volumes of "translations" of hieroglyphs in the context of his Coptic studies.
[14]
However, according to Steven Frimmer, "none of them even remotely fitted the original texts".
[14]
In
Oedipus Aegyptiacus
, Kircher argued under the impression of the
Hieroglyphica
that
ancient Egyptian
was the language spoken by
Adam and Eve
, that
Hermes Trismegistus
was
Moses
, and that hieroglyphs were
occult
symbols
which "cannot be translated by words, but expressed only by marks, characters and figures." This led him to translate the simple hieroglyphic text
?d Wsr
("Osiris says") as "The treachery of Typhon ends at the throne of Isis; the moisture of nature is guarded by the vigilance of Anubis"
[16]
Egyptologist
E. A. Wallis Budge
mentioned Kircher as the foremost of writers who "pretended to have found the key to the hieroglyphics" and called his translations in
Oedipus Aegyptiacus
"utter nonsense, but as they were put forth in a learned tongue many people at the time believed they were correct."
[17]
Although Kircher's approach to deciphering texts was based on a fundamental misconception, some modern commentators have described Kircher as the pioneer of the serious study of hieroglyphs. The data which he collected were later consulted by
Champollion
in his successful efforts to decode the script. According to Joseph MacDonnell, it was "because of Kircher's work that scientists knew what to look for when interpreting the Rosetta stone".
[18]
Another scholar of ancient Egypt, Erik Iversen, concluded:
It is, therefore, Kircher's incontestable merit that he was the first to have discovered the phonetic value of an Egyptian hieroglyph. From a humanistic as well as an intellectual point of view Egyptology may very well be proud of having Kircher as its founder.
[19]
Kircher was also actively involved in the erection of the
Pamphilj obelisk
, and added "hieroglyphs" of his design in the blank areas.
[20]
Rowland 2002 concluded that Kircher made use of Pythagorean principles to read hieroglyphs of the
Pamphili Obelisk
, and used the same form of interpretation when reading scripture.
[21]
Sinology
[
edit
]
Kircher had an early interest in
China
, telling his superior in 1629 that he wished to become a
missionary
to that country. In 1667 he published a treatise whose full title was
China monumentis, qua sacris qua profanis, nec non variis naturae & artis spectaculis, aliarumque rerum memorabilium argumentis illustrata
, and which is commonly known simply as
China Illustrata
, i.e. "China Illustrated". It was a work of encyclopedic breadth, combining material of unequal quality, from accurate
cartography
to mythical elements, such as a study of
dragons
. The work drew heavily on the reports of Jesuits working in China, in particular
Michael Boym
[22]
and
Martino Martini
.
China Illustrata
emphasized the Christian elements of Chinese history, both real and imagined: the book noted the early presence of
Nestorian Christians
(with a Latin translation of the
Nestorian Stele
of
Xi'an
provided by Boym and his Chinese collaborator, Andrew Zheng),
[23]
but also claimed that the Chinese were descended from the sons of
Ham
, that
Confucius
was Hermes Trismegistus/Moses and that the
Chinese characters
were abstracted hieroglyphs.
In Kircher's system,
ideograms
were inferior to hieroglyphs because they referred to specific ideas rather than to mysterious complexes of ideas, while the signs of the
Maya
and
Aztecs
were yet lower
pictograms
which referred only to objects.
Umberto Eco
comments that this idea reflected and supported the ethnocentric European attitude toward Chinese and native American civilizations:
"China was presented not as an unknown barbarian to be defeated but as a prodigal son who should return to the home of the common father". (p. 69)
Biblical studies and exegesis
[
edit
]
In 1675, he published
Arca Noe
, the results of his research on the biblical
Ark of Noah
? following the
Counter-Reformation
,
allegorical interpretation
was giving way to the study of the Old Testament as literal truth among Scriptural scholars. Kircher analyzed the dimensions of the Ark; based on the number of species known to him (excluding insects and other forms thought to
arise spontaneously
), he calculated that overcrowding would not have been a problem. He also discussed the logistics of the Ark voyage, speculating on whether extra livestock was brought to feed carnivores and what the daily schedule of feeding and caring for animals must have been.
Other cultural work
[
edit
]
Kircher was sent the
Voynich Manuscript
in 1666 by
Johannes Marcus Marci
in the hope of Kircher being able to decipher it.
[24]
The manuscript remained in the Collegio Romano until
Victor Emmanuel II of Italy
annexed the
Papal States
in 1870, though scepticism as to the authenticity of the story and of the origin of the manuscript itself exists. In his
Polygraphia Nova
(1663), Kircher proposed an artificial
universal language
.
Physical sciences
[
edit
]
Geology
[
edit
]
On a visit to
southern Italy
in 1638, the ever-curious Kircher was lowered into the
crater
of
Vesuvius
, then on the brink of eruption, to examine its interior. He was also intrigued by the
subterranean rumbling
which he heard at the
Strait of Messina
. His geological and geographical investigations culminated in his
Mundus Subterraneus
of 1664, in which he suggested that the
tides
were caused by water moving to and from a subterranean
ocean
.
Kircher was also puzzled by
fossils
. He understood that fossils were the remains of animals. He ascribed large bones to giant races of humans.
[25]
Not all the objects which he was attempting to explain were in fact fossils, hence the diversity of explanations. He interpreted mountain ranges as the Earth's skeletal structures exposed by weathering.
[26]
Mundus Subterraneus
includes several pages about the legendary island of
Atlantis
including a map with the Latin caption "Situs Insulae Atlantidis, a Mari olim absorpte ex mente Egyptiorum et Platonis Description," translating as "Site of the island of Atlantis, in the sea, from Egyptian sources and Plato's description."
[27]
Biology
[
edit
]
In his book
Arca Noe
, Kircher argued that after the Flood new species were transformed as they moved into different environments, for example, when a
deer
moved into a colder climate, it became a
reindeer
. He wrote that many species were hybrids of other species, for example,
armadillos
from a combination of
turtles
and
porcupines
. He also advocated the theory of
spontaneous generation
.
[28]
Because of such hypotheses, some historians have held that Kircher was a proto-evolutionist.
[29]
Medicine
[
edit
]
Kircher took a modern approach to the study of
diseases
as early as 1646 by using a
microscope
to investigate the
blood
of
plague
victims. In his
Scrutinium Pestis
of 1658, he observed the presence of "little worms" or "
animalcules
" in the blood and concluded that the disease was caused by
microorganisms
. That was correct, although it is likely that what he saw were
red
or
white
blood cells
and not the plague agent,
Yersinia pestis
. He also proposed
hygienic
measures to prevent the spread of disease, such as isolation,
quarantine
, burning clothes worn by the infected and wearing facemasks to prevent the inhalation of
germs
.
Technology
[
edit
]
In 1646, Kircher published
Ars Magna Lucis et Umbrae
, concerning the display of images on a screen using an apparatus similar to the
magic lantern
developed by
Christiaan Huygens
and others. Kircher described the construction of a "catoptric lamp" that used reflection to project images on the wall of a darkened room. Although Kircher did not invent the device, he improved it, and suggested methods by which exhibitors could use his device. Much of the significance of his work arises from Kircher's rational approach towards the demystification of projected images.
[30]
Previously, such images had been used in Europe to mimic supernatural appearances (Kircher himself cites the use of displayed images by the rabbis in the court of
King Solomon
). Kircher stressed that exhibitors should take great care to inform spectators that such images were purely naturalistic, and not magical.
Kircher constructed a
magnetic
clock, which he explained in his
Magnes
(1641). The clock had been invented by another Jesuit, Fr.
Linus of Liege
, and was described by an acquaintance of Line's in 1634. Kircher's patron Peiresc had claimed that the clock's motion supported the
Copernican
cosmological model, arguing that the magnetic sphere in the clock rotated by the magnetic force of the
sun
.
[31]
Kircher's model disproved that hypothesis, showing that the motion could be produced by a
water clock
in the base of the device. Although Kircher disputed the
Copernican
model in his
Magnes
, supporting instead that of
Tycho Brahe
, his later
Itinerarium exstaticum
(1656, revised 1671), presented several systems ? including the Copernican ? as distinct possibilities. The clock has been reconstructed by Caroline Bouguereau in collaboration with Michael John Gorman and is on display at the Green Library at Stanford University.
[31]
The
Musurgia Universalis
(1650) sets out Kircher's views on
music
: he believed that the
harmony
of music reflected the proportions of the
universe
. The book includes plans for constructing water-powered
automatic organs
,
notations
of
birdsong
and diagrams of
musical instruments
. One illustration shows the differences between the
ears
of humans and other animals. In
Phonurgia Nova
(1673) Kircher considered the possibilities of transmitting music to remote places.
Other machines designed by Kircher include an
aeolian harp
,
automatons
such as a statue which spoke and listened via a
speaking tube
, a
perpetual motion machine
, and a
Katzenklavier
("cat piano"). The Katzenklavier would have driven spikes into the tails of cats, which would yowl to specified
pitches
, but was never constructed.
In
Phonurgia Nova
, literally "new methods of sound production", Kircher examined acoustic phenomena. He explored the use of horns and cones in amplifying sound for architectural applications. He also examined echoes in rooms using domes of different shapes, including the muffling effect of an
elliptical dome
from Heidelberg. In one section he explored the therapeutic effects of music in
tarantism
, a theme from southern Italy.
[32]
Combinatorics
[
edit
]
Although Kircher's work was not mathematically based, he did develop systems for generating and counting all combinations of a finite collection of objects (i.e., a finite
set
), based on the previous work of
Ramon Llull
. His methods and diagrams are discussed in
Ars Magna Sciendi, sive Combinatoria
, 1669. They include what may be the first recorded
drawings
of
complete bipartite graphs
, extending a similar technique used by Llull to visualize
complete graphs
.
[33]
Kircher also employed combinatorics in his
Arca Musarithmica
, an
aleatoric music
device capable of composing millions of church hymns by combining randomly selected musical phrases.
Legacy
[
edit
]
Scholarly influence
[
edit
]
For most of his professional life, Kircher was one of the scientific stars of his world: according to historian Paula Findlen, he was "the first scholar with a global reputation". His importance was twofold: to the results of his own
experiments
and research he added information gleaned from his correspondence with over 760 scientists, physicians and above all his fellow Jesuits in all parts of the globe. The
Encyclopædia Britannica
calls him a "one-man intellectual clearing house". His works, illustrated to his orders, were extremely popular, and he was the first scientist to be able to support himself through the sale of his books. His near-exact contemporary, the English philosopher-physician,
Sir Thomas Browne
(1605?82) collected his books avidly while his eldest son Edward Browne in 1665 visited the Jesuit priest resident at Rome. Towards the end of Kircher's life, however, his stock fell, as the
rationalist
Cartesian
approach began to dominate (Descartes himself described Kircher as "more quacksalver than savant").
Cultural legacy
[
edit
]
Kircher was largely neglected until the late 20th century. One writer attributes his rediscovery to the similarities between his eclectic approach and
postmodernism
.
As few of Kircher's works have been translated, the contemporary emphasis has been on their
aesthetic
qualities rather than their actual content, and a succession of exhibitions have highlighted the beauty of their illustrations. Historian
Anthony Grafton
has said that "the staggeringly strange dark continent of Kircher's work [is] the setting for a
Borges
story that was never written", while
Umberto Eco
has written about Kircher in his novel
The Island of the Day Before
, as well as in his non-fiction works
The Search for the Perfect Language
and
Serendipities
. In the historical novel
Imprimatur
by
Monaldi & Sorti
(2002), Kircher plays a major role. Shortly after his death, some travelers are locked up in a hotel in Baroque Rome by the papal health authorities because of an epidemic of plague. Kircher's theory about the healing power of music is remembered by the protagonists in various flashbacks and finally provides the key to the puzzle. In
Where Tigers Are At Home
, by
Jean-Marie Blas de Robles
, the protagonist works on a translation of a bogus 17th-century biography of Kircher. The contemporary artist
Cybele Varela
has paid tribute to Kircher in her exhibition
Ad Sidera per Athanasius Kircher
, held in the
Collegio Romano
, in the same place where the
Museum Kircherianum
was.
The
Museum of Jurassic Technology
in
Los Angeles
has a hall dedicated to the life of Kircher. His ethnographic collection is in the
Pigorini National Museum of Prehistory and Ethnography
in Rome.
John Glassie's book,
A Man of Misconceptions
,
traces connections between Kircher and figures such as
Gianlorenzo Bernini
,
Rene Descartes
, and
Isaac Newton
. It also suggests influences on
Edgar Allan Poe
,
Franz Anton Mesmer
,
Jules Verne
, and
Marcel Duchamp
.
In the end, Glassie writes, Kircher should be acknowledged “for his effort to know everything and to share everything he knew, for asking a thousand questions about the world around him, and for getting so many others to ask questions about his answers; for stimulating, as well as confounding and inadvertently amusing, so many minds; for having been a source of so many ideas?right, wrong, half-right, half-baked, ridiculous, beautiful, and all-encompassing.”
[34]
In popular culture
[
edit
]
Kircher's life and research are central to the plot of
James Rollin's
2015 novel
The Bone Labyrinth
.
He is also mentioned in
The Book of Life
, the third book in the All Souls Trilogy by
Deborah Harkness
.
He further appears in two separate episodes in
Daniel Kehlmann's
novel
Tyll
(2017).
The permanent exhibition
The World Is Bound with Secret Knots
at the
Museum of Jurassic Technology
is based on the life and work of Kircher and uses elaborate 3D technology to highlight the magical quality of many of his ideas and images.
[35]
He is also a character (though largely off-stage, he is often mentioned by other characters) in the "
Ring of Fire
" alternate history series (published by Baen). In it, he was sent back to Germany in the early 1630s, where he became the unofficial pastor of the Catholic church in the temporally-transplanted town of Grantville, Thuringia-Franconia.
Kircher features as a favourite author of
Father Chmielowski
in
Olga Tokarczuk
's
The Books of Jacob
.
Bibliography
[
edit
]
Kircher's principal works, in chronological order, are:
Year
|
Title
|
Link
|
1631
|
Ars Magnesia
|
|
1635
|
Primitiae gnomoniciae catroptricae
|
|
1636
|
Prodromus coptus sive aegyptiacus
|
|
1637
|
Specula Melitensis Encyclica
, hoc est syntagma novum instrumentorum physico- mathematicorum
|
|
1641
|
Magnes sive de Arte Magnetica
|
1643 edition
(second ed.)
|
1643
|
Lingua Aegyptiaca Restituta
|
|
1645?1646
|
Ars Magna Lucis et Umbrae
|
1646 edition
|
1650
|
Obeliscus Pamphilius: hoc est, Interpretatio noua & Hucusque Intentata Obelisci Hieroglyphici
|
1650 edition
|
1650
|
Musurgia universalis, sive ars magna consoni et dissoni
|
Volumes I
and
II
, 1650
|
1652?1655
|
Oedipus Aegyptiacus
|
|
1654
|
Magnes sive de Arte Magnetica
(third, expanded edition)
|
Text
|
1656
|
Itinerarium exstaticum s. opificium coeleste
|
|
1657
|
Iter exstaticum secundum, mundi subterranei prodromus
|
|
1658
|
Scrutinium Physico-Medicum Contagiosae Luis, quae dicitur Pestis
|
|
1660
|
Iter extaticum coeleste
|
1660 edition
|
|
1660
|
Pantometrum Kircherianum ... explicatum
a
G. Schotto
|
|
1661
|
Diatribe de Progidiosis Crucibus
|
|
1663
|
Polygraphia nova et universalis ex combinatoria arte directa
|
|
1664?1678
|
Mundus subterraneus, quo universae denique naturae divitiae
|
Tomus II, 1678
Digital edition Tomus I/II
by the
University and State Library Dusseldorf
|
1665
|
Historia Eustachio Mariana
|
1665 edition
|
1665
|
Arithmologia sive De abditis numerorum mysterijs
|
1665 edition
|
1666
|
Obelisci Aegyptiaci ... interpretatio hieroglyphica
|
|
1667
|
China monumentis, qua sacris qua profanis, nec non variis naturae & artis spectaculis, aliarumque rerum memorabilium argumentis illustrata
|
Latin edition (1667)
(pages with illustrations only);
La Chine
, 1670
(French, 1670);
Modern English translation
|
1667
|
Magneticum naturae regnum sive disceptatio physiologica
|
1667 edition
|
1668
|
Organum mathematicum
(contributor, edited and published by
Gaspar Schott
)
|
|
1669
|
Principis Cristiani archetypon politicum
|
1672 edition
|
1669
|
Latium
|
1671 edition
|
1669
|
Ars magna sciendi sive combinatoria
|
1669 edition
|
1673
|
Phonurgia Nova
, sive conjugium mechanico-physicum artis & natvrae paranympha phonosophia concinnatum
|
1763 edition
|
1675
|
Arca Noe
|
|
1676
|
Sphinx mystagoga: sive Diatribe hieroglyphica, qua Mumiae, ex Memphiticis Pyramidum Adytis Erutae…
|
1676 edition
|
1676
|
Obelisci Aegyptiaci
|
|
1679
|
Musaeum Collegii Romani Societatis Jesu
|
|
1679
|
Turris Babel
, Sive Archontologia Qua Primo Priscorum post diluvium hominum vita, mores rerumque gestarum magnitudo, Secundo Turris fabrica civitatumque exstructio, confusio linguarum, & inde gentium transmigrationis, cum principalium inde enatorum idiomatum historia, multiplici eruditione describuntur & explicantur
. Amsterdam, Jansson-Waesberge 1679.
|
|
1679
|
Tariffa Kircheriana sive mensa Pythagorica expansa
|
1679 edition
|
1680
|
Physiologia Kircheriana experimentalis
|
1680 edition
|
See also
[
edit
]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
Glassie, p. 246
- ^
Woods, p. 108.
- ^
a
b
c
"Athanasius Kircher"
.
Britannica Online
. Encyclopædia Britannica
. Retrieved
June 4,
2016
.
- ^
Cutler, p. 68.
- ^
John Glassie: A Man of Misconceptions: The Life of an Eccentric in an Age of Change. New York, Riverhead, 2012, p. xiv.
- ^
Glassie, p. xv.
- ^
Fletcher, John Edward (2011-08-25).
A Study of the Life and Works of Athanasius Kircher, 'Germanus Incredibilis': With a Selection of His Unpublished Correspondence and an Annotated Translation of His Autobiography
. BRILL.
ISBN
978-9004207127
.
- ^
Newman & Grafton, 1-2
- ^
Fletcher 2011, p. 31.
- ^
a
b
"Kircher, Athanasius." Encyclopædia Britannica from
Encyclopædia Britannica 2007 Ultimate Reference Suite
. (2008).
- ^
Craig P. Bauer (2010).
Unsolved! The History and Mystery of the World's Greatest Ciphers from Ancient Egypt to Online Secret Societies
. Princeton University Press. p. 35.
ISBN
9780691167671
.
- ^
a
b
Frimmer, p 37
- ^
Frimmer, pp 37?39
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
Frimmer, p 38
- ^
a
b
Woods, p 109
- ^
for such translations, see e.g. his
Sphinx mystagoga
, p. 49.
- ^
Budge, E. A. Wallis
(1983) [1910].
Egyptian Language: Easy Lessons in Egyptian Hieroglyphics
. Mineola, NY: Dover. p. 15.
ISBN
9780486140568
.
- ^
MacDonnell, p 12
- ^
Iversen, pp 97?98
- ^
John Edward Fletcher (25 August 2011).
A Study of the Life and Works of Athanasius Kircher, 'Germanus Incredibilis': With a Selection of His Unpublished Correspondence and an Annotated Translation of His Autobiography
. BRILL. pp. 549?.
ISBN
978-90-04-20712-7
.
- ^
Ingrid D. Rowland (2002).
"Athanasius Kircher and the Egyptian Oedipus"
. University of Chicago Library.
- ^
Walravens, Hartmut,
Michael Boym und die Flora Sinensis
(PDF)
, archived from
the original
(PDF)
on 2011-09-27
- ^
China Illustrata
Archived
August 18, 2011, at the
Wayback Machine
; Modern English translation and preface by Dr Charles D. Van Tuyl
- ^
Tiltman, John H. (Summer 1967).
The Voynich Manuscript: "The Most Mysterious Manuscript in the World"
(PDF)
. Vol. XII. NSA Technical Journal. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on October 18, 2011
. Retrieved
October 30,
2011
.
- ^
Palmer, Douglas (2005) Earth Time: Exploring the Deep Past from Victorian England to the Grand Canyon. Wiley, Chichester.
ISBN
978-0-470-02221-4
- ^
The Earth
? Richard Fortey, Harper Perennial 2004
- ^
"Map of the lost island of Atlantis"
.
raremaps.com
. Retrieved
16 February
2013
.
- ^
O Breidbach, MT Ghiselin (2006).
Athanasius Kircher (1602?1680) on Noah's Ark: Baroque "Intelligent Design" Theory
, Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences, Volume 57, No. 36, pp. 991?1002 <
"Archived copy"
(PDF)
. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on 2011-10-09
. Retrieved
2011-07-12
.
{{
cite web
}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (
link
)
>
- ^
Fairfield Osborn, Henry (1902) From the Greeks to Darwin: An Outline of the Development of the Evolution Idea. MacMillan: London, page 106
- ^
Musser, p 613
- ^
a
b
Athanasius Kircher's Magnetic Clock
Archived
August 16, 2010, at the
Wayback Machine
, accessed 23 Apr 2011
- ^
Tronchin, Lamberto; Durvilli, I.; Tarabusi, V. (2008).
The 'Phonurgia Nova' of Athanasius Kircher: The Marvellous sound world of 17th century
. Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics. p. 015002.
doi
:
10.1121/1.2992053
.
- ^
Knuth, Donald E.
(2013), "Two thousand years of combinatorics", in Wilson, Robin; Watkins, John J. (eds.),
Combinatorics: Ancient and Modern
, Oxford University Press, pp. 7?37
.
- ^
Glassie, p 272.
- ^
"The World is Bound With Secret Knots"
.
Museum of Jurassic Technology
. Retrieved
May 13,
2020
.
References
[
edit
]
- Chang, Sheng-Ching (2001).
Das Chinabild in Natur und Landschaft von Athanasius Kirchers 'China illustrata'(1667)sowie der Einfluß dieses Werkes auf die Entwicklung der Chinoiserie und der Europaischen Kunst
[
The image of China in nature and landscape of Athanasius Kircher’s 'China illustrata' (1667) and the influence of his work on the development of Chinoiserie and European Art
] (PhD) (in German).
Humboldt University
.
- Chang, Sheng-Ching (2003).
Natur und Landschaft - Der Einfluss von Athanasius Kirchers "China Illustrata" auf die europaische Kunst
.
Berlin
:
Reimer
.
ISBN
978-3496012801
.
- Cutler, Alan (2003).
The Seashell on the Mountaintop
.
New York
:
Dutton
.
- Frimmer, Steven (1969).
The stone that spoke: and other clues to the decipherment of lost languages
.
Putnam
.
- Iversen, Erik (1961).
The Myth of Egypt and its Hieroglyphs
.
Copenhagen
.
{{
cite book
}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link
)
- Kern, Ralf (2010).
Wissenschaftliche Instrumente in ihrer Zeit
(in German). Vol. 2: Vom Compendium zum Einzelinstrument 17. Jahrhundert. Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther Konig.
ISBN
978-3-86560-866-6
.
- MacDonnell, Joseph (1989).
Jesuit Geometers
.
St Louis
: Institute of Jesuit Sources.
- Musser, Charles
(1990).
The Emergence of Cinema: The American Screen to 1907
. University of California Press.
ISBN
0-520-08533-7
.
- Newman, William R.
;
Grafton, Anthony
(2001). "Introduction: The Problematic Status of Astrology and Alchemy in Premodern Europe".
Secrets of Nature: Astrology and Alchemy in Early Modern Europe
.
MIT Press
. pp.
1
?38.
ISBN
0-262-14075-6
.
- Woods, Thomas
(2005).
How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization
.
Washington, DC
:
Regnery Publishing
.
ISBN
0-89526-038-7
.
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Edward Chaney
: "Roma Britannica and the Cultural Memory of Egypt: Lord Arundel and the Obelisk of Domitian", in
Roma Britannica: Art Patronage and Cultural Exchange in Eighteenth-Century Rome
, eds. D. Marshall, K. Wolfe and S. Russell, British School at Rome, 2011, pp. 147?70.
- Umberto Eco
:
Serendipities: Language and Lunacy
. Columbia University Press (1998).
ISBN
0-231-11134-7
.
- Paula Findlen:
Athanasius Kircher: The Last Man Who Knew Everything
. New York, Routledge, 2004.
ISBN
0-415-94016-8
.
- John Edward Fletcher
:
A brief survey of the unpublished correspondence of Athanasius Kircher S J. (1602?80)
, in:
Manuscripta
, XIII, St. Louis, 1969, pp. 150?60.
- John Edward Fletcher:
Johann Marcus Marci writes to Athanasius Kircher
. Janus, Leyden, LIX (1972), pp. 97?118.
- John Edward Fletcher:
Athanasius Kircher und seine Beziehungen zum gelehrten Europa seiner Zeit
. Wolfenbutteler Arbeiten zur Barockforschung, Band 17, 1988.
- John Edward Fletcher:
Athanasius Kircher : A Man Under Pressure
. 1988
- John Edward Fletcher:
Athanasius Kircher And Duke August Of Brunswick-Luneberg : A Chronicle Of Friendship.
1988
- John Edward Fletcher:
Athanasius Kircher And His Correspondence
. 1988
- John Edward Fletcher:
A Study of the Life and Works of Athanasius Kircher, ‘Germanus Incredibilis’.
Edited by Elizabeth Fletcher. Brill Publications, Amsterdam, 2011.
ISBN
978-90-04-20712-7
- John Glassie,
Athanasius, Underground
The Public Domain Review, November 1, 2012.
- John Glassie:
A Man of Misconceptions: The Life of an Eccentric in an Age of Change
. New York, Riverhead, 2012.
ISBN
978-1-59448-871-9
.
- Godwin, Joscelyn:
Athanasius Kircher's Theatre of the World: The Life and Work of the Last Man to Search for Universal Knowledge
. Inner Traditions (2009).
ISBN
978-1-59477-329-7
- Michael John Gorman,
Between the Demonic and the Miraculous: Athanasius Kircher and the Baroque Culture of Machines
, unabridged version of essay published in
The Great Art of Knowing: The Baroque Encyclopedia of Athanasius Kircher
, ed. Daniel Stolzenberg, Stanford: Stanford University Libraries, 2001, pp. 59?70.
- Michael John Gorman,
The Angel and the Compass: Athanasius Kircher's Magnetic Geography
, in Paula Findlen, ed.,
Athanasius Kircher: The Last Man Who Knew Everything
, New York, Routledge, 2004, pp. 229?249.
- Nathalie Lallemand-Buyssens, ≪ Les acquisitions d'Athanasius Kircher au musee du College Romain a la lumiere de documents inedits ≫, in
Storia dell'Arte
, no. 133, oct.?dec. 2012, pp. 103?125.
- Caterina Marrone,
I geroglifici fantastici di Athanasius Kircher
, Viterbo: Nuovi Equilibri, 2002, p. 166,
ISBN
88-7226-653-X
.
- Caterina Marrone,
Le lingue utopiche
, Viterbo: Nuovi Equilibri, 2004 [1995], p. 338
ISBN
88-7226-815-X
.
- McKay, John Z. (2015). "Musical Curiosities in Athanasius Kircher's Antiquarian Visions".
Music in Art: International Journal for Music Iconography
.
40
(1?2): 157?172.
ISSN
1522-7464
.
- Tiziana Pangrazi,
La
Musurgia Universalis
di Athanasius Kircher
, Firenze: Olschki 2009, pp. 206,
ISBN
978-88-222-5886-1
.
- Schmidt, Edward W. :
The Last Renaissance Man: Athanasius Kircher, SJ
. Company: The World of Jesuits and Their Friends. 19(2), Winter 2001?2002.
- Stolzenberg, Daniel.
Egyptian Oedipus: Athanasius Kircher and the Secrets of Antiquity
.
Chicago
:
University of Chicago Press
, 2013.
ISBN
0-226-92414-9
(10).
ISBN
978-0-226-92414-4
(13).
- Jean-Pierre Thiollet
,
Je m'appelle Byblos
, Paris, H & D, 2005 (p. 254).
ISBN
978-2-914266-04-8
.
- Giunia Totaro,
L'autobiographie d'Athanasius Kircher. L'ecriture d'un jesuite entre verite et invention au seuil de l'œuvre. Introduction et traduction francaise et italienne
, Bern: Peter Lang 2009, p. 430
ISBN
978-3-03911-793-2
.
- Cybele Varela:
Ad Sidera per Athanasius Kircher
. Rome, Gangemi, 2008.
ISBN
978-88-492-1416-1
- Zielinski, Siegfried.
Deep Time of the Media
. The MIT Press (April 30, 2008)
ISBN
978-0-262-74032-6
. pp. 113?157.
- Tronchin, Lamberto (January 2009).
"Athanasius Kircher'S PHONURGIA NOVA: the marvelous world of sound during the 17th Century"
.
Acoustics Today
.
1
(5): 8?15.
doi
:
10.1121/1.3120723
.
External links
[
edit
]
Works by Kircher
[
edit
]
- Athanasius Kircher
Herzog August Bibliothek (
Wolfenbutteler Digitale Bibliothek
... search for
Athanasius Kircher
)
- The Correspondence of Athanasius Kircher
in
EMLO
- Athanasius Kircher
ECHO (European Cultural Heritage Online)
- Athanasius Kircher
Max Planck Institut fur Wissenschaftsgeschichte
- Athanasius Kircher
Gallica
- Athanasius Kircher
Titles
;
Athanasius Kircher
as author
books.google.com
- Athanasius Kircher
archive.org
- Athanasius Kircher
Munich Digitisation Centre (MDZ)
- Athanasius Kircher
University of Strasbourg
- Ars magna lucis et umbrae in decem libros digesta
(1646) in the digital collections of the Linda Hall Library
- Iter exstaticum coeleste, quo mundi opificium...
(1660) in the digital collections of the Linda Hall Library
- Mundus subterraneus
(1665) in the digital collections of the Linda Hall Library
- Arca Noe
(1675) in the digital collections of the Linda Hall Library
- An English translation of
China Illustrata
appearing as an "Appendix" in:
Johan Nieuhof
,
An embassy from the East-India Company of the United Provinces, to the Grand Tartar Cham, emperor of China: delivered by their excellencies Peter de Goyer and Jacob de Keyzer, at his imperial city of Peking wherein the cities, towns, villages, ports, rivers, &c. in their passages from Canton to Peking are ingeniously described by John Nieuhoff; also an epistle of Father John Adams, their antagonist, concerning the whole negotiation; with an appendix of several remarks taken out of Father Athanasius Kircher; Englished and set forth with their several sculptures by John Ogilby
(1673)
Sources
[
edit
]
- Athanasius Kircher Project
at Historical Archives of the Pontifical Gregorian University
- Athanasius Kircher, Dude of Wonders
Retrieved Mar. 9, 2009.
- Athanasius Kircher Image Gallery
Retrieved Mar. 9, 2009.
- Athanasius Kircher's Magnetic Clock
Internet Archive.
- Hans-Josef Olszewsky (1992). "Kircher, Athanasius". In Bautz, Friedrich Wilhelm (ed.).
Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL)
(in German). Vol. 3. Herzberg: Bautz. cols. 1513?1517.
ISBN
3-88309-035-2
.
- Catholic Encyclopedia
Retrieved Oct. 16, 2004.
- Glasgow University Library:
Musurgia Universalis
Retrieved Oct. 16, 2004.
- Infoplease: Athanasius Kircher
Retrieved Oct. 16, 2004.
- The Correspondence of Athanasius Kircher
in
EMLO
- The Correspondence of Athanasius Kircher
Internet Archive
- Hajdu, Steven I (Summer 2002).
"The First Use of the Microscope in Medicine"
.
Annals of Clinical & Laboratory Science
.
32
(3): 309?310.
PMID
12175096
. Retrieved
15 October
2020
.
- The Galileo Project
Retrieved Oct. 16, 2004.
- Owners of the Voynich Manuscript
Retrieved Feb. 3, 2005.
- The World is Bound With Secret Knots
Retrieved Oct. 16, 2004.
- Voynich MS ? Biographies
Retrieved Oct. 16, 2004.
Other links
[
edit
]
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