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Athanasius Kircher

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                   Athanasius Kircher
   Portrait of Kircher from Mundus Subterraneus, 1664
   Born May 2, 1602
        Geisa, Abbacy of Fulda
   Died 28 November 1680
        Rome

   Athanasius Kircher (sometimes erroneously spelt Kirchner) ( May 2,
   1602– 28 November 1680) 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. One of the first people to observe microbes through a
   microscope, he was thus ahead of his time in proposing that the plague
   was caused by an infectious microorganism and in suggesting effective
   measures to prevent the spread of the disease.

   He has been compared to Leonardo da Vinci for his inventiveness and the
   breadth and depth of his work. A scientific star in his day, towards
   the end of his life he was eclipsed by the rationalism of René
   Descartes and others. In the late 20th century, however, the aesthetic
   qualities of his work again began to be appreciated. One scholar,
   Edward W. Schmidt, has called him "the last Renaissance man".

Life

   Kircher was born on May 2, 1601 or 1602 (he himself did not know) in
   Geisa, Buchonia, near Fulda. 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 joined
   the order himself as a seminarian.

   The youngest of nine children, Kircher was a precocious youngster who
   was taught Hebrew by a rabbi in addition to his studies at school. He
   studied philosophy and theology at Paderborn, but fled to Cologne in
   1622 to escape advancing Protestant forces. 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,
   travelling to Heiligenstadt, he was caught and nearly hanged by a party
   of Protestant soldiers. At Heiligenstadt, he taught mathematics, Hebrew
   and Syrian, 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 joined the priesthood in 1628 and
   became professor of ethics and mathematics at the University of
   Würzburg, where he also taught Hebrew and Syrian. From 1628, he also
   began to show an interest in Egyptian hieroglyphs.

   Kircher published his first book (the Ars Magnesia, reporting his
   research on magnetism) in 1631, but the same year he was driven by the
   continuing Thirty Years' War 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 set off for Vienna. On the way, his ship was blown off-course
   and he arrived in Rome before he knew of the changed decision. He based
   himself in the city for the rest of his life, and from 1638 taught
   mathematics, physics and oriental languages at the Collegio Romano for
   several years before being released to devote himself to research. He
   studied first malaria and then the plague, and amassed 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
   Jesus Christ in a stag's horns. He raised money to pay for the church’s
   reconstruction as the Santuario della Mentorella, and his heart was
   buried in the church on his death.

Works

   Kircher published a large number of substantial books on a very wide
   variety of subjects, such as Egyptology, geology, and music theory. His
   syncretic approach paid no attention to the boundaries between
   disciplines which are now conventional: his Magnes, for example, was
   ostensibly a discussion of magnetism, but also explored other forms of
   attraction such as gravity and love. Perhaps Kircher's best-known work
   today is his Oedipus Aegyptiacus (1652-54) a vast study of Egyptology
   and comparative religion. His books, written in Latin, had a wide
   circulation in the 17th century, and they contributed to the
   dissemination of scientific information to a broader circle of readers.

Egyptology

   Kircher was acknowledged as his era's greatest student of the mysteries
   of Ancient Egypt. While some of his notions are long discredited,
   portions of his work have been valuable to later scholars; Kircher
   helped pioneer Egyptology as a field of serious study.
   The Coptic alphabet, from Prodromus coptus sive aegyptiacus
   Enlarge
   The Coptic alphabet, from Prodromus coptus sive aegyptiacus

   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 the first grammar of that language in
   1636, the Prodromus coptus sive aegyptiacus. In the Lingua aegyptiaca
   restituta of 1643, he argued correctly that Coptic was not a separate
   language, but the last development of ancient Egyptian. He also
   recognised the relationship between the hieratic and hieroglyphic
   scripts.

   In Oedipus Aegyptiacus he 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 simple
   hieroglyphic texts now known to read as dd 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." Kircher apparently fooled
   himself (as well as some contemporaries) into believing that he could
   read the hieroglyphics, but his "translations" were largely figments of
   his own imagination, having little to do with the actual text.

   Although his approach to deciphering the texts was based on a
   fundamental misconception, he did pioneer serious study of hieroglyphs,
   and the data which he collected were later used by Champollion in his
   successful efforts to decode the script. Kircher himself was alive to
   the possibility of the hieroglyphs constituting an alphabet: he
   included in his proposed system (incorrect) derivations of the Greek
   alphabet from 21 hieroglyphs. He was actively involved in the erection
   of Obeliscs on Roman squares, often adding fantastic "hieroglyphs" of
   his own design in the blank areas that are now puzzling modern
   scholars.

Sinology

   Map of China from China Monumentis
   Enlarge
   Map of China from China Monumentis

   Kircher had an early interest in China, telling his superior in 1629
   that he wished to become a missionary to the country. His China
   Monumentis (1667) was an encyclopedia of China, which combined accurate
   cartography with mythical elements, such as dragons. The work
   emphasised the Christian elements of Chinese history, both real and
   imagined: he noted the early presence of Nestorians, 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
   corrupted hieroglyphs. In his 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 European attitude
   to the Chinese and native American civilisations;

   "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)

Geology

   Kircher's model of the Earth's internal fires, from Mundus Subterraneus
   Enlarge
   Kircher's model of the Earth's internal fires, from Mundus Subterraneus

   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, in
   order 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 some were the
   remains of animals which had turned to stone, but ascribed others to
   human invention or to the spontaneous generative force of the earth.
   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 is 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 did
   not 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's magnetic clock
   Enlarge
   Kircher's magnetic clock

   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 is not
   known to have actually constructed the instrument. He wrote an early
   description of the magic lantern, and is therefore believed to have
   been its inventor.
   An illustration from the discussion of hearing in Musurgia Universalis,
   showing the ears of a human, cow, horse, dog, leopard, cat, rat, pig,
   sheep and goose
   Enlarge
   An illustration from the discussion of hearing in Musurgia Universalis,
   showing the ears of a human, cow, horse, dog, leopard, cat, rat, pig,
   sheep and goose

   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.

   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, Kircher 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 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.

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").

   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" . Because Kircher's science is
   now out of date, and as few of his works have been translated, the
   recent 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.

Texts

     * Fletcher, John E.: A brief survey of the unpublished correspondence
       of Athanasius Kircher S J. (1602-80), in: Manuscripta, XIII, St.
       Louis, 1969, pp. 150-60.
     * Fletcher, John E.: Johann Marcus Marci writes to Athanasius
       Kircher. Janus, Leyden, LIX (1972), pp. 97-118
     * Fletcher, John E.: Athanasius Kircher und seine Beziehungen zum
       gelehrten Europa seiner Zeit Wolfenbütteler Arbeiten zur
       Barockforschung, Band 17, 1988. -
     * Fletcher, J. "Johann Marcus Marci writes to Athanasius Kircher",
       Janus, 59 (1972), pp 95-118.
     * Fletcher, J. Athanasius Kircher : A Man Under Pressure. 1988
     * Fletcher, J. Athanasius Kircher And Duke August Of
       Brunswick-Lüneberg : A Chronicle Of Friendship. 1988
     * Fletcher, J. 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.
     * Eco, Umberto. Serendipities: Language and Lunacy. Columbia
       University Press (1998). ISBN 0-231-11134-7.

    1. ^ Musser, Charles (1990). The Emergence of Cinema: The American
       Screen to 1907. University of California Press, 613. ISBN
       0-520-08533-7.

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