Athanasius Kircher
Athanasius Kircher (also Latinized: Athanasius Kircherus Fuldensis; * May 2, 1602 in Geisa ( Rhön ) in the Fulda Monastery ; † November 27, 1680 in Rome ) was a German Jesuit and polymath .
He taught and researched for most of his life at the Collegium Romanum in Rome. Kircher published a large number of detailed monographs on a wide range of subjects including Egyptology , geology , medicine , mathematics and music theory . More than 150 years before Jean-François Champollion , he tried to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs .
Friedrich Kittler describes Kircher as "a kind of scientific fire brigade of the Pope : with special assignments and special powers, he was always there when new scientific territory had to be entered, but also to defend on behalf of the Church." In fact, Kircher was ahead of his time, especially when it comes to that its influence on acoustics , astronomy , mechanics and color theory can be seen. He was one of the first to suspect the influence of "small beings" on the spread of the plague .
Kircher's motto was In uno omnia (In one all).
Life
Kircher was born on May 2, 1602 in Geisa , a town in the northern Rhön belonging to the Fulda monastery. His father Johann Kircher came from Mainz and was bailiff of the Prince Abbot Balthasar von Dernbach , his mother Anna was born Gansek from Fulda. From 1614 to 1618 he attended the Jesuit College in Fulda. On October 2, 1618 he joined the Jesuit order in Paderborn . He studied philosophy and theology at the Academia Theodoriana , but had to flee to Cologne in an adventurous way in 1622 to avoid the invading Protestant troops under Duke Christian von Braunschweig-Lüneburg . On the journey he narrowly escaped death after breaking into the ice while crossing the frozen Rhine. He later worked as a teacher in Heiligenstadt and taught mathematics, Hebrew and Syriac . In 1628 he became a priest and in the same year professor of mathematics and ethics at the University of Würzburg . In 1631 he published his first book ( Ars Magnesia ). In the same year the Thirty Years War forced him to continue his work at the Pontifical University of Avignon in France . In 1633 Ferdinand II , Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation , appointed him to succeed Johannes Kepler as a mathematician at the Habsburg court in Vienna . However, this appeal was revoked at the instigation of Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc . Instead, he arranged for an appointment to Rome at the Collegium Romanum , as his friend Kircher would have more time there for his research - including working on the deciphering of the hieroglyphs. In 1637/1638 he went on a research trip that took him to Malta, Sicily and the Aeolian Islands, including climbing Mount Etna and Stromboli. After witnessing the Calabria earthquake, he went ashore in Naples, climbed Vesuvius and rappeled down into the crater. From 1638 onwards, Kircher taught mathematics, physics and oriental languages at the Collegium Romanum (Gregoriana). In 1645 he was released from this activity in order to devote himself to his research. He researched diseases such as malaria and the plague and created an important collection of antiques, which he exhibited together with his own inventions in the specially set up Museum Kircherianum . In 1661, Kircher discovered the ruins of a church that was supposedly built by Constantine the Great on the spot where an apparition of Jesus is said to have taken place. He collected money for the reconstruction of this church (in Guadagnolo east of Palestrina ) and ordered the burial of his heart in this very place. The Santuário della Mentorella monastery on the "Eustachiusberg" has housed a settlement of the Polish "Resurrectionists" (priests of the resurrection) since 1857. The polyhistor Athanasius Kircher died on October 30, 1680 in Rome.
plant
Kircher published a large number of fundamental works on a very wide range of subjects. He dealt with mathematics , physics , chemistry , geography , geology , astronomy , biology , medicine , music , languages , philology and history . He pursued a syncretistic or universal scientific approach and placed no value on the emerging training of various disciplines as we know them today in the scientific community. It is typical of his monographs that they go beyond the actual topic and include related questions and meta-discussions. His book Magnes (1641), which deals primarily with magnetism , also deals with other forms of attraction such as gravitation and love (quote: “Everything is connected by secret knots”). In the Ars magna lucis et umbrae of 1646 there is an almost unmanageable number of different topics, including botany, zoology, color theory, radiation theory, light refraction, parabolic mirrors, astrology, medicine, sundials, hour lines and astronomy. The theoretical explanations are interrupted and explained by clear sketches. Perhaps Kircher's best-known work today is Œdipus Ægyptiacus (1652), a broad study of Egyptology and comparative religious studies . His works, written in Latin, were widely used in his day and made the results of his scientific work known to a wide range of readers.
Egyptology
Kircher's interest in Egyptology was aroused when he came across a hieroglyphic collection in the Speyer library in 1628 . Mediated by Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc , he later came into possession of several manuscripts that the explorer Pietro della Valle had brought from Egypt; these were written in Bohairian , a dialect of the Coptic language, and were actually intended for the linguist Thomas Obicini . After his death, the famous scholar Kircher seemed the right man to work on it. Appointed to the Collegium Romanum in 1633 , he began to work, learned Coptic and published the first grammar of this language in 1636 ( Prodromus coptus sive aegyptiacus ). In his work Lingua Aegyptiaca restituta from 1643 he argues correctly that Coptic is not a separate language, but the last stage of the ancient Egyptian language . He also recognized the relationship between hieratic characters and the hieroglyphics.
In Œdipus Ægyptiacus (1652) he argues that the ancient Egyptian language was spoken by Adam and Eve and that Hermes Trismegistus and Moses were one and the same person. The Egyptian hieroglyphs are occult symbols that cannot be translated literally, but can only be interpreted allegorically (symbolically), since their true content is reserved for the initiated. He took part in the erection of the obelisks in Rome and is responsible for adding to some of the hieroglyphs that are now recognized as meaningless or distorting the meaning; see. his work Obeliscus Pamphilius (1650) on the Obelisco Agonale set up under Emperor Domitian . In 1666 he dedicated to the short previously located, and on the backs of Bernini's elephant erected Elephant and Obelisk the monograph Ad Alexandrum VII. Pont. Max. Obelisci Aegyptiaci nuper inter Isaei Romani rudera effossi interpretatio hieroglyphica . In 1676, in his Sphinx Mystagoga, he was still concerned with retrieving mummies and deciphering the hieroglyphs.
Although his approach to deciphering ancient Egyptian texts was based on fundamental misconceptions, he carried out pioneering scientific research in this area. Kircher himself believed in the possibility that the hieroglyphs could form an alphabet and related them to the Greek alphabet. Its results were later used by Jean-François Champollion in his successful endeavors to decipher this ancient Egyptian language.
Kircher also dealt with Atlantis , which , according to Plato , goes back to a tradition from Egypt. Kircher believed he could locate Atlantis in the Atlantic.
Sinology
Kircher developed an interest in Chinese culture early on . As early as 1629, he informed his spiritual mentor that he wanted to become a missionary in this country. His work China monumentis qua sacris qua profanis (...) illustrata ("China, illustrated by means of its sacred and secular monuments ...") was an encyclopedia about the Empire of China that combined accurate cartography with mystical elements such as dragons . It emphasizes the Christian elements of Chinese history , both real and imaginary: Kircher mentions the early presence of Nestorians due to the so-called Sino-Syrian monument, the Nestorian stele , which was discovered in a villa in the Chinese city of Sianfu in 1625 . He regarded the monument, which was also dealt with in his book Prodromus Coptus (1636), as proof that a gospel had been preached in China a thousand years earlier (around 600).
He also wrote that the Chinese were descendants of Ham and that the Chinese characters were modified hieroglyphs, as he had already claimed in Oedipus Aegyptiacus (1652-1654). To prove this thesis, Kircher constructed an extensive history of the colonization of the world by Noah's family , citing biblical narratives . After the flood, Ham, Noah's second son, came to Persia, where he founded a colony. Kircher identified him as Zoroaster , the king of Bactria , whose border extended to India and Mongolia. The neighboring country of China was the last earth that Ham had to colonize. At that time, the first Chinese emperor Fu Xi had taken over the hieroglyphic script from the colonial ruler Ham and developed it into Chinese script, claimed Kircher. According to his calendar, this takeover happened 300 years after the flood .
Despite this relationship, the ideograms were under the hieroglyphs in his system because they related to specific ideas rather than to mysterious complexes of ideas. The signs of the Maya and Aztecs were even lower signs for him because they related to individual objects.
geology
On a trip to southern Italy in 1638, Kircher climbed into the crater of Vesuvius in order to then explore the interior of the volcano on the edge of the eruptions. He was also taken with the subterranean rumble he heard along the Messina Strait . His geological and geographical research culminated in his work Mundus subterraneus (1664), in which he suggested that the tides were caused by water masses that move between the world's seas and an underground ocean .
Kircher's position on fossils was inconsistent. He understood that some of these fossils were the remains of animals, but attributed others to human ingenuity or the earth's spontaneous regenerative powers. Not all objects he tried to explain were actually fossils - hence the variety of his approaches.
medicine
The only work by Kircher that deals specifically with medical questions is his Scrutinium Physico-Medicum Contagiosæ Luis, quæ Pestis dicitur published in 1658 . It goes back to the plague epidemic in Naples in 1656, during which he, in collaboration with doctors, examined sick people in infirmaries. Kircher goes into the cause of the plague in a separate chapter. After he dutifully cited their justification as “God's scourge” for a spiritual author, he devotes himself in detail to natural causes. In addition to the contemporary miasma theory, he mentions, revolutionary at the time, his assumption that the plague would spread from sick to healthy people through infection . Like the doctor Girolamo Fracastoro before him , he takes poisonous "corpuscula" as the cause, which like seeds spread the disease. In his own opinion, these “corpuscula” are living organisms (“worms”). As a justification, he states, among other things, that he was able to see the "animata effluvia" in the then newly invented microscope in several experiments; he had received a simple microscope around 1646 from his patron, Cardinal Carlo di Ferdinando de 'Medici . According to current estimates, however, it is ruled out that Kircher could actually have seen the plague pathogen before the discovery of the achromatic lenses . Medical historians explain the observations as technical artifacts. Nevertheless, despite the uncritical adoption of traditional views in addition to the application of modern methods, which is not uncommon for the author, Kircher's writing is considered an important contribution today, as his authority contributed to the ultimately correct explanation of the plague and he also the use of, then still of Establish some as heretically damned technical aids like the microscope.
music
In the work Musurgia universalis (1650) with numerous sheet music examples from contemporary music, Kircher explains his views on music and the doctrine of affect . He believed that the harmony of music reflected the proportions of the universe. Organ building is dealt with in particular in detail. In this book, Kircher describes plans for hydro-powered automatic organs , the characteristics of birdsong and the structure of musical instruments . A drawing shows the differences between the human ear and that of some animal species . He also presents an algorithm for automatic composition. Kircher also deals with sound transmission and monitoring systems.
Inventions and theoretical achievements
To Kircher's inventions include, among others, a precursor of the magic lantern , the parastaticum Smicroscopium , which he in his book Ars magna lucis et umbrae describes (1671). This device consisted of a turntable and an optical viewing device. Numerous small pictures were attached to this disk, which could then be viewed enlarged through the lens system . This device is a direct ancestor of the phenakistiscope , which in turn is a direct ancestor of the film projector .
He constructed a magnetic clock based on the mechanism he presented in his work Magnes .
Kircher also invented the Organum mathematicum , a kind of mathematical learning machine.
Other machines designed or constructed by Kircher were:
- a pipeline made of lead,
- a wind harp ,
- a statue that could speak and hear through a mouthpiece,
- the attempt of a perpetual motion machine .
In addition, he developed a system of encrypted message transmission called Stenographia (“secret writing with light”) or Cryptologia . This system used - in contrast to optical telegraphy of antiquity - a concave mirror , the one with the to be transmitted character is labeled. With this procedure, military commands could be transmitted "bug-proof" over a distance of around three and a half kilometers.
Color theory
Building on the color system of Franciscus Aguilonius , Kircher further developed this color system in 1646 in so far as he related it to virtues and vices and to tastes and the elements of Aristotle. Groundbreaking was his distinction between color mixing using pigment colors in painting and the rainbow created by optical effects - with this he advanced the distinction between subtractive and additive color mixing.
Others
In Polygraphia nova (1663), Kircher proposes an artificial, universal, planned language that he had created .
His student Caspar Schott , a mathematician from Würzburg, was his closest colleague.
At the end of his life, Kircher also dealt with the Flood and Noah's Ark (especially in technical terms), which resulted in the extremely richly illustrated book Arca Noë (published in Amsterdam by Jansson & Waesberge 1675). Some elaborations refer to studies by the French mathematician Johannes Buteo , who in 1554 described an ark that corresponds to the biblical information.
Kircher took a critical stance on the alchemy alleged possibility of the transmutation of metals. Although he did not rule this out completely, he said that this was only possible with dark forces or faked by devilish dazzling , which led to critical disputes with followers of this direction of alchemy (which he called Alchemia transmutatoria), including Ole Borch , John Webster (1610–1682), Gabriel Clauder and an author with the pseudonym von Blauenstein (printed in the Bibliotheca Chemica Curiosa ). He distinguished from the Alchemia metallurgica (mining, metallurgy) and the Alchemia spagyrica (pharmaceutical-medical applications), which he thought was useful. With regard to his position on metal conversions, he referred to Aristotle, who, in his opinion, excluded element conversions.
In Ars Magna Lucis et Umbrae , in the chapter Experimentum mirabile de imaginatione gallinae , Kircher describes a behavior experiment he carried out on a rooster which, after a chalk line has been drawn towards its beak, remains immobile for some time. Kircher explains this quasi-magically by saying that the rooster mistakenly believes that he is tied up by the line drawn. This experiment has been cited as an early example of hypnosis (the term itself was only later coined by James Braid ). Today Kircher's result is interpreted as a play- dead reflex , even if some authors regard the phenomenon as analogous to hypnosis in humans and speak of animal hypnosis. Kircher's work was hardly received in her time, the preoccupation with hypnosis was only noticed in public later through the experiments of Franz Anton Mesmer .
position
Kircher was and remained a man of the Catholic Church throughout his life . He always tried to bring the results of his work in line with the doctrine of the Church.
Tycho Brahe vs. Kepler
According to the official doctrine, in his work Magnes (1641) he turned against the Copernican worldview (represented by Kepler) and supported the Tychonic model , but presented several alternative possible systems in his later work Itinerarium extaticum (1656, revised 1671), including the Copernican.
The Voynich manuscript
In 1665 Kircher, who was then incorrectly known as the “decipherer of the hieroglyphs”, received the so-called Voynich manuscript from his long-time friend Johannes Marcus Marci in the hope that he would be able to decipher it. The manuscript remained until the annexation of the Papal States by the Italian king Victor Emmanuel II. In 1870 and the consequent secularization of church property with Kircher's remaining correspondence in the archives of the Roman College .
Significance and aftermath
For much of his scientific career, Kircher was considered one of the most popular scholars in the world at the time. According to the American historian Paula Findlen, Kircher was "the first scholar with a worldwide reputation". He achieved his importance with a double strategy: to his own research and experiments he added the information that he gathered from his correspondence with over 760 other scientists, physicists and, above all, his Jesuit brothers from all over the world. The Encyclopædia Britannica calls Kircher a “one-man clearing house for intellectual issues”. The works illustrated according to his instructions were very popular. He was the first scientist who was able to finance himself completely by selling his books. At the end of his life, Cartesianism began to take hold and its popularity faded. René Descartes himself called Kircher “more of a quack than a scholar”.
From today's perspective, his works appear to be a mixture of the results of genuine research, well-thought-out relationship management, forward-looking intuition, mere speculation and admirable marketing.
After his death, Kircher's work was largely disregarded until the late 20th century. From then on, however, it experienced a certain renaissance . Kircher's rediscovery is attributed to the similarities between his eclectic approach and postmodernism . Since a large part of Kircher's scientific work is no longer up-to-date and few of his works have been translated, today's interest is more on their aesthetic quality than on the actual content. A number of exhibitions have already highlighted the beauty of Kircher's work:
- Chicago , 2000: The ecstatic journey: Athanasius Kircher in Baroque Rome , exhibition at the University of Chicago
- Rome , 2001: Athanasius Kircher: Il Museo del Mondo , exhibits of the former Museum Kircherianum in the Palazzo Venezia
- Stanford , 2001: The great art of knowing: The baroque encyclopedia of Athanasius Kircher , exhibition at Stanford University
- Wolfenbüttel , 2002: Athanasius Kircher and Duke August the Younger of Braunschweig-Lüneburg , exhibition on the occasion of Kircher's 400th birthday
Kircher has been the subject of novels. Heimito von Doderer makes reference to Athanasius Kircher in his novel Ein detour (conversation between one of the main characters in the novel, Manuel, and Pater Kircher) and in his collection of texts The Return of the Dragons . Umberto Eco wrote about Kircher both in his novel The Island of the previous day and in his non-fictional texts The Search for the Perfect Language and Serendipities. Language and Lunacy . Daniel Kehlmann lets the main character meet Kircher twice in his novel Tyll , who leads a trial against Tyll's father with his witch commissioner Oswald Tesimond , which ends with his execution. Another novel about Kircher is by Jean-Marie Blas de Roblés .
Designations
The lunar crater Kircher is named after him.
There are several streets and paths in Germany that are named after Kircher. Including the Kircherweg in Paderborn and an Athanasius-Kircher-Straße in Geisa , one in Hünfeld , one in Heilbad Heiligenstadt and one in Würzburg . A school in Fulda was named after him.
Works
Kircher's estate is given as 44 printed volumes and 14 letters. His most important works (in chronological order):
- 1631 Ars Magnesia
- 1635 Primitiae gnomoniciae catroptricae
- 1636 Prodromus Coptus sive Egyptiacus
- 1637 Specula Melitensis encyclica, hoc est syntagma novum instrumentorum physico-mathematicorum
- 1641 Magnes sive de arte magnetica
- 1643 Lingua Ægyptiaca restituta
- 1645–1646 Ars Magna Lucis et umbrae in mundo
- 1650 Obeliscus Pamphilius
- 1650 Musurgia universalis, sive ars magna consoni et dissoni
- 1652–1655 Œdipus Ægyptiacus ( second volume, part 1 , second volume, part 2 , third volume )
- 1656 Itinerarium extaticum p. 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
- 1660 iter extaticum coeleste
- 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 ( volume 2 ) ( digitized edition volume 1/2 of the University and State Library Düsseldorf )
- 1665 Historia Eustachio-Mariana
- 1665 Arithmologia sive de abditis Numerorum mysteriis
- 1666 Obelisci Aegyptiaci… interpretatio hieroglyphica
- 1667 China monumentis, qua sacris qua profanis, nec non variis naturae et artis spectaculis, aliarumque rerum memorabilium argumentis illustrata
- 1667 Magneticum naturae regnum sive disceptatio physiologica
- 1668 Organum mathematicum
- 1669 Principis Cristiani archetypon politicum
- 1669 Lazio
- 1669 Ars magna sciendi sive combinatorica
- 1670 La Chine […] illustrée de plusieurs monuments tant sacrés que profanes […]
- 1671 Ars magna lucis et umbrae
- 1673 Phonurgia nova, sive conjugium mechanico-physicum artis & natvrae paranympha phonosophia concinnatum
- 1675 Arca Noë
- 1676 Sphinx mystagoga
- 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 idiomatur description & expluditione multiplici, multiplici. Amstelodami, Jansson-Waesberge 1679
- 1679 Tariffa Kircheriana sive mensa Pathagorica expansa
- 1680 Physiologia Kircheriana experimentalis
Fonts
- Athanasius Kircher: Musurgia Universalis: Musical Experiments; Harmonies of the planets and their satellites. In: Joscelyn Godwin (Ed.): The Harmony of the Spheres. A sourcebook of the Pythagorean tradition in music. Inner Traditions International, Rochester (Vermont) 1993, ISBN 0-89281-265-6 , pp. 263-286.
- Hans-Joachim Vollrath (Ed.): Kaspar Schott to Athanasius Kircher. Letters 1650–1664. Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2015, ISBN 978-3-8260-5732-8 .
literature
- Tina Asmussen, Lucas Burkart and Hole Rößler: Theatrum Kircherianum. Cultures of Knowledge and Book Worlds in the 17th Century . Wiesbaden 2013 ( online )
- Tina Asmussen: Scientia Kircheriana. The fabrication of knowledge at Athanasius Kircher. Didymos, Affalterbach 2016, ISBN 978-3-939020-43-1 .
- Roberto Buonanno: The stars of Galilei and the universal knowledge of Athanasius Kircher , Astrophysics and Space Science Library 399, Springer 2014
- Rainer Cadenbach : Some apologetic considerations on the music-historical relevance of Athanasius Kircher's fantasies about music therapy. In: Markus Engelhardt , Michael Heinemann (eds.): Ars magna musices - Athanasius Kircher and the universality of music. Lectures of the German-Italian symposium on the occasion of the 400th birthday of Athanasius Kircher (1602–1680) (= Analecta musicologica. Volume 38). Laaber 2007, pp. 227-252.
- Franz Daxecker: The Jesuit Athanasius Kircher and his Organum mathematicum. In: Gesnerus . 57, Basel 2000, ISSN 0016-9161 , pp. 77-83.
- Gerhard Dünnhaupt : Athanasius Kircher SJ (1602–1680). In: Personal bibliographies on Baroque prints. Volume 3, Hiersemann, Stuttgart 1991, ISBN 3-7772-9105-6 , pp. 2326-2350. (List of works and references).
- Gregor Eisenhauer : charlatans. In: Hans Magnus Enzensberger (Ed.): The other library. Eichborn, Frankfurt am Main 1994, ISBN 3-8218-4112-5 , pp. 105-135.
- Adolf Erman : Kircher, Athanasius . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 16, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1882, pp. 1-4.
- Paula Findlen (Ed.): Athanasius Kircher. The last man who knew everything . Routledge, New York 2004, ISBN 0-415-94016-8 .
- Paula Findlen: Kircher, Athanasius , in New Dictionary of Scientific Biography , Volume 4, 2008, pp. 130-136.
- Hans Kangro: Kircher, Athanasius . In: Charles Coulston Gillispie (Ed.): Dictionary of Scientific Biography . tape 7 : Iamblichus - Karl Landsteiner . Charles Scribner's Sons, New York 1973, p. 374-378 .
- John Fletcher: Athanasius Kircher and his relations to the learned Europe of his time . Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1988, ISBN 3-447-02842-4 .
- John Fletcher: 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 2011
- Totaro Giunia: L'autobiographie d'Athanasius Kircher. L'écriture d'un jésuite entre vérité et invention au seuil de l'œuvre. Introduction et traduction française et Italienne . Lang, Bern 2009, ISBN 978-3-03911-793-2 , p. 430.
- John Glassie: The last man who knew everything. The life of the eccentric genius Athanasius Kircher. Berlin-Verlag, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-8270-1173-2 .
- Joscelyn Godwin: Athanasius Kircher. A Renaissance man and the quest for lost knowledge . Thames & Hudson, London 1979, ISBN 0-500-81022-2 .
- Joscelyn Godwin : Athanasius Kircher's Theater of the World. Thames & Hudson, London 2009.
- Ignacio Gómez de Liaño: Athanasius Kircher. Itinerario del éxtasis or Las images de un saber universal. Siruela, Madrid 1986, ISBN 84-85876-45-8 .
- Olaf Hein: The printers and publishers of the works of the polyhistor Athanasius Kircher SJ […]. Volume 1: General Part. Böhlau, Cologne 1993, ISBN 3-412-08590-1 .
- Olaf Hein: Athanasius Kircher SJ External living conditions - intellectual location - literary effectiveness . Olms, Hildesheim 2013, ISBN 978-3-487-14993-6 .
- Hans Kangro: Kircher, Athanasius , in Dictionary of Scientific Biography , Volume 6, pp. 374-378.
- Alexander Klein: A Noah's Ark of Things (via Kircher's Kunstkammer and Museum in Rome). In: Culture and Technology. The magazine from the Deutsches Museum. Issue 3/2012, ISSN 0344-5690 , pp. 42–47.
- Fritz Krafft : Kircher, Athanasius. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 11, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1977, ISBN 3-428-00192-3 , pp. 641-645 ( digitized version ).
- Nathalie Lallemand-Buyssens: Les acquisitions d'Athanasius Kircher au musée du Collège Romain à la lumière de documents inédits. In: Storia dell'Arte. No. 133, Ott.-Dic. 2012, pp. 107–129.
- Thomas Leinkauf: Mundus combinatus. Studies on the structure of baroque universal science using the example of Athanasius Kirchers SJ (1602–1680) . Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-05-002364-3 .
- Michael Mott : Athanasius Kircher and the sanctuary Mentorella / On the 400th anniversary of the birthday of the universal scholar who was born in Geisa. In: beech leaves. Fuldaer Zeitung , 75th year, No. 9, June 22, 2002, pp. 33,34; No. 10, July 2, 2002, pp. 37,38; No. 11, July 6, 2002, p. 43.
- Hans-Josef Olszewsky: KIRCHER, Athanasius, SJ. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 3, Bautz, Herzberg 1992, ISBN 3-88309-035-2 , Sp. 1513-1517.
- Simon Rebohm: Harmonic Cosmology: Johannes Kepler and Athanasius Kircher. In: WR Dick, HW Duerbeck, J. Hamel (ed.): Contributions to the history of astronomy. Volume 11 (= Acta Historia Astronomiae. Volume 43). H. Deutsch, Frankfurt am Main 2011, ISBN 978-3-8171-1883-0 , pp. 100-163.
- Conor Reilly: Athanasius Kircher. A master of a hundred arts. 1602-1680. Studia Kircheriana . Edizioni del Mondo, Wiesbaden 1974.
- Valerio Rivosecchi: Esotismo in Roma Barocca. Studi sul Padre Kircher . Bulzoni, Rome 1982.
- Eckart Roloff : Athanasius Kircher (1602–1680): The phantast from the Rhön makes a career in Rome. In: Eckart Roloff: Divine flashes of inspiration. Pastors and priests as inventors and discoverers. Wiley-VCH-Verlag, Weinheim 2010, ISBN 978-3-527-32578-8 , pp. 115-136 (with references to places of remembrance, museums, streets, etc.). (2nd updated edition. 2012, ISBN 978-3-527-32864-2 )
- Ulf Scharlau: Athanasius Kircher (1601–1680) as a music writer. A contribution to the music conception of the baroque. Marburg 1969.
- Edward W. Schmidt: The Last Renaissance Man: Athanasius Kircher, SJ , Company, The World of Jesuits and Their Friends ( Memento of February 7, 2003 in the Internet Archive ), Chicago 2001, ISSN 0886-1293
- Harald Siebert: The great cosmological controversy: attempts at reconstruction using the Itinerarium exstaticum by Athanasius Kircher SJ (1602–1680) . Steiner, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-515-08731-1 .
- Harald Siebert: Escape, Ascent and the Galilei Affair. Three years in the life of Athanasius Kircher. A microstory (1631-1633) . Norderstedt: BoD, 2008. ISBN 978-3-8370-6011-9 .
- Gregor K. Stasch (ed.): Magic of knowledge. Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680). Jesuit and polymath . Exhibition catalog of the Vonderau Museum Fulda. Imhof, Petersberg 2003, ISBN 3-935590-82-2 .
- Daniel Stolzenberg: Egyptian Oedipus: Athanasius Kircher and the Secrets of Antiquity , University of Chicago Press 2015
- Dieter Ullmann: On the early history of acoustics: A. Kircher's “Phonurgia nova”. In: Wissensch. Journal of the Friedrich Schiller University Jena. Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe 27, 1978, pp. 355-360.
- Dieter Ullmann: An acoustic experiment by A. Kirchers and its history. On the 300th anniversary of the scholar's death. In: NTM-Schriftenr. Business Naturwiss., Techn., Med. Leipzig 1980, Volume 17, Issue 1, pp. 61-68.
- Dieter Ullmann: Athanasius Kircher and the acoustics of the time around 1650. In: NTM - International journal for the history and ethics of the natural sciences, technology and medicine. Volume 10, number 2, Birkhäuser, Basel September 2002, pp. 65-77, doi: 10.1007 / BF03033102 .
- Melanie Wald: “Sic invited in orbe terrarum aeterna Dei sapientia” - harmony as utopia. Investigations on the Musurgia universalis by Athanasius Kircher . Dissertation, University of Zurich 2005.
- Stefan Heid : Athanasius Kircher. In: Stefan Heid, Martin Dennert (Hrsg.): Personal Lexicon for Christian Archeology . Researchers and personalities from the 16th to the 21st century. Volume 2. Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-7954-2620-0 , pp. 730-731.
Web links
- Literature by and about Athanasius Kircher in the catalog of the German National Library
- Works by and about Athanasius Kircher in the German Digital Library
- Publications by and about Athanasius Kircher in VD 17 .
- The Life and Work of Athanasius Kircher's contribution at The Museum Of Jurassic Technology , Culver City, California, USA
- Rita Haub: Kircher text panel in the “Christoph Scheiner” exhibition in Ingolstadt 2000
- Stefan Etzel: Athanasius Kircher 1602–1680 - universal scholar from the Rhön 2008.
- Athanasius Kircher's geological world view in the light of today's views M. Okrusch & K.-P. Kelber, University of Würzburg
- Comprehensive research bibliography on Athanasius Kircher, sorted by subject area
Pages in English
- Athanasius Kircher Project at Stanford University, USA (English)
- Athanasius Kircher Project of the Pontifical Gregorian University, IT (English)
- Detailed link directory about Athanasius Kircher (English)
- New Advent - Catholic Encyclopedia Article about Kircher (English)
- Kircher in the Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia (English)
- Athanasius Kirchers Korrespondenz Research project by Michael John Gorman and Nick Wilding (English)
- First use of the microscope in the medical products of Annals of Clinical and Laboratory Science (English)
- The Galileo Project article about Kircher
- The World is Bound With Secret Knots The life and work of Athanasius Kircher
Works on the Internet
- Overview of all works accessible on the Internet in chronological order
- Numerous digital copies at ECHO
- Musurgia universalis (translation: Günter Scheibel, HMT Leipzig )
Individual evidence
- ^ Friedrich Kittler: Optical media. Berlin lecture 1999. Merve Verlag, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-88396-183-3 , p. 88.
- ↑ See Klaus Zacharias: P. Athanasius Kircher SJ (1602–1680) . In: Association of former students of the Theodorianum high school in Paderborn (ed.): Annual report 2010 . Paderborn 2010, p. 84-85 .
- ↑ Ralf Kern: Scientific instruments in their time . Volume 2, p. 266.
- ↑ Athanasius Kircher: Prodromus coptus sive aegyptiacus Ad Eminentiss SRE Cardinalem Franciscum Barberinum. in quo cum linguae Coptae, sive Aegyptiacae, quondam Pharaonicae, origo, aetas, vicissitudo, inclinatio, tum hieroglyphicae literaturae instauratio uti per varia variarum eruditionum, interpretation exhibenturque difficillimarum specimina, ita noua quoque et insol method . Rome 1636. Online at ECHO
- ↑ Horst Beinlich: Athanasius Kircher and the knowledge of ancient Egypt. In: Horst Beinlich and Christoph Daxelmüller (ed.): Magic of knowledge: Athanasius Kircher, 1602–1680. Polymath, collector, visionary. JHRöll Verlag, Dettelbach 2002. Catalog for the exhibition in the Martin von Wagner Museum of the University of Würzburg, October 1 - December 14, 2002, ISBN 978-3-89754-211-2 . Pp. 85-98.
- ↑ Athanasius Kircher: Obeliscus Pamphilius, hoc est interpretatio nova et hucusque intentata obelisci hieroglyphici Quem non ita pridem ex Veteri Hippodromo Antonini Caracallae Caesaris, in Agonale Forum transtulit, integritati restituit, & in Urbis Aeternae ornamentum erexit. Max. Online at ECHO
- ^ Athanasius Kircher: Ad Alexandrum VII. Pont. Max. Obelisci Aegyptiaci nuper inter Isaei Romani rudera effossi interpretatio hieroglyphica . Online at ECHO
- ↑ Athanasius Kircher: Sphinx mystagoga, sive diatribe hieroglyphica de mumiis . Amsterdam 1676. Online at ECHO (bound to Turris Babel )
- ^ Gerhard F. Strasser (2005): Athanasius Kirchers Pestschrift from 1658 and his attitude to the pulmonary plague. Pneumology 59 (3): 213-217. doi: 10.1055 / s-2004-830085 , also printed in Robert Kropp (Ed.): Pneumologie. Historical kaleidoscope - surprising, curious, instructive. Georg Thieme, Stuttgart and New York 2011, pp. 193–198
- ↑ sound sample .
- ↑ Polygraphia nova from 1663 at the exhibition on the occasion of Kircher's 400th birthday in the Bibliotheca Augusta 2002 (October 7, 2013)
- ^ Claus Priesner: Kircher, Athanasius. In: Claus Priesner , Karin Figala : Alchemie. Lexicon of a Hermetic Science. Beck 1998, p. 196ff.
- ↑ Dirk Revenstorf: Clinical Hypnosis. Springer-Verlag, Berlin etc. 1990. ISBN 978-3-540-52074-0 , on page 8.
- ↑ Jan Bures, Olga Burešová, Joseph P. Huston: Techniques and Basic Experiments for the Study of Brain and Behavior. Elsevier, Amsterdam etc. 1976. ISBN 0-444-41502-5 , on page 258.
- ↑ Renard Korzcynski and Piotr Korda (1988): immobility reflex evoked by vertical lifting of the council. Acta Neurobiologiae Experimentalis 48: 145-159.
- ^ WR Klemm: Neurophysiologic studies of the immobility reflex ("animal hypnosis"). Neurosciences Research 4: 165-212. doi: 10.1016 / B978-0-12-512504-8.50011-1
- ↑ Siebert 2006, p. 102.
- ↑ referring to Cusanus he was very skeptical about it. the "measurement of the cosmos"; did not add anything new, but his opinion was extremely important, (Siebert 2006) and (Rebohm 2011); his presented models: World systems. Diagrams of the different world systems, Ptolemaic, Platonic, Egyptian, Copernican, Tychonic and semi-Tychonic from Iter Exstaticum (1671 ed.) P. 37 @ stanford.edu, or Athanasius Kircher on the Celestial Spheres @ starsandstones.wordpress.com (accessed March 18, 2014)
- ↑ Jean-Marie Blas de Roblés: Where tigers are at home (novel about Kircher). Translation from French by Hinrich Schmidt-Henkel. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2012, ISBN 978-3-10-009641-8 .
- ↑ Jürgen Schickinger: The polymath Athanasius Kircher was a researcher and a whisker. In: Badische Zeitung . Literature & Lectures , January 30, 2015 (on: badische-zeitung.de ).
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Kircher, Athanasius |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German polymath and author |
DATE OF BIRTH | May 2, 1602 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Geisa |
DATE OF DEATH | November 27, 1680 |
Place of death | Rome |