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73-576: Horapollo is mentioned by the Suda (ω 159) as one of the last leaders of the Egyptian priesthood at a school in Menouthis , near Alexandria , during the reign of Zeno (AD 474–491). The Suda, gives the names of two men named Horapollo, and one or the other may have been the author of Hieroglyphicae Both the younger and elder Horapollo, the grandfather, may be characterized as students of both

146-434: A deer moved into a colder climate, it became a reindeer . He wrote that many species were hybrids of other species, for example, armadillos from a combination of turtles and porcupines . He also advocated the theory of spontaneous generation . Because of such hypotheses, some historians have held that Kircher was a proto-evolutionist. Kircher took a modern approach to the study of diseases as early as 1646 by using

219-426: A microscope to investigate the blood of plague victims. In his Scrutinium Pestis of 1658, he observed the presence of "little worms" or " animalcules " in the blood and concluded that the disease was caused by microorganisms . That was correct, although it is likely that what he saw were red or white blood cells and not the plague agent, Yersinia pestis . He also proposed hygienic measures to prevent

292-454: A missionary to that country. In 1667 he published a treatise whose full title was China monumentis, qua sacris qua profanis, nec non variis naturae & artis spectaculis, aliarumque rerum memorabilium argumentis illustrata , and which is commonly known simply as China Illustrata , i.e. "China Illustrated". It was a work of encyclopedic breadth, combining material of unequal quality, from accurate cartography to mythical elements, such as

365-528: 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 at Speyer . He learned Coptic in 1633 and published its first grammar in 1636, the Prodromus coptus sive aegyptiacus . Kircher then broke with Horapollon's interpretation of hieroglyphs with his Lingua aegyptiaca restituta . Kircher argued that Coptic preserved

438-580: 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. In Where Tigers Are At Home , by Jean-Marie Blas de Roblès , the protagonist works on a translation of a bogus 17th-century biography of Kircher. The contemporary artist Cybèle Varela has paid tribute to Kircher in her exhibition Ad Sidera per Athanasius Kircher , held in

511-410: A learned tongue many people at the time believed they were correct." 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 by Champollion in his successful efforts to decode the script. According to Joseph MacDonnell, it

584-491: A lexicon by " Eudemus ," perhaps derived from the work On Rhetorical Language by Eudemus of Argos. The lexicon copiously draws from scholia to the classics ( Homer , Aristophanes , Thucydides , Sophocles , etc.), and for later writers, Polybius , Josephus , the Chronicon Paschale , George Syncellus , George Hamartolus , and so on. The Suda quotes or paraphrases these sources at length. Since many of

657-408: A specific person. The work deals with biblical as well as pagan subjects, from which it is inferred that the writer was a Christian . In any case, it lacks definite guidelines besides some minor interest in religious matters. The standard printed edition was compiled by Danish classical scholar Ada Adler in the first half of the twentieth century. A modern collaborative English translation,

730-619: A study of dragons . The work drew heavily on the reports of Jesuits working in China, in particular Michael Boym and Martino Martini . China Illustrata emphasized the Christian elements of Chinese history, both real and imagined: the book noted the early presence of Nestorian Christians (with a Latin translation of the Nestorian Stele of Xi'an provided by Boym and his Chinese collaborator, Andrew Zheng), but also claimed that

803-476: A work ( Ancient Greek : Τεμενικά , "Names for Temples") on places consecrated to the gods. Photius (cod. 279), who calls him a dramatist as well as a grammarian, ascribes to him a history of the foundation and antiquities of Alexandria . Timotheus of Gaza , whose treatises on animals impacted Byzantine and Arabic scientific literature, was one of his pupils. It is to the elder Horapollo the Hieroglyphica

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876-580: Is Oedipus Aegyptiacus (1652–54), a vast study of Egyptology and comparative religion . His books, written in Latin , 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., the magic lantern ) have sometimes been mistakenly attributed to him. In his foreword to Ars Magna Sciendi Sive Combinatoria (The Great Art of Knowledge, or

949-497: Is "Suida", which is also attested in Eustathius ' commentary on Homer 's epic poems; several conjectures has been made, both defending it and trying to correct it in "Suda". Other suggestions include Jan Sajdak's theory that σοῦδα / σουίδα may derive from sanskrit suvidyā (which he translated into Latin: perfecta cumulataque scientia , "collected and systemized knowledge"); Giuseppe Scarpat's link to an unidentified Judas,

1022-495: Is a large 10th-century Byzantine encyclopedia of the ancient Mediterranean world , formerly attributed to an author called Soudas (Σούδας) or Souidas (Σουίδας). It is an encyclopedic lexicon , written in Greek , with 30,000 entries, many drawing from ancient sources that have since been lost, and often derived from medieval Christian compilers. The exact spelling of the title is disputed. The transmitted title ( paradosis )

1095-401: Is cattle, but cattle with a golden fleece] The Suda is somewhere between a grammatical dictionary and an encyclopedia in the modern sense. It explains the source, derivation, and meaning of words according to the philology of its period, using such earlier authorities as Harpocration and Helladios . It is a rich source of ancient and Byzantine history and life, although not every article

1168-501: Is of equal quality, and it is an "uncritical" compilation. Much of the work is probably interpolated, and passages that refer to Michael Psellos (c. 1017–1078) are deemed interpolations which were added in later copies. This lexicon contains numerous biographical notices on political, ecclesiastical, and literary figures of the Byzantine Empire to the tenth century, those biographical entries being condensations from

1241-885: The Collegio Romano , in the same place where the Museum Kircherianum was. The Museum of Jurassic Technology in Los Angeles has a hall dedicated to the life of Kircher. His ethnographic collection is in the Pigorini National Museum of Prehistory and Ethnography in Rome. John Glassie's book, A Man of Misconceptions , traces connections between Kircher and figures such as Gianlorenzo Bernini , René Descartes , and Isaac Newton . It also suggests influences on Edgar Allan Poe , Franz Anton Mesmer , Jules Verne , and Marcel Duchamp . In

1314-511: 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 embarked for Vienna. 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 he taught mathematics, physics and Oriental languages at

1387-824: The Suda On Line, was completed on 21 July 2014. The Suda has a near-contemporaneous Islamic parallel, the Kitab al-Fehrest of Ibn al-Nadim . Compare also the Latin Speculum Maius , authored in the 13th century by Vincent of Beauvais . Athanasius Kircher Athanasius Kircher SJ (2 May 1602 – 27 November 1680) was a German Jesuit scholar and polymath who published around 40 major works of comparative religion , geology , and medicine . Kircher has been compared to fellow Jesuit Roger Joseph Boscovich and to Leonardo da Vinci for his vast range of interests, and has been honoured with

1460-500: The magic lantern has been misattributed to Kircher, although he conducted a study of the principles involved in his Ars Magna Lucis et Umbrae . 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 modern scholar, Alan Cutler, described Kircher as "a giant among seventeenth-century scholars", and "one of

1533-532: The tides were caused by water moving to and from a subterranean ocean . Kircher was also puzzled by fossils . He understood that fossils were the remains of animals. He ascribed large bones to giant races of humans. 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. Mundus Subterraneus includes several pages about

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1606-634: The Chinese were descended from the sons of Ham , that Confucius was Hermes Trismegistus/Moses and that the Chinese 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 the Maya and Aztecs were yet lower pictograms which referred only to objects. Umberto Eco comments that this idea reflected and supported

1679-556: The Collegio Romano (now the Pontifical Gregorian University ) for several years before being released to devote himself to research. He studied malaria and the plague , amassing 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

1752-490: The Combinatorial Art), the inscription reads: "Nothing is more beautiful than to know all." The last known example of Egyptian hieroglyphics dates from AD 394, after which all knowledge of hieroglyphics was lost. Until Thomas Young and Jean-François Champollion found the key to hieroglyphics in the 19th century, the main authority was the 4th-century Greek grammarian Horapollon , whose chief contribution

1825-661: 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. 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

1898-601: The Egyptian god-worship tradition and Greek philosophy, but the lost Egyptian learning they tried to cobble together and reconstruct were a mix of the genuine and spurious. The elder Horapollo is mentioned in the Suda as a grammarian from Phanebytis , under Theodosius II (AD 408–450). The younger Horapollo was an Egyptian of the same name, who lived in the reign of Zeno , 474–491). This elder Horapollo wrote commentaries on Sophocles , Alcaeus of Mytilene and Homer , and

1971-731: The Greek tradition, essentially derived from Aristotle , Aelian , Pliny , Artemidorus , and the Physiologus , etc. and is probably an addition by the Greek translator. Editions by C. Leemans (1835) and A. T. Cory (1840) with English translation and notes; see also G. Rathgeber in Ersch and Gruber's Allgemeine Encyclopädie ; H. Schafer, Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache (1905), p. 72. Suda The Suda or Souda ( / ˈ s uː d ə / ; Medieval Greek : Σοῦδα , romanized :  Soûda ; Latin : Suidae Lexicon )

2044-529: The book may well originate with the latest remnants of the Egyptian priesthood of the 5th century. Though a very large proportion of the statements seem absurd and cannot be accounted for by anything known in the latest and most fanciful usage, there is ample evidence in both books, in individual cases, that the tradition of the values of the hieroglyphic signs was not yet extinct in the days of their author. This approach of symbolic speculation about hieroglyphs (many of which were originally simple syllabic signs)

2117-557: The clock's motion supported the Copernican cosmological model, arguing that the magnetic sphere in the clock rotated by the magnetic force of the sun . Kircher's model disproved that hypothesis, showing that the motion could be produced by a water clock in the base of the device. Although Kircher disputed the Copernican model in his Magnes , supporting instead that of Tycho Brahe , his later Itinerarium exstaticum (1656, revised 1671), presented several systems — including

2190-550: The context of his Coptic studies. However, according to Steven Frimmer, "none of them even remotely fitted the original texts". In Oedipus Aegyptiacus , Kircher 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

2263-426: The differences between the ears of humans and other animals. In Phonurgia Nova (1673) Kircher considered the possibilities of transmitting music to remote places. 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 , and a Katzenklavier ("cat piano"). The Katzenklavier would have driven spikes into

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2336-590: The disaster via astrology, though Kircher privately insisted that he had not relied on it. This was the year that Kircher published his first book (the Ars Magnesia , reporting his research on magnetism ), but having been caught up in the Thirty Years' War he was driven to the papal University of Avignon in France . In 1633 he was called to Vienna by the emperor to succeed Kepler as Mathematician to

2409-504: 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.” Kircher's life and research are central to

2482-424: The entry under " Adam " which is appended with a brief chronology of the world. At any rate, the work must have appeared by the 12th century, since it is frequently quoted from and alluded to by Eustathius who lived from about 1115 AD to about 1195 or 1196. It has also been stated that the work was a collective work , thus not having had a single author, and that the name which it is known under does not refer to

2555-472: 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 published Arca Noë , the results of his research on the biblical Ark of Noah — following the Counter-Reformation , allegorical interpretation

2628-551: The field turned out to be wrong. He did, however, correctly establish the link between the ancient Egyptian and the Coptic languages, and some commentators regard him as the founder of Egyptology . Kircher was also fascinated with Sinology and wrote an encyclopedia of China , where he revealed the early presence of Nestorian Christians while also attempting to establish links with Egypt and Christianity. Kircher's work in geology included studies of volcanoes and fossils . One of

2701-457: The first recorded drawings of complete bipartite graphs , extending a similar technique used by Llull to visualize complete graphs . Kircher also employed combinatorics in his Arca Musarithmica , an aleatoric music device capable of composing millions of church hymns by combining randomly selected musical phrases. For most of his professional life, Kircher was one of the scientific stars of his world: according to historian Paula Findlen, he

2774-430: The first researchers to observe microbes through a microscope , Kircher was ahead of his time in proposing that the plague was caused by an infectious microorganism 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, various automatons and the first megaphone . The invention of

2847-462: The history of Greek, distinct diphthongs or vowels) according to a system (formerly common in many languages) called antistoichia ( ἀντιστοιχία ); namely the letters follow phonetically in order of sound according the pronunciation of the tenth century, which was similar to that of Modern Greek. The order is: α, β, γ, δ, αι, ε, ζ, ει, η, ι, θ, κ, λ, μ, ν, ξ, ο, ω, π, ρ, σ, τ, οι, υ, φ, χ, ψ In addition, double letters are treated as single for

2920-489: The last development of ancient Egyptian . For this Kircher has been considered the true "founder of Egyptology", because his work was conducted "before the discovery of the Rosetta Stone rendered Egyptian hieroglyphics comprehensible to scholars". He also recognized the relationship between hieratic and hieroglyphic scripts. Between 1650 and 1654, Kircher published four volumes of "translations" of hieroglyphs in

2993-432: The last thinkers who could rightfully claim all knowledge as his domain". Another scholar, Edward W. Schmidt, referred to Kircher as "the last Renaissance man ". In A 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," but he was "a champion of wonder, a man of awe-inspiring erudition and inventiveness," whose work

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3066-534: The legendary island of Atlantis 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." In his book Arca Noë , Kircher argued that after the Flood new species were transformed as they moved into different environments, for example, when

3139-460: The older Egyptian gods, but abandoned them after the incident, and either converted to (or away from) Christianity. The text of the Hieroglyphica consists of two books, containing a total of 189 explanations of Egyptian hieroglyphs . The books profess to be a translation from an Egyptian (i.e. Coptic ) original into Greek by a certain Philippus, of whom nothing is known. The inferior Greek of

3212-453: The originals are lost, the Suda serves as an invaluable repository of literary history, and this preservation of the "literary history" is more vital than the lexicographical compilation itself, by some estimation. The lexicon is arranged alphabetically with some slight deviations from common vowel order and place in the Greek alphabet (including at each case the homophonous digraphs , e.g. αι, ει, οι , that had been previously, earlier in

3285-443: The purposes of collation (as gemination had ceased to be distinctive). The system is not difficult to learn and remember, but some editors—for example, Immanuel Bekker – rearranged the Suda alphabetically. Little is known about the compiler of the Suda . He probably lived in the second half of the 10th century, because the death of emperor John I Tzimiskes and his succession by Basil II and Constantine VIII are mentioned in

3358-432: 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. Kircher constructed a magnetic clock, which he explained in his Magnes (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

3431-530: 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 . In the historical novel Imprimatur by Monaldi & Sorti (2002), Kircher plays a major role. Shortly after his death, some travelers are locked up in

3504-482: The simple hieroglyphic text ḏd 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" Egyptologist E. A. Wallis Budge mentioned Kircher as the foremost of writers who "pretended to have found the key to the hieroglyphics" and called his translations in Oedipus Aegyptiacus "utter nonsense, but as they were put forth in

3577-679: The site of Saint Eustace 's vision of a crucifix in a stag's horns. He raised money to pay for the church's reconstruction as the Santuario della Mentorella  [ it ] , and his heart was buried in the church upon his death. Kircher published many substantial books on a wide variety of subjects such as Egyptology , geology , and music theory . His syncretic approach disregarded conventional boundaries between disciplines: his Magnes , for example, ostensibly discussed magnetism , but also explored other modes of attraction such as gravity and love . Perhaps Kircher's best-known work

3650-450: The spread of disease, such as isolation, quarantine , burning clothes worn by the infected and wearing facemasks to prevent the inhalation of germs . In 1646, Kircher published Ars Magna Lucis et Umbrae , concerning the display of images on a screen using an apparatus similar to the magic lantern developed by Christiaan Huygens and others. Kircher described the construction of a "catoptric lamp" that used reflection to project images on

3723-591: The story and of the origin of the manuscript itself exists. In his Polygraphia Nova (1663), Kircher proposed an artificial universal language . 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, 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

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3796-459: The supposed author of the Lexicon; and Hans Gerstinger's explanation which points at Russian sudá "here", as the answer to the question "τί ποῦ κεῖται;" "what is it and where is it?". The most recent explanation as of 2024 has been advanced by Claudia Nuovo , who defended Σοῦδα on palaeographical, philological and historical grounds . pecus est Suidas, sed pecus aurei velleris [Suidas

3869-446: The tails of cats, which would yowl to specified pitches , but was never constructed. In Phonurgia 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 an elliptical dome from Heidelberg. In one section he explored

3942-485: The therapeutic effects of music in tarantism , a theme from southern Italy. 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 finite set ), based on the previous work of Ramon Llull . His methods and diagrams are discussed in Ars Magna Sciendi, sive Combinatoria , 1669. They include what may be

4015-524: The title "Master of a Hundred Arts". He taught for more than 40 years at the Roman College , where he set up a wunderkammer or cabinet of curiosities. A resurgence of interest in Kircher has occurred within the scholarly community in recent decades. Kircher claimed to have deciphered the hieroglyphic writing of the ancient Egyptian language , but most of his assumptions and translations in

4088-491: The translation, and the character of the additions in the second book point to its being of late date; some have even assigned it to the 15th century. The text was discovered in 1419 on the island of Andros , and was taken to Florence by Cristoforo Buondelmonti (it is today kept at the Biblioteca Laurenziana, Plut. 69,27). By the end of the 15th century, the text became immensely popular among humanists and

4161-471: 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. Previously, such images had been used in Europe to mimic supernatural appearances (Kircher himself cites the use of displayed images by

4234-530: The works of Hesychius of Miletus , as the author himself avers. Other sources were the encyclopedia of Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (reigned 912–959) for the figures in ancient history, excerpts of John of Antioch (seventh century) for Roman history , the chronicle of Hamartolus ( Georgios Monachos , 9th century) for the Byzantine age , the biographies of Diogenes Laërtius , and the works of Athenaeus and Philostratus . Other principal sources include

4307-544: Was ordained to the priesthood in 1628 and became professor of ethics and mathematics at the University 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 at Würzburg , 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

4380-495: Was "because of Kircher's work that scientists knew what to look for when interpreting the Rosetta stone". 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. Kircher

4453-432: 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

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4526-582: Was also actively involved in the erection of the Pamphilj obelisk , and added "hieroglyphs" of his design in the blank areas. Rowland 2002 concluded that Kircher made use of Pythagorean principles to read hieroglyphs of the Pamphili Obelisk , and used the same form of interpretation when reading scripture. Kircher had an early interest in China , telling his superior in 1629 that he wished to become

4599-512: Was attributed by most 16th-century editors, although there were more occult opinions, identifying Horapollo with Horus himself, or with a pharaoh . According to the Suda, the younger Horapollo was force to flee because he was accused of plotting a revolt against the Christians , and his temple to Isis and Osiris was destroyed. He was subject to torture in interrogation about the whereabouts of Harpocras. He had harbored secret belief in

4672-529: Was brought to feed carnivores and what the daily schedule of feeding and caring for animals must have been. Kircher was sent the Voynich Manuscript in 1666 by Johannes Marcus Marci in the hope of Kircher being able to decipher it. The manuscript remained in the Collegio Romano until Victor Emmanuel II of Italy annexed the Papal States in 1870, though scepticism as to the authenticity of

4745-490: Was caught and nearly hanged by a party of Protestant soldiers. From 1622 to 1624 Kircher was sent to begin his regency period in Koblenz as a teacher. This was followed by assignment to Heiligenstadt , where he taught mathematics , Hebrew and Syriac , 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

4818-515: 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

4891-499: Was largely neglected until the late 20th century. One writer attributes his rediscovery to the similarities between his eclectic approach and postmodernism . As few of Kircher's works have been translated, the contemporary 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]

4964-601: Was popular during Hellenism , whence the early Humanists, down to Athanasius Kircher , inherited the preconception of the hieroglyphs as a magical, symbolic, ideographic script. In 1556, the Italian humanist Pierio Valeriano Bolzani published a vast Hieroglyphica at Michael Isengrin 's printing press in Basel , which was originally planned as an exegesis of Horapollo's. It was dedicated to Cosimo I de' Medici . The second part of book II treats animal symbolism and allegory, in

5037-738: Was read "by the smartest minds of the time." Kircher was born on 2 May in either 1601 or 1602 (he himself did not know) in Geisa , Buchonia , near Fulda ( Thuringia , Germany ). 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 entered the novitiate of the Society. The youngest of nine children, Kircher studied volcanoes owing to his passion for rocks and eruptions. He

5110-401: 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, traveling to Heiligenstadt , he

5183-603: 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 the rationalist Cartesian approach began to dominate (Descartes himself described Kircher as "more quacksalver than savant"). Kircher

5256-789: Was the misconception that hieroglyphics were "picture writing" and that future translators should look for symbolic meaning in the pictures. The first modern study of hieroglyphics came with Piero Valeriano Bolzani 's Hieroglyphica (1556). Kircher was the most famous of the "decipherers" between ancient and modern times and the most famous Egyptologist of his day. In his Lingua 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". While some of his notions are long discredited, portions of his work have been valuable to later scholars, and Kircher helped pioneer Egyptology as

5329-519: Was translated into Latin by Giorgio Valla (in ms. Vat. lat. 3898 ). The first printed edition of the text appeared in 1505 (published by Manuzio ), and was translated into Latin in 1517 by Filippo Fasanini , initiating a long sequence of editions and translations. From the 18th century, the book's authenticity was called into question, but modern Egyptology regards at least the first book as based on real knowledge of hieroglyphs, although confused, and with baroque symbolism and theological speculation, and

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