Man of Misconceptions : The Life of an Eccentric in an Age of Change (9781101597033)

by Glassie, John

  set down in New and Universal Polygraphy: See Nick Wilding, “‘If you have a secret, either keep it, or reveal it’: Cryptography and Universal Language,” in Daniel Stolzenberg, ed., The Great Art of Knowing: The Baroque Encyclopedia of Athanasius Kircher (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Libraries, 2001), pp. 93–103.

  mathematical organ: Gorman, The Scientific Counter-Revolution, p. 251.

  “had taken to traveling the world by raft”: Ingrid D. Rowland, The Scarith of Scornello: A Tale of Renaissance Forgery (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004), p. 32.

  Annius of Viterbo: See Anthony Grafton, Defenders of the Text: The Traditions of Scholarship in an Age of Science, 1450–1800 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1991), pp. 76–93. Also see Erik Iversen, The Myth of Egypt and Its Hieroglyphs in European Tradition (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1993 [1961]), pp. 62–63.

  Kircher’s discovery of the shrine of Mentorella: Vita, pp. 105–114.

  “gentlemen, free and unconfined”: Thomas Sprat, The History of the Royal Society of London, 2nd ed. (London, 1702), in Dorothy Stimson, “Amateurs of Science in 17th Century England,” Isis 31, no. 1 (1939), p. 37.

  “The Club-men have cantonized”: G. H. Turnbull, “Samuel Hartlib’s Influence on the Early History of the Royal Society,” Notes and Records of the Royal Society 10 (1953), p. 113.

  Borges and Foucault: See Jorge Luis Borges, “The Analytical Language of John Wilkins,” in Other Inquisitions 1937–1952, trans. Ruth L. C. Simms (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1993), p. 101; Michel Foucault, The Order of Things: An Archaeology of Human Sciences (New York: Vintage, 1994 [1966]), p. xv.

  “artificial, mathematical, and magical curiosities”: Evelyn, Diary and Correspondence, vol. 1, p. 293.

  “baiting Puritans, place jobbing”: Benjamin, History of Electricity, pp. 406, 408.

  Vacuum experiments: W. E. K. Middleton, The History of the Barometer (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1964), pp. 10–18, 56–65; see also the Museo Galileo on Schott, http://catalogue.museogalileo.it/biography/GasparSchott.html.

  “Father Kircher is my particular friend”: Southwell to Boyle, March 30, 1661, in Thomas Birch, ed., Robert Boyle: The Works of the Honourable Robert Boyle, in Six Volumes, to Which Is Prefixed the Life of the Author (London: J. and F. Rivington, L. Davis, et al., 1772), vol. 6, p. 299.

  vegetable phoenix that Kircher had put on display: Gorman, The Scientific Counter-Revolution, pp. 224–225.

  Christopher Wren and magnetism: Bennett, “Cosmology and the Magnetical Philosophy,” pp. 170–172.

  “. . . magnetic beam, that gently warms”: John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book III; see Benjamin, History of Electricity, p. 438.

  Microscopes: Turnbull, “Samuel Hartlib’s Influence,” pp. 114, 115.

  “Edges of Rasors”: “An Account of Micrographia, or the Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies, Made by Magnifying Glasses,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, vol. 1 (1665), p. 28.

  Chapter 16. Underground World

  “before the eyes of the curious reader”: Mark Waddell, “The World, As It Might Be: Iconography and Probabilism in the Mundus Subterraneus of Athanasius Kircher,” Centaurus 48 (2006), pp. 3–22.

  “the author was present with great danger”: Athanasius Kircher, Index Argumentorum, Mundus Subterraneus, in XII Libros Digestus . . . (Amsterdam: Jansson and Weyerstraet, 1664–1665).

  “are nothing but the vent-holes”: Kircher, The Vulcano’s, p. 5. For Kircher’s explanation of volcanoes, oceans, and the structure of the earth, see “The Explication of the Schemes, out of Kircher” (n.p.) and pp. 1–5.

  “Ripening” of base metals: See Tara E. Nummedal, “Kircher’s Subterranean World and the Dignity of the Geocosm,” in Daniel Stolzenberg, ed., The Great Art of Knowing: The Baroque Encyclopedia of Athanasius Kircher (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Library, 2001), p. 42.

  “The alchemists describe it” . . . “Can one metal really be transmuted into another?”: In Reilly, Athanasius Kircher, S.J., pp. 115–120.

  “The world’s seed” . . . “the seed of Nature”: In Hiro Hirai, “Athanasius Kircher’s Chymical Interpretation of the Creation and Spontaneous Generation,” in Lawrence M. Principe, ed., Chymists and Chymistry: Studies in the History of Alchemy and Early Modern Chemistry (New York: Science History Publications, 2007), pp. 81–82.

  “a certain matter that we rightly call ‘chaotic’” . . . “I say that a certain material spiritus”: Ibid., p. 79.

  “something” . . . “not as a form”: Ibid., pp. 84–85.

  “It would take a whole journal”: In Godwin, Athanasius Kircher, p. 84.

  Kircher “understood erosion”: Ibid., p. 84.

  “Since monstrous animals of this kind”: Kircher, Mundus Subterraneus, vol. 2, p. 89.

  Oldenburg . . . “Catalogue of my best books”: Noel Malcolm, “The Library of Henry Oldenburg,” The Electronic British Library Journal, www.bl.uk/eblj, p. 23.

  “Let it be experimented . . . whether Nitrous water, mixed with common salt”: In Reilly, Athanasius Kircher, S.J., p. 106.

  “’Tis an ill Omen, me thinks”: In Gorman, The Scientific Counter-Revolution, p. 229.

  plant-derived purges, donkey’s milk: See Martha Baldwin, “The Snakestone Experiments: An Early Modern Medical Debate,” Isis 86 (1995), p. 410.

  “a large pigeon” . . . “a fine Naples veil”: Redi, Experiments on the Generation of Insects, pp. 30–36.

  “I don’t know whether”: Ibid., p. 43.

  “I risked a second”: Ibid., p. 64.

  “I believe”: Ibid., pp. 34–35.

  “no animal of any kind”: Ibid., p. 64.

  Chapter 17. Fombom

  “multitude of Fathers”: In Martha Baldwin, “The Snakestone Experiments,” p. 400; see Athanasius Kircher, Magneticum Naturae Regnum, sive, Disceptatio Physiologica de Triplici in Natura Rerum . . . (Amsterdam: Johann Jansson, 1667), pp. 50–58.

  “When this stone was placed”: Athanasius Kircher, China Illustrata, with Sacred and Secular Monuments, Various Spectacles of Nature and Art and Other Memorabilia (1677), trans. Charles D. Van Tuyl (Muskogee, Okla: Indian University Press, Bacone College, 1987), p. 73.

  Kircher and Father Boym: Ibid., compare pp. 73 and 74.

  “I think that the immutable force of nature”: Kircher, Magneticum Naturae Regnum, p. 18, in Baldwin, “Athanasius Kircher and the Magnetic Philosophy,” p. 27.

  “ignited wide publicity”: Baldwin, “Snakestone Experiments,” p. 398.

  became “the leading advocate”: Ibid., p. 396.

  Egyptian roots of Chinese culture: See Kircher, China Illustrata, pp. 122–127, 217.

  “cold and frozen northern zone” . . . “not counting the royal ministers”: Ibid., pp. 159–161.

  animals of China: Ibid., pp. 184–186.

  tea “gradually being introduced” . . . “is also used for relieving hangover”: Ibid., p. 175.

  “was probably the single most important”: Van Tuyl, “Translator’s Foreward [sic],” China Illustrata, p. i.

  “had a global reputation”: Paula Findlen, “A Jesuit’s Books in the New World: Athanasius Kircher and His American Readers,” in Paula Findlen, ed., Athanasius Kircher: The Last Man Who Knew Everything (New York: Routledge, 2004), p. 329.

  “Truly without exaggeration”: Ibid., p. 337. On Alejandro Favián, see ibid., pp. 335–343.

  “Upon learning of the matter”: For Kircher’s account of the Santa Maria sopra Minerva obelisk, see Vita, pp. 119–127.

  “supreme spirit and archetype infuses its virtue”: In Godwin, Athanasius Kircher, p. 62.

  Kircher’s dream of becoming pope: Kaspar Schott, Physica Curiosa, sive Mirabilia Naturae et Artis . . . (Würzburg: Jobus Hert
z, 1667; 2nd ed.), pp. 455–456.

  “morbidly austere”: William S. Heckscher, “Bernini’s Elephant and Obelisk,” The Art Bulletin 29, no. 3 (September 1947), p. 181.

  Tricks played on Kircher: See Fred Brauen, “Athanasius Kircher (1602–1680),” Journal of the History of Ideas 43, no. 1 (January–March 1982), pp. 129–134.

  H. L. Mencken: Johann Burkhard Mencken, The Charlatanry of the Learned (De Charlataneria Eruditorum, 1715), trans. Francis E. Litz, with notes by H. L. Mencken (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1937), p. 44.

  Chapter 18. Everything

  the Jesuits “are the best Men that Live on the Earth”: A.F., The Travels of an English Gentleman from London to Rome: On Foot. Containing, a Comical Description of What He Met with Remarkable in Every City, Town, and Religious House in His Whole Journey (London: J. How, 1704), pp. 168–169.

  “Those letters you have sent to me”: Hieronymus Langenmantel, Fasciculus Epistolarum Adm. R.P. Athanasii Kircheri Soc. Jesu . . . (Augsburg, 1684), pp. 21–24, in Bach, “Athanasius Kircher and His Method,” p. 55, n. 135.

  “I firstly fitted the Church”: Vita, pp. 114–117.

  “A person may wish”: Ignatius of Loyola, Personal Writings, p. 356.

  Ars Magna Sciendi: See Nick Wilding, “‘If you have a secret, either keep it, or reveal it’: Cryptography and Universal Language,” pp. 93–103; Merrill, Athanasius Kircher (1602–1680), Jesuit Scholar, p. 56.

  “the art of arts,” “the workshop of the sciences”: Athanasius Kircher, Ars Magna Sciendi: In XII Libros Digesta, Qua Nova & Universali Methodo . . . (Amsterdam: Jansson and Weyerstraet, 1669), p. 1, in Bach, “Athanasius Kircher and His Method,” p. 193, n. 155.

  “do not generate fresh questions”: Umberto Eco, The Search for the Perfect Language, trans. James Fentress (London: Fontana Press, 1997), p. 63.

  “Of what Use this Doctrine may be”: “An Accompt of Some Books,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, vol. 4 (1669), pp. 1086–1097.

  Leibniz as self-conscious and skinny: Benson Mates, The Philosophy of Leibniz: Metaphysics and Language (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989), p. 32.

  “Virtually every major scientific”: Findlen, “The Last Man Who Knew Everything . . . Or Did He?,” p. 9.

  Wind-powered mining: See Matthew Stewart, The Courtier and the Heretic: Leibniz, Spinoza, and the Fate of the Modern World (New York: W. W. Norton, 2006), pp. 206–207, 226–227, 232–233.

  “the elegance and harmony of the world”: Ibid., p. 79.

  “GREAT MAN,” the “greatest man”: Leibniz to Kircher, Mainz, May 16, 1670, APUG 559, fols. 166r–166v.; transcribed in Paul Friedländer, “Athanasius Kircher und Leibniz: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Polyhistorie im XVII Jahrhundert,” Rendiconti della Pontificia Accademia Romana d’Archeologia, ser. 3, vol. 13 (1937), pp. 229–231.

  “All the alchymists were in arms”: Charles MacKay, Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (London: Office of the National Illustrated Library, 1852), pp. 186–187.

  “to assist them with his gold-making art”: In Reilly, Athanasius Kircher, S.J., p. 179.

  “true pupil of this art”: Salomone de Blauenstein, Interpellatio Brevis ad Philosophos Veritatis tam Amatores quam Scrutatores pro Lapide Philosophorum, Contra Antichymsiticum Mundum Subterraneum P. Athanasii Kircheri Jesuitae (Biel [Switzerland]: Desiderius Suitzius, 1667), title page.

  Arnold of Villanova: Lynn Thorndike, A History of Magic and Experimental Science: The Seventeenth Century (New York: Columbia University Press, 1958), p. 575.

  “When he read how I had very clearly revealed”: In Reilly, Athanasius Kircher, S.J., p. 178.

  Chapter 19. Not As It Was

  Noah’s traits and qualities: See Godwin, Athanasius Kircher, p. 44.

  “not as it was”: In Godwin, Athanasius Kircher’s Theatre of the World, p. 120.

  “flawed beyond belief”: Findlen, “The Last Man Who Knew Everything . . . Or Did He?,” p. 6.

  Redi and the snake stone: See Baldwin, “Athanasius Kircher and the Magnetic Philosophy,” pp. 397–399.

  “The principal point of this letter”: In Martha Baldwin, “The Snakestone Experiments,” p. 413.

  “speaking trumpet”: See Samuel Morland, Tuba Stentoro-Phonica, An Instrument of Excellent Use, As well at Sea as at Land, Invented and variously Experimented in the year 1670 and humbly presented to the Kings Most Excellent Majesty Charles II in the Year, 1671 (London: W. Godbid, for M. Pitt, 1671).

  acoustical tube “might extend itself”: For Kircher’s experiments with the acoustical tube on Mentorella, see Kircher, Phonurgia Nova, pp. 113–115.

  Relocation of the museum: See R. Garrucci, “Origini e Vicende del Museo Kircheriano dal 1651 al 1773,” La Civiltà Cattolica, ser. 10, vol. 12 (1879), pp. 727–739; Roberta Rezzi, “Il Kircheriano, da Museo d’Arte e di Meraviglie a Museo Archeologico,” in Maristella Casciato, Maria Grazia Ianniello, and Maria Vitale, eds., Enciclopedismo in Roma Barocca: Athanasius Kircher e il Museo del Collegio Romano tra Wunderkammer e Museo Scientifico (Venice: Marsilio, 1986), pp. 295–302.

  “Thoroughly animated” . . . “For should these things”: The Latin is in Garrucci, “Origini e Vicende del Museo Kircheriano,” pp. 729–731.

  “Does the conference of learned persons please you?”: In Findlen, Possessing Nature, p. 132.

  French king himself had “deep respect” for his work: Fletcher, “A Brief Survey of the Unpublished Correspondence,” pp. 155, 157.

  Letters continued to arrive: Fletcher, “Medical Men in the Correspondence,” pp. 270, 273, 274; John Fletcher, “Claude Fabri de Peiresc and the Other French Correspondents of Athanasius Kircher (1602–1680),” Australian Journal of French Studies 9 (1972), p. 264.

  rector of the Jesuit college of Vilnius: Fletcher, “A Brief Survey of the Unpublished Correspondence,” p. 156.

  “various practical problems”: Findlen, Possessing Nature, p. 92. On Kircher and the ark, see Olaf Breidbach and Michael T. Ghiselin, “Athanasius Kircher (1602–1680) on Noah’s Ark: Baroque ‘Intelligent Design’ Theory,” Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences 57, no. 36 (December 28, 2006).

  “born from rot”: In Godwin, Athanasius Kircher’s Theatre of the World, p. 120.

  “upper part has the sex and appearance”: In Reilly, Athanasius Kircher, S.J., p. 169.

  Chapter 20. Immune and Exempt

  “by now is old”: Baldigiani to Redi, April 1, 1675, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana (BML), Redi 219, f. 148/100v.

  “play a grand joke”: Baldigiani to Redi, December 16, 1674, BML, Redi 219, f. 141/97r.

  “written a long, rather questionable response”: Baldigiani to Redi, n.d, BML, Redi 219, f. 200/142.

  “Prof. Kircher is as obstinate as ever”: Ibid.

  “Yesterday morning he had his last communion”: Baldigiani to Redi, Rome, March or May 10, 1675, BML, Redi 219, f.164/110r.

  “a solitary and little-known man”: Baldigiani to Redi, date unclear, 1677, BML, Redi 219, f. 183/126v.

  “never shown himself”: Baldigiani to Redi, n.d., BML, Redi 219, f. 200/142.

  “First they pardoned themselves”: Baldigiani to Redi, BML, February 15, 1677, Redi 219, f. 180/123v.

  Possibility of feeble hens: On Petrucci, see Baldwin, “The Snakestone Experiments,” p. 416.

  “reckless and impudent slanderers” . . . “all Celebrated future centuries”: Gioseffo Petrucci, Prodomo Apologetico alli Studi Chircheriani (Amsterdam: Jansson and Waesberg, 1677), pp. 3–4.

  “constantly insisted on the marvelous virtues”: Petrucci, Prodomo Apologetico, p. 21.

  “He did not go according to the sentiments”: Ibid., p. 22.

  “The works of nature are prodigious”: In Baldwin, “Athanasius Kircher and the Magnetic Philosophy,” p
. 401.

  “I have never understood”: Galileo, Discoveries and Opinions, p. 231.

  only two were sold: See Baldigiani to Redi, August 14, 167[7?], BML, Redi 219, f. 203/144r.v.

  Chapter 21. Mentorella

  “These days, because of age”: Baldigiani to Vincenzo Viviani, July 18, 1678, in Antonio Favaro, “Miscellanea Galileiana Inedita,” Memorie del Reale Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti 22, p. 837.

  “Many others”: In Findlen, “The Last Man Who Knew Everything . . . Or Did He?,” p. 3.

  “Philosophy is written”: Galileo, Discoveries and Opinions, p. 237.

  “A shape in space has given way”: David Berlinski, Infinite Ascent: A Short History of Mathematics (New York: Modern Library, 2008), p. 40.

  “expound” on “a part of Euclid”: Evelyn, Diary and Correspondence, vol. 1, p. 132.

  how to square the circle: See Findlen, “The Last Man Who Knew Everything . . . Or Did He?,” p. 27.

  “the Cabalists, Arabs, Gnostics” . . . “genuine and licit”: Athanasius Kircher, Arithmologia, sive, De Abditis Numerorum Mysteriis . . . (Rome: Varese, 1665), title page.

  “Mystic Monad or, if you will” . . . “all creatures breathe numbers”: Ibid., pp. 239–241.

  “a reverberating sonic boom!”: Berlinski, Infinite Ascent, p. 45.

  “You must know that now”: In Reilly, Athanasius Kircher, S.J., p. 179.

  “Decrepit and old, Professor Kircher”: Baldigiani to Redi, n.d, BML, Redi 219, f. 204/145r.

  It was God who “wished that I expend” . . . “And so, the subject matter”: Vita, pp. 89–91.

  “second childhood”: Reilly, Athanasius Kircher, S.J., p. 180.

  Preparation of bodies: Jean-Nicolas Gannal, History of Embalming, and of Preparations in Anatomy, Pathology, and Natural History: Including an Account of a New Process for Embalming, trans. Richard Harlan (Philadelphia: J. Dobson, 1840). See also William D. Haglund and Marcella H. Sorg, Forensic Taphonomy: The Postmortem Fate of Human Remains (Boca Raton, Fla.: CRC Press, 1997), p. 487; Pascale Trompette and Mélanie Lemonnier, “Funeral Embalming: The Transformation of a Medical Innovation,” Science Studies 22, no. 2 (2009), pp. 9–30.