Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680)
Author(s): Fred Brauen
Source: Journal of the History of Ideas , Jan. - Mar., 1982, Vol. 43, No. 1 (Jan. - Mar.,
1982), pp. 129-134
Published by: University of Pennsylvania Press
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ATHANASIUS KIRCHER (1602-1680)
BY FRED BRAUEN
The year 1980 marked the tercentenary of the death of Athan
Kircher, "beruhmter Jesuite, Philosophus, und Mathematicus," foun
Egyptology,1 of an important early museum,2 and a precocious studen
archaeology of the Campagna,3 who died in Rome on 27 November 16
was buried in the Gesu. Entering the order from German Jesuit Sch
Kircher pioneered in universal, pragmatic, and empirical scholarship
spite his ultimate appeal to revelation beyond reason.4
At the age of thirty he explored the crater of Vesuvius, and some
later John Evelyn (1620-1706), a future founder of the British Royal
visiting Rome acknowledged Kircher's "many singular courtesies ... i
own study where with Dutch patience he showed us his perpetual m
catoptrics, magnetical experiments, models, and a thousand other cro
and devices."5 Evaluating his music studies, Bukofzer writes:
The two most impressive and typical books on musical speculatio
written by two clerics and polyhistors: Mersenne (Harmonie univer
and Kircher (Musurgia universalis) ... in a truly encyclopedic and un
fashion. While the information they give cannot be accepted without
reservations their books nevertheless represent historical documents
1 The Oedipus Aegyptiacus (Rome, 1652-54) in three folio volumes is the
known of Kircher's Egyptian-Coptic culture and language studies published
1636 to 1676.
2 The Museo Kircheriano of the Roman Jesuit Collegio, based on a personal
collection bequeathed in 1650, and illustrated in Georg de Sepibus, Romani Colle
Societatis Jesu Museum Celeberrimum (Amsterdam, 1678). Sepi was Kircher's
assistant in the collection; the donor, Alfonso Donnini, was scrittore del popolo
Romano.
3 Athanasius Kircher, Latium (Amsterdam, 1671).
4 K. Schwartz (Allgemeine Encyklopidie der Wissenschaften und Kunst
H-N, part 36 [Leipzig, 1884], 271) contended that a proper monograph woul
an author conversant with Kircher's diverse fields of study. Variously classif
include acoustics, archaeology, arithmetic, astronomy, chemistry, Egyptology,
geography, geology, geometry, liturgy, magnetism, medicine, museology, optics,
philology, philosophy, physics, and theology. See, for example, Pietro Tacchi
Venturi, Enciclopedia italiana, 20 (1933), 209, and G. J. Rosenkranz, "Aus dem
Leben des Jesuiten Athanasius Kircher 1602-1680," Zeitschrift fur vaterlindische
Geschichte und Alterthumskunde, 13 (N. F. 3, 1852), 11. Hans Kangro (Dictionary of
Scientific Biography [New York, 1973], VII, 376, see article on Kircher) opts for all
under two heads: polymathy and dissemination of knowledge.
5Diary and Correspondence of John Evelyn, F. R. S., 6 vols. (London, 1878); I,
112-13; 388; See more recently, E. S. de Beer, ed., 6 vols. (London, 1956).
129
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130 FRED BRAUEN
first order. They touch on all su
including solmization, temperam
Seeking common origins for man
from one, Kircher believed peopl
same god.7
A 1652 appreciation in currently fashionable adulatory verse by the Oxo-
nian dilettante James Alban Gibbs, a Scots physician residing in Rome,
exemplified the admiration of Kircher by his educated contemporaries,
complimenting him on his recovery of the culture of "AEgypt, mother of
arts" (specifically in restoring, with Bernini, the obelisk in Piazza Navona
for Innocent X):
For their Sphinx
W'haue found an OEDIPVS, doth solue the links
Of chayn'd mysterious emblemes, holy rites,
Close riddles, obscure symbols; AEgypt's
nightes;
Scarce hauing other darkenesse. KIRCHER's
he,
That whylome gaue a proofe of masterie
O're such concealed wisedome, when the Pile
He did expound of Sothis; held a vile,
And lumpish masse before; not vnderstood,
Till great PAMPHILIO's order made it good.
Yea chang'd its name, and call'd it from his
ovvne,
With golden gently Doue resplendent shovvne.8
Kircher "war die Freude und Bewunderung der gelehrten Welt
Abgott aller Grossen,"9 including two emperors and six popes. The
6 Manfred Bukofzer, Music in the Baroque Era (New York, 1947), 390. A
contrary view had been expressed by Charles Burney (A General History of Music,
1789; repr. London, 1935, I, 469; II, 459, 465, et passim). Having observed Kircher's
indebtedness to Mersenne, Burney said that the Musurgia "is a huge book, but a
much larger might be composed in pointing out its errors and absurdities."
Bukofzer's favorable opinion is generally seconded today by George J. Buelow in an
interesting essay in The New Grove (Dictionary of Music and Musicians), ed. Stanley
Sadie (London, 1980), X, 73-74.
7 As in the Arca Noe (Amsterdam, 1675) and the Turris Babel (Amsterdam, 1679),
with fantastic reconstructions of the Ark and the Tower.
8 Oedipus AEgyptiacus, I, fol. + + + + 2. 9 Rosenkranz, op. cit., 56.
10 The letter of 16 May 1670, published by Paul Friedlander ("Athanasius Kircher
und Leibniz. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Polyhistorie im XVII Jahrhundert," Atti
della Pontificia Accademia Romana di Archeologia, 3? ser. Rendiconti, XIII [1937],
229-47), contains other similar honorifics. Leibniz, who had written at the same time
to a Kircher pupil in Bohemia (letter lost and unknown), inquired about his work as
well as about Grandami's compass and a fabric Kircher had once bought of an Arab
in Marseille. Numerous Kircher letters have been published in various collections
over the years and are noted in many of the bibliographies that appear often in the
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ATHANASIUS KIRCHER (1602-1680) 131
Leibniz saluted him as vir magne,10 although others called him "a sch
windbag." 11
Some early eighteenth century literati, philologists, historians, and
lexicographers, although less critical of his scientific work, his contagion
theory, thermometer, acoustics, inventions, analytical and synthesizing
polyglot and mathematical machines and tables, attacked Kircher's Egyp-
tian and Oriental linguistics. They accused him of gullibility, error, ignor-
ance, and filched ideas-Serpilius12 collected various examples-and
faulted him for crudity of language and for writing of lands he never visited.
Mencke13 enumerated hoaxes perpetrated at Kircher's expense, and Chev-
reau14 adduced a Greek inscription that Kircher misidentified as Egyptian
because it was found in Egypt. Morhof was an abrasive and persistent
critic,15 although Reimmann's criticism was more moderate.16 Succeeding
writers and encyclopedists, beginning with Johann Heinrich Zedler's impor-
tant cyclopedia in sixty-eight volumes,17 relied on such authorities and on
articles on Kircher in encyclopedias and lexica published throughout the 18th and
19th centuries. The fourteen volumes of Kircher correspondence preserved in Rome
include principally letters addressed to Kircher (see Friedlander's discussion). Some
are available in copies at the Vatican Microfilm Library at St. Louis University, St.
Louis, Missouri. John E. Fletcher, "A Brief Survey of the Unpublished
correspondence of Athanasius Kircher, S. J. (1602-1680)," Manuscripta, 13, 3 (Nov.
1969), 150-60.
1 Gottlieb Stolle, Anleitung zur Historie der Gelahrheit (Jena, 1724), 343-44, note
''1.''
12 Georg Serpilius, Verzeichniiss einiger rarer Bucher (Regensburg, 172
207-37, citing many authors.
13 Johann Burkhard Mencke, Compendioses gelehrten Lexikon (Leipzi
col. 1054, and Zwei Reden von der Charlatanerie oder Marcktschreye
Gelehrten (Leipzig, 1727, from the Latin edition, with fresh notes), 102
annotator supplies a further tale of Kircher gulled with meaningless or
scribbles. However, Mencke, discussing Gelehrten-not charlatans-caught
still-respected figures in his widely-cast net. The most often quoted hoax
Andreas Muiller (an Orientalist himself now considered "uncritical") who sent a
nonsensical scrawl of this own composing which Kircher explicated. The story is
told, inter alia, by Mencke, op. cit., col. 1094, article on Kircher, and Christian
Gottlieb Jocher, Allgemeines Gelehrten-Lexikon (Leipzig, 1750), II, col. 2095-96,
article on Kircher. But Miiller's contemporary complimentary remarks about
Kircher (e.g., "vir merito celeberrimus," Hebdomas observatonum de rebus sinicus
[Brandenburg, 1674], 3) are forgotten, as are similar remarks by others whose
strictures alone are remembered.
14 Urbain Chevreau, Chevraeana, ou diverses pensees d'histoire, de critique,
d'erudition et de morale, II (Amsterdam, 1700), 173-74, compared with a similar
inscription from Rome.
15 Daniel Georg Morhof, Polyhistor, Literarius, Philosophicus et Practicus, 3rd
ed. (Liibeck, 1732), vol. I-II, passim. Morhof also called Kircher "doctor of a
hundred arts." Ibid., vol. I, lib. I, cap. V, sec. 41, 357.
16 Jacob Friederich Reimmann, Versuch eine Einleitung in der historiam
literariam derer teutschen (Halle, 1710), passim.
17 Grosses vollstindiges universal Lexikon aller Wissenschaften und Kiunste, XV
(Halle-Leipzig, 1737), cols 755-58.
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132 FRED BRAUEN
Kircher's autobiography with its
"absent-minded professor" anecdote: when a hat once fell on Kircher's
head he supposed it was raining hats, although it was merely another's
carried on a gale. Such frequently repeated stories, true or false, enlivened
the sobriety of lengthy works, and may thereby have acquired exaggerated
significance.
Kircher's elaborate hermetic and wholly ideographic hieroglyphic in-
terpretations were discredited after the discovery (1799) and deciphering of
the Rosetta Stone. Even the long eulogies of. Kircher in exotic languages
were thought gross conceits to awe lay audiences. The changing character of
scholarship contributed to the decline of Kircher's prestige. The suppression
of the Jesuit Order by papal decree in 1773 dealt a blow to the pursuit of
universal knowledge which their schools had fostered, and enhanced aware-
ness of the complexity of the universe gave rise to increasingly specialized
learning. Adolf Erman's long and caustic appraisal, concentrating on
Kircher's Egyptian-Oriental studies, described him as an unimportant but
egotistical fabricator and mountebank, the scandal of academics whose sig-
nificant work remained unpublished while he enjoyed fame and patronage.20
18 Published by Kircher's pupil, Hieronymus Ambrosius Langenmantel, in his
rare Fasciculus epistolarum (Augsburg, 1684) with forty-one Kircher letters, and in a
German translation, A. Kircher, Selbstbiographie aus dem lateinischen, trans.
Nikolaus Seng (Fulda, 1901). Kangro (op. cit., 374-76) counsels reservations (cf. the
witty Burney's remark about Kircher's "adopting whatever was offered to him, true
or false, provided it contained anything marvelous." op. cit.) I, 99-100. See also
Schwartz, op. cit., 271, on the autobiography, the source of Kircher's early years.
19 Johann Gottlob Dunkel, Historisch critischen Nachrichten von verstorbenen
Gelehrten und deren Schriften, III, no. 2884 (Cothen-Dessau, 1760) 792.
20 Deutsche allgemeine Biographie, XVI (Leipzig, 1882), 1-4. Schwartz's life and
bibliography (cit., sec. 2, part 36, 266-71) is long and, like many encyclopedia
articles, uncritical, less perspicacious, and much more sympathetic, calling Kircher's
works more combinatorisch than critical. Schwartz believes Kircher's many errors
and deceptions accompany his lively imagination. Although Kircher's work is now
generally without historical value, Champollion acknowledged his debt to it. Jean
Francois Champollion, fils, Grammaire Egyptienne, ou principes generaux de
l'ecriture sacree egyptienne (Paris, 1836), viii, ix. Champollion concedes that
despite numerous errors, Kircher contributed much to spreading the study of the
Coptic language, as long as he was able to rid himself of "son charlatanerie
habituel." What Champollion is left with seems a grudging compliment as he
acknowledges Kircher's contribution only to bring others' work to wider attention,
without any positive statement of his own; in fact, Champollion repeats the old
accusation that Kircher manufactured terms to suit his needs: "il osa introduire dans
ce lexique, et donner comme coptes, plusieurs [not only one or two] mots dont
avait besoin pour appuyer ses explications imaginaires." Moreover, Kircher's
writings were listed in extenso in the Universal Catalogue of Books on Art, a useful
bibliography of the Science and Art Department of the Council of Education of the
present Victoria & Albert Museum (London, 1870), I, pt. 2, 223-25. An extensive
bibliography also appeared in the Jesuit Bibliotheque de la Compagnie de Jesus.
Bibliographie, IV (Brussels & Paris, 1893), cols. 1046-77.
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ATHANASIUS KIRCHER (1602-1680) 133
His long Latin disquisitions, with rare fonts and copious illus
passe as Kircher's scholarship, retained few defenders.
Twentieth-century criticism, however, has been more tolerant,
demanding of Kircher a faultless command which is now regard
tainable. Publication of Kircher's works in an estimated seventy
umes has been announced,21 and in recent years specialists have
mining narrower aspects of his career.22 A comprehensive, disp
21 Meyers enzyklopidisches Lexikon, 9th ed. (Mannheim, 1975), XIII
22 The modern literature is scattered, albeit growing slowly. Among
century works I have consulted the following:
John Ferguson, Bibliotheca chemica (Glasgow, 1906; repr. London, 1
68. Catalog of a private library.
Julius von Schlosser, Kunst- und Wunderkammer der Spat-Rennaissan
1908), 104-05. Reproduces Sepi's 1678 engraved view of the Kircherian
supra).
Robert M. Haas, Die Musik des Parocks (Vienna, 1928), 174-7. Quotes
aria dedicated to his patron, Ferdinand III.
Paul Burg-Schaumburg, Minerva Lexikon beriihmter Personlichkeiten
ter (Leipzig, 1929), 320. Prof. Burg's entry, the nadir of Kircher critici
neither Kircher's given name nor his qualifications as beruhmte Perso
"Kircher, a Jesuit, suffered great perils in his youth. Once almost grou
mill-wheel, he escaped injury again when a troop of colts galloped ove
gratitude he devoted himself to serving his god, becoming a most learned
regarded by the mighty."
Pietro Tacchi Venturi and Robert Alagia, in Enc. it., XX (1933), 209.
Torrey, Harry, "Athanasius Kircher and the progress of medicin
(1938), 246-75. A sober, skeptical historian concludes: "He contribu
authenticated observation to microbiology or the history of infectiou
established no useful generalization. He made no stimulating suggestio
search. In his own times, he belonged to the past ...."
Major, Ralph H., "Athanasius Kircher" Annals of Medical History, 3
1939), 105-20. A medical man's cautious evaluation that Kircher "propo
germ theory of disease . . . from observation. This assures him immort
Fussing, Hans H., "Thomas Rasmussen Walgensten," Dansk biografisk
(Copenhagen, 1943), XXV, 57-58, asserts that this Danish physicist was
construct a laterna magica, a priority accepted by Kangro on G. B. del
principle, and not by Kircher as once thought.
George E. McCracken, "Athanasius Kircher's Universal Polygraphy," Isis, 39
(Nov. 1948), 215-28.
Ruth Halle Owen, Early Chamber Music (New York, 1949), 10, 83. Kircher as
authority on symphonic stylus of chamber music, and on the string quartet.
A. Wolf, a history of Science, Technology and Philosophy in the 16th & 17th
Centuries, 2d ed. (London 1950), passim.
Boleslaw Szczesniak, "Athanasius Kircher's China Illustrata," Osiris, 10 (1952),
384-411.
Erik Iversen, The Myth of Egypt and Its Hieroglyphics in the European Tradition
(Copenhagen, 1961).
Conor Reilly, "Athanasius Kircher, S. J.: Master of a Hundred Arts," The Month,
29 (Jan. 1963), 20-29, one of several similarly titled publications. Of that in the Dublin
Studies, 44 (1955), 457-68, Kangro notes it is not always accurate, and is based on
distorted view of 17th-century Germany. (Op. cit., 377.)
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134 FRED BRAUEN
and objective study of this impo
always serious, rich, complex, an
detractors or apologists, seems d
tributions to knowledge.23 He sh
recognizing changes in scholarly
Jackson Heights, New York
Rudolf Wittkower, Gian Lorenzo B
(London, 1966), 219-20, n. 50; 247-48
University of St. Thomas (Houston
Popes as Patrons of the Arts (1966),
on Kircher's work and books.
RolfDammann, Der Musikbegriff im deutscher Barock (Cologne, 1967), 273. On
affekt and Kircher's interest in the phenomenon of music.
Jurgis Baltrusaitis, La quete d'Isis: introduction a l'Egyptomanie (Paris, 1967).
Numerous references to, and reproductions from Kircher's Egyptian studies.
Mario Emilio Cosenza, Checklist of Non-Italian Humanists 1300-1800 (Boston,
1969), 150, for including Kircher in the category of humanists.
Don Cameron Allen, Mysteriously Meant: The Rediscovery of Pagan Symbolism
and Allegorical Interpretation in the Renaissance (Baltimore, 1970).
Magda Whitrow, ed., Isis Cumulative Bibliography 1913-65, vol. 2, pt. 1 (London
1971), 21.
Rudolf Wittkower and Irma B. Jaffe, eds., Baroque Art: The Jesuit Contributio
(New York, 1972), especially R6en Taylor, "Hermetism and Mystical Architecture
the Society of Jesus" from the Fordham symposium.
Hans Kangro, in Dict. of Scientific Biography (New York, 1973), VII, 374-76.
Short but a valuable and critical modern paper, comprehending Kircher's activity
two heads: "polymathy and dissemination of knowledge."
Fritz Krafft, in Neue deutsche Biographie of the Historische Kommission bei de
bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften (Berlin, 1977), XI, 641-45. Useful mode
statement and bibliography.
Jurgis Baltrusaitis, Le miroir (Paris, 1978). Several references to Kircher and hi
pupil, Caspar Schott, in a quasi-mystical work. I thank Prof. Edgar Kaufmann, Jr
for this reference.
Joscelyn Godwin, Athanasius Kircher: A Renaissance Man and the Quest for Lost
Knowledge (London, 1979). Useful biography; extensive bibliography of writings by
and about Kircher; and many unusual plates from his works in the current picture-
book fashion.
23 After reciting the story-told always with slight differences-of the stone
buried in Rome and covered with drawings and lines in order to expose Kircher when
it was opportunely found later, the New and General Biographic Dictionary, (Lon
don, new ed., 1784), III, 39-40, comments that "if this story is not true there is no
doubt that it might have been; and if Kircher had been made a dupe in the science o
antiques, so have ten thousand beside him. The making of antiques is a trade which
has been constantly practised in all ages ..." Fritz Krafft recently observed that
"Naturforschung ist fur Kircher, wie fur viele seine Zeitgenossen kein Selbstzweck
sonder Erkenntnis der Vollkommenheit Gottes," op. cit., XI, 643; cf. on this poin
Andrew D. White, A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christen-
dom (New York, 1896), recently reprinted.
Some claims made for Kircher's scientific investigations or inventions have been
discredited; some are difficult to evaluate convincingly by modern standards, for it
impossible to determine precisely what he saw through his microscope.
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