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Athanasius Kircher | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Portrait fromMundus Subterraneus (1664) | |
| Born | 2 May 1601/1602 |
| Died | 27 November 1680 (aged 78 or 79) |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | |
Athanasius KircherSJ (2 May 1601/1602 – 27 November 1680)[1] was a GermanJesuit scholar andpolymath who published around 40 major works ofcomparative religion,geology, andmedicine. Kircher has been compared to fellow JesuitRoger Joseph Boscovich and toLeonardo 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 theRoman College, where he set up awunderkammer or cabinet of curiosities that would become theKircherian Museum. A resurgence of interest in Kircher has occurred within the scholarly community in recent decades.
Kircher claimed to have deciphered thehieroglyphic writing of the ancientEgyptian 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 theCoptic languages, and some commentators[who?] regard him as the founder ofEgyptology.[citation needed][3] Kircher was also fascinated withSinology and wrote an encyclopedia ofChina, where he revealed the early presence ofNestorian Christians while also attempting to establish links with Egypt and Christianity.
Kircher's work in geology included studies ofvolcanoes andfossils. One of the first researchers to observe microbes through amicroscope, Kircher was ahead of his time in proposing that theplague was caused by an infectiousmicroorganism 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, variousautomatons and the firstmegaphone. The invention of themagic lantern has been misattributed to Kircher,[4] although he conducted a study of the principles involved in hisArs Magna Lucis et Umbrae.
A scientific star in his day, towards the end of his life he was eclipsed by therationalism ofRené Descartes and others. In the late 20th century, however, theaesthetic 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".[5] Another scholar, Edward W. Schmidt, referred to Kircher as "the lastRenaissance man". InA 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,"[6] 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."[7]
Kircher was born on 2 May in either 1601 or 1602 (he himself did not know) inGeisa,Buchonia, nearFulda (Thuringia,Germany). From his birthplace, he took the epithetsBucho, Buchonius andFuldensis which he sometimes added to his name. He attended the Jesuit College in Fulda from 1614 to 1618, when he entered thenovitiate of the Society.
The youngest of nine children, Kircher studied volcanoes owing to his passion for rocks and eruptions. He was taughtHebrew by arabbi[8] in addition to his studies at school. He studiedphilosophy andtheology atPaderborn[4] but fled toCologne in 1622 to escape advancingProtestant forces.[citation needed]
From 1622 to 1624, he spent hisregency period inKoblenz as a teacher. This was followed by assignment toHeiligenstadt, where he taughtmathematics, Hebrew andSyriac, and produced a show offireworks and moving scenery for the visitingElectorArchbishop of Mainz, showing early evidence of his interest inmechanical devices. He wasordained to thepriesthood in 1628[4] and became professor ofethics andmathematics at theUniversity of Würzburg, where he also taught Hebrew and Syriac. Beginning in 1628, he began to show an interest in Egyptian hieroglyphs.
In 1631, while still atWürzburg, Kircher allegedly had a prophetic vision of bright light and armed men with horses in the city. Würzburg 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.[9] This was the year that Kircher published his first book (theArs Magnesia, reporting his research onmagnetism), but having been caught up in theThirty Years' War he was driven to the papalUniversity of Avignon inFrance. In 1633 he was called toVienna by theemperor to succeedKepler as Mathematician to theHabsburg court. On the intervention ofNicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc, the order was rescinded, and he was sent instead toRome to continue with his scholarly work, but he had already embarked for Vienna.[citation needed]
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[10] he taught mathematics,physics andOriental languages at the Collegio Romano (now thePontifical Gregorian University) for several years before being released to devote himself to research. He studiedmalaria and theplague, amassing a collection ofantiquities, which he exhibited along with devices of his own creation in theMuseum Kircherianum.
In 1661, Kircher discovered the ruins of achurch said to have been constructed byConstantine on the site ofSaint Eustace's vision of a crucifix in a stag's horns. He raised money to pay for the church's reconstruction as theSantuario della Mentorella [it], and his heart was buried in the church upon his death.[citation needed]
Kircher published many substantial books on a wide variety of subjects such asEgyptology,geology, andmusic theory. Hissyncretic approach disregarded conventional boundaries between disciplines: hisMagnes, for example, ostensibly discussedmagnetism, but also explored other modes of attraction such asgravity andlove. Perhaps Kircher's best-known work isOedipus Aegyptiacus (1652–54), a vast study of Egyptology andcomparative religion.[11]
His books, written inLatin, 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., themagic lantern) have sometimes been mistakenly attributed to him.[11]
In his foreword toArs Magna Sciendi Sive Combinatoria (The Great Art of Knowledge, or the Combinatorial Art), the inscription reads:[12]
"Nothing is more beautiful than to know all."
Thelast known example ofEgyptian hieroglyphics dates from AD 394, after which all knowledge of hieroglyphics was lost.[13] UntilThomas Young andJean-François Champollion found the key to hieroglyphics in the 19th century, the main authority was the 4th-century Greek grammarianHorapollon, whose chief contribution was the misconception that hieroglyphics were "picture writing" and that future translators should look for symbolic meaning in the pictures.[14]
The first modern study of hieroglyphics came withPiero Valeriano Bolzani'sHieroglyphica (1556).[13] Kircher was the most famous of the "decipherers" between ancient and modern times and the most famous Egyptologist of his day.[15] In hisLingua 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".[15] 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 atSpeyer. He learnedCoptic in 1633 and published its first grammar in 1636, theProdromus coptus sive aegyptiacus. Kircher then broke with Horapollon's interpretation of hieroglyphs with hisLingua aegyptiaca restituta. Kircher argued that Coptic preserved the last development ofancient Egyptian.[15][16] For this Kircher has been considered the true "founder of Egyptology", because his work was conducted "before the discovery of theRosetta Stone rendered Egyptian hieroglyphics comprehensible to scholars".[16] He also recognized the relationship betweenhieratic and hieroglyphic scripts.
Between 1650 and 1654, Kircher published four volumes of "translations" of hieroglyphs in the context of his Coptic studies.[15] However, according to Steven Frimmer, "none of them even remotely fitted the original texts".[15] InOedipus Aegyptiacus, Kircher argued under the impression of theHieroglyphica thatancient Egyptian was the language spoken byAdam and Eve, thatHermes Trismegistus wasMoses, and that hieroglyphs wereoccultsymbols which "cannot be translated by words, but expressed only by marks, characters and figures." This led him to translate the simple hieroglyphic textḏd 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".[17]
EgyptologistE. A. Wallis Budge mentioned Kircher as the foremost of writers who "pretended to have found the key to the hieroglyphics" and called his translations inOedipus Aegyptiacus "utter nonsense, but as they were put forth in a learned tongue many people at the time believed they were correct."[18] 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 byChampollion 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".[19] 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.[20]
Kircher was also actively involved in the erection of thePamphilj obelisk, and added "hieroglyphs" of his design in the blank areas.[21] Rowland 2002 concluded that Kircher made use ofPythagorean principles to read hieroglyphs of thePamphili Obelisk, and used the same form of interpretation when reading scripture.[22]
Kircher had an early interest inChina, telling his superior in 1629 that he wished to become amissionary to that country. In 1667 he published a treatise whose full title wasChina monumentis, qua sacris qua profanis, nec non variis naturae & artis spectaculis, aliarumque rerum memorabilium argumentis illustrata, and which is commonly known simply asChina Illustrata, i.e. "China Illustrated". It was a work of encyclopedic breadth, combining material of unequal quality, from accuratecartography to mythical elements, such as a study ofdragons. The work drew heavily on the reports of Jesuits working in China, in particularMichael Boym[23] andMartino Martini.
China Illustrata emphasized the Christian elements of Chinese history, both real and imagined: the book noted the early presence ofNestorian Christians (with a Latin translation of theNestorian Stele ofXi'an provided by Boym and his Chinese collaborator, Andrew Zheng),[24] but also claimed that the Chinese were descended from the sons ofHam, thatConfucius was Hermes Trismegistus/Moses and that theChinese 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 theMaya andAztecs were yet lowerpictograms 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)
In 1675, he publishedArca Noë, the results of his research on the biblicalArk of Noah — following theCounter-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 toarise 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.
Kircher was sent theVoynich Manuscript in 1666 byJohannes Marcus Marci in the hope of Kircher being able to decipher it.[25] The manuscript remained in the Collegio Romano untilVictor Emmanuel II of Italy annexed thePapal States in 1870, though scepticism as to the authenticity of the story and of the origin of the manuscript itself exists. In hisPolygraphia Nova (1663), Kircher proposed an artificialuniversal language.
On a visit tosouthern Italy in 1638, the ever-curious Kircher was lowered into thecrater ofVesuvius, then on the brink of eruption, to examine its interior. He was also intrigued by thesubterranean rumbling which he heard at theStrait of Messina. His geological and geographical investigations culminated in hisMundus Subterraneus of 1664, in which he suggested that thetides were caused by water moving to and from a subterraneanocean.
Kircher was also puzzled byfossils. He understood that fossils were the remains of animals. He ascribed large bones to giant races of humans.[26] 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.[27]
Mundus Subterraneus includes several pages about the legendary island ofAtlantis 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."[28]
In his bookArca Noë, Kircher argued that after the Flood new species were transformed as they moved into different environments, for example, when adeer moved into a colder climate, it became areindeer. He wrote that many species were hybrids of other species, for example,armadillos from a combination ofturtles andporcupines. He also advocated the theory ofspontaneous generation.[29] Because of such hypotheses, some historians have held that Kircher was a proto-evolutionist.[30]
Kircher took a modern approach to the study ofdiseases as early as 1646 by using amicroscope to investigate theblood ofplague victims. In hisScrutinium Pestis of 1658, he observed the presence of "little worms" or "animalcules" in the blood and concluded that the disease was caused bymicroorganisms. That was correct, although it is likely that what he saw werered orwhiteblood cells and not the plague agent,Yersinia pestis. He also proposedhygienic measures to prevent the spread of disease, such as isolation,quarantine, burning clothes worn by the infected and wearing facemasks to prevent the inhalation ofgerms.
In 1646, Kircher publishedArs Magna Lucis et Umbrae, concerning the display of images on a screen using an apparatus similar to themagic lantern developed byChristiaan 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.[31]
Kircher constructed amagnetic clock, which he explained in hisMagnes (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 theCopernican cosmological model, arguing that the magnetic sphere in the clock rotated by the magnetic force of thesun.[32]
Kircher's model disproved that hypothesis, showing that the motion could be produced by awater clock in the base of the device. Although Kircher disputed theCopernican model in hisMagnes, supporting instead that ofTycho Brahe, his laterItinerarium 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.[32]
TheMusurgia Universalis (1650) sets out Kircher's views onmusic: he believed that theharmony of music reflected the proportions of theuniverse. The book includes plans for constructing water-poweredautomatic organs,notations ofbirdsong and diagrams ofmusical instruments. One illustration shows the differences between theears of humans and other animals. InPhonurgia Nova (1673), Kircher considered the possibilities of transmitting music to remote places. Other machines designed by Kircher include anaeolian harp,automatons such as a statue which spoke and listened via aspeaking tube, aperpetual motion machine, and aKatzenklavier ("cat piano"). The Katzenklavier would have driven spikes into the tails of cats, which would yowl to specifiedpitches but was never constructed.
InPhonurgia 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 anelliptical dome from Heidelberg. In one section he explored the therapeutic effects of music intarantism, a theme from southern Italy.[33]
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 finiteset), based on the previous work ofRamon Llull. His methods and diagrams are discussed inArs Magna Sciendi, sive Combinatoria, 1669. They include what may be the first recordeddrawings ofcomplete bipartite graphs, extending a similar technique used by Llull to visualizecomplete graphs.[34] Kircher also employed combinatorics in hisArca Musarithmica, analeatoric music device capable of composing millions of church hymns by combining randomly selected musical phrases.
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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".[citation needed] His importance was twofold: to the results of his ownexperiments 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. TheEncyclopædia Britannica calls him a "one-man intellectual clearing house".[citation needed]
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 therationalistCartesian approach began to dominate (Descartes himself described Kircher as "more quacksalver than savant").[citation needed]
Kircher was largely neglected until the late 20th century. One writer attributes his rediscovery to the similarities between his eclectic approach andpostmodernism. As few of Kircher's works have been translated, the contemporary emphasis has been on theiraesthetic qualities rather than their actual content, and a succession of exhibitions have highlighted the beauty of their illustrations. HistorianAnthony Grafton has said that "the staggeringly strange dark continent of Kircher's work [is] the setting for aBorges story that was never written",[citation needed] whileUmberto Eco has written about Kircher in his novelThe Island of the Day Before, as well as in his non-fiction worksThe Search for the Perfect Language andSerendipities.[citation needed]
In the historical novelImprimatur byMonaldi & Sorti (2002), Kircher plays a major role.[citation needed] Shortly after his death, some travellers 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. InWhere Tigers Are At Home, byJean-Marie Blas de Roblès, the protagonist works on a translation of a bogus 17th-century biography of Kircher.[citation needed] The contemporary artistCybèle Varela has paid tribute to Kircher in her exhibitionAd Sidera per Athanasius Kircher, held in theCollegio Romano, in the same place where theMuseum Kircherianum was.
TheMuseum of Jurassic Technology inLos Angeles has a hall dedicated to the life of Kircher. Hisethnographic collection is in thePigorini National Museum of Prehistory and Ethnography in Rome.
John Glassie's book,A Man of Misconceptions, traces connections between Kircher and figures such asGianlorenzo Bernini,René Descartes, andIsaac Newton. It also suggests influences onEdgar Allan Poe,Franz Anton Mesmer,Jules Verne, andMarcel 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.”[35]
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Kircher's life and research are central to the plot ofJames Rollin's 2015 novelThe Bone Labyrinth.
He is mentioned inThe Book of Life, the third book in the All Souls Trilogy byDeborah Harkness. He further appears in two separate episodes inDaniel Kehlmann's novelTyll (2017).
The permanent exhibitionThe World Is Bound with Secret Knots at theMuseum 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.[36]
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 ofFather Chmielowski inOlga Tokarczuk'sThe Books of Jacob.
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 andII, 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 aG. 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, 1678Digital edition Tomus I/II by theUniversity and State Library Düsseldorf | |
| 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 byGaspar 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 Noë | ||
| 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 |
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)>{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
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