Everything about Athanasius Kircher totally explained
Athanasius Kircher (sometimes erroneously spelled
Kirchner) was a 17th century
German Jesuit scholar who published around 40 works, most notably in the fields of
oriental studies,
geology, and
medicine.
He made an early study of
Egyptian hieroglyphs, and has been considered the founder of
Egyptology. Not all the objects which he was attempting to explain were in fact fossils, hence the diversity of explanations.
Medicine
Kircher took a notably modern approach to the study of
diseases, as early as 1646 using a
microscope to investigate the
blood of
plague victims. In his
Scrutinium Pestis of 1658, he noted the presence of "little worms" or "
animalcules" in the blood, and concluded that the disease was caused by
microorganisms. The conclusion was correct, although it's likely that what he saw were in fact
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.
Display of screen images
In 1646, Kircher published
Ars Magna Lucis et Umbrae, on the subject of the display of images on a screen using an apparatus similar to the
magic lantern as developed by
Christian Huygens and others. Kircher described the construction of a "catotrophic lamp" that used reflection to project images on the wall of a darkened room. Although Kircher didn't invent the device, he made improvements over previous models, and suggested methods by which exhibitors could use his device. Much of the significance of his work arises from Kircher rational approach towards the demystification of projected images.
Previously such images had been used in Europe to mimic supernatural (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 in origin.
Other
Kircher constructed a
magnetic clock, the mechanism of which he explained in his
Magnes (1641). The device had originally been invented by another Jesuit, Fr.
Francis Line, 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, the argument being that the magnetic sphere in the clock was caused to rotate by the magnetic force of the
sun. Kircher's model disproved the theory, showing that the motion could be produced by a
water clock in the base of the device.
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, or a
cat piano which would drive spikes into the tails of cats which yowled to specified
pitches, although he isn't known to have actually constructed the instrument.
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.
Kircher wrote against the
Copernican model in his
Magnes (supporting instead that of
Tycho Brahe), but in his later
Itinerarium extaticum (1656, revised 1671) he presented several systems, including the Copernican, as alternative possibilities. In
Polygraphia nova (1663) he proposed an artificial
universal language.
Kircher received a copy of the
Voynich Manuscript in 1666; it was sent to him by
Johannes Marcus Marci in the hope of his being able to decipher it. The manuscript remained in the Collegio Romano until
Victor Emmanuel II of Italy annexed the
papal states in 1870.
In 1675, he published
Arca Noë, 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 wouldn't 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.
Influence
For most of his professional life, Kircher was one of the scientific stars of the 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. Towards the end of his life his stock fell, as the
rationalist Cartesian approach began to dominate (Descartes himself described Kircher as "more quacksalver than savant").
In culture
Thereafter, Kircher was largely neglected until the late 20th century. One writer attributes his rediscovery to the similarities between his eclectic approach and
postmodernism: "at the start of the 21st century Kircher's taste for
trivia, deception and wonder is back”; "Kircher's postmodern qualities include his subversiveness, his
celebrity, his
technomania and his bizarre
eclecticism"
(External Link
).
In his book For Lust of Knowing, Robert Irwin calls Kircher "one of the last scholars aspiring to know everything", adding that the philosopher Leibniz was probably the last.
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. The contemporary artist
Cybèle 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 deeply researched best selling
alternate history Ring of Fire series employs Fr. Kircher in a variety of short stories and as a backdrop character for the exposition of religious strife during the
Thirty Years' War in the novels and . In the former his role is relatively minor, as he steps in as curate of for the parish priest—the newly named
last resort Ambassador of the embattled and newly organized to the
Most Serene Republic of Venice—. He plays a larger role in where he forms part of a Jesuit information network that helps resolve the personal and political concerns of the staunchly Catholic heroine, Archduchess and the aid she receives in her flight from citizens and government functionaries of the .
The
Athanasius Kircher Society is a weblog devoted to unusual ephemera, which very occasionally relate to Kircher
Bibliography
Kircher's principal works, in chronological order, are:
- 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 Lingua aegyptiaca restituta
- 1645–1646 Ars Magna Lucis et umbrae in mundo
- 1650 Obeliscus Pamphilius
- 1650 Musurgia universalis, sive ars magna consoni et dissoni
- 1652–1655 Oedipus Aegyptiacus
- 1654 Magnes sive (third, expanded edition)
- 1656 Itinerarium extaticum s. opificium coeleste
- 1657 Iter extaticum secundum, mundi subterranei prodromus
- 1658 Scrutinium Physico-Medicum Contagiosae Luis, quae dicitur Pestis
- 1660 Pantometrum Kircherianum ... explicatum a G. Schotto
- 1661 Diatribe de prodigiosis crucibus
- 1663 Polygraphia, seu artificium linguarium quo cum omnibus mundi populis poterit quis respondere
- 1664–1678 Mundus subterraneus, quo universae denique naturae divitiae
- 1665 Historia Eustachio-Mariana
- 1665 Arithmologia
- 1666 Obelisci Aegyptiaci ... interpretatio hieroglyphica
- 1667 China Monumentis, qua sacris qua profanis
- 1667 Magneticum naturae regnum sive disceptatio physiologica
- 1668 Organum mathematicum
- 1669 Principis Cristiani archetypon politicum
- 1669 Latium
- 1669 Ars magna sciendi sive combinatorica
- 1673 Phonurgia nova, sive conjugium mechanico-physicum artis & natvrae paranympha phonosophia concinnatum
- 1675 Arca Noe
- 1676 Sphinx mystagoga
- 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 Pathagorica expansa
- 1680 Physiologia Kicheriana experimentalis
Cited references
Other sources
Athanasius Kircher, Dude of Wonders Retrieved Oct. 16, 2004.
Athanasius Kircher Image Gallery Retrieved Oct. 16, 2004.
Athanasius Kircher's Magnetic Clock Retrieved Oct. 16, 2004.
Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (German language) Retrieved Oct. 16, 2004.
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 Retrieved Oct. 16, 2004.
The First Use of the Microscope in Medicine Retrieved Oct. 16, 2004.
The Galileo Project Retrieved Oct. 16, 2004.
The Historical Background of Cytology 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.
Literature
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 Wolfenbütteler Arbeiten zur Barockforschung, Band 17, 1988. -
John Edward Fletcher: "Johann Marcus Marci writes to Athanasius Kircher", Janus, 59 (1972), pp 95–118.
John Edward Fletcher: Athanasius Kircher : A Man Under Pressure. 1988
John Edward Fletcher: Athanasius Kircher And Duke August Of Brunswick-Lüneberg : A Chronicle Of Friendship. 1988
John Edward Fletcher: Athanasius Kircher And His Correspondence. 1988
Schmidt, Edward W. :The Last Renaissance Man: Athanasius Kircher, SJ. Company: The World of Jesuits and Their Friends. 19(2), Winter 2001–2002.
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
Thiollet, Jean-Pierre, Je m'appelle Byblos, Paris, H & D, 2005 (p. 254). ISBN 2-914 266 04 9
Cybèle Varela: Ad Sidera per Athanasius Kircher. Rome, Gangemi, 2008. ISBN 978-88492-1416-1
Texts by Athanasius Kircher
Magnes Siue De Arte Magnetica Opvs Tripartitvm 1643 [2nded.]
Historia Evstachio-Mariana.. 1665.
Arithmologia sive De abditis numerorum mysterijs 1665.
Ars Magna Sciendi 1669.
Latium. Id Est, Nova & Parallela Latii tum Veteris tum Novi Descriptio 1671.
Obeliscus Pamphilius : hoc est, Interpretatio noua & Hucusque Intentata Obelisci Hieroglyphici 1650.
Physiologia Kircheriana Experimentalis 1680.
Sphinx Mystagoga : sive Diatribe hieroglyphica, qua Mumiae, ex Memphiticis Pyramidum Adytis Erutae.. 1676.
Musurgia Universalis: Volume One; Volume Two 1650.Further Information
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