Kircher, Athanasius

Abstract

Athanasius Kircher was a Jesuit, a Baroque polymath, and an author of more than 30 works on various subjects ranging from hieroglyphics, time measurement, magnetism, music, and optics through astronomy, history, and the cultures of China and Egypt to universal language, Noah’s Ark, and the Tower of Babel. He is often described as “the last man who knew everything” (Findlen, Athanasius Kircher. The last man who knew everything. New York/London: Routledge, 2004), as “the master of hundred arts” (Reilly, Athanasius Kircher S.J., Master of Hundred Arts 1602–1680. Wiesbaden: Edizioni del Mondo, 1974), and as a Baroque polymath standing between Renaissance and modern episteme, but also as a “man of misconceptions” (Glassie, A man of misconceptions: The life of an eccentric in an age of change. New York: Riverhead, 2012). He published not only experiments and observations which were progressive and new in his time but also some theories that are considered false by today’s science and were considered false already by many of his contemporaries. In a search for universal knowledge leading back to prisca sapientia and hermetic writings, Kircher believed that deciphering hieroglyphs and finding the basis of all languages and cultures would prove the existence of only one original universal religion and therefore support the return of Protestant Churches to the Roman Catholic Church. Kircher’s writings and theories were a mixture of Aristotelian natural philosophy, Renaissance Platonism, and Corpus Hermeticum with a specific addition of Lullian combinatorial art (Leinkauf, Mundus combinatus, Studien zur Struktur der barocken Universalwissenschaft am Beispiel Athanasius Kirchers SJ. Akademie Verlag, Berlin, 2009). Kircher also drew heavily from the work of Nicholas of Cusa (1401 – 1464), especially in his astronomical work, although without acknowledging it (Bauer, Willibald-Pirckheimer-Jahrbuch:69–107, 1989/1990; Siebert, Große kosmologische Kontroverse: Rekonstruktionsversuche anhand des Itinerarium exstaticum von Athanasius Kircher SJ (1602–1680). Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2006). Kircher’s celebrated museum attracted many visitors from across Europe, and Kircher sustained a large correspondence based not only on personal encounters but also on utilizing the Jesuit communication network (Friedrich, Der lange Arm Roms?: Globale Verwaltung und Kommunikation im Jesuitenorden 1540–1773. Frankfurt am Main: Campus Verlag, 2011). He was supported by emperors, popes and a number of nobles, and leading church figures and scholars, and his books were published in numerous editions and print runs. However, he was generally either forgotten or considered to be an eccentric fool for about 300 years. The new interest of scholars in the borders of modern science and its rise, as well as their interest in the communication strategies and practice of Early Modern scholars, has now turned Athanasius Kircher into one of the most studied Early Modern figures of the last few decades. Athanasius Kircher also appears in popular culture, due to the similarities between his eclecticism and the postmodernist movement (Borges; Eco, L’Isola del giorno prima. Milano: Bompiani, 1994; Roblès, Là où les tigres sont chez eux. Paris: Zulma, 2008).