My first acquaintance with Athanasius Kircher, a man of wide knowledge and hobbies, was due to the book by Anton Haakman "On the other side of the mirror" (on the website of the online store Labyrinth you can still buy the book "On the other side of the mirror"). It's amazing that my dating story is similar to that of Haakman himself. Let's listen to him: “A case pointed out to me about Athanasius Kircher - a picture from a book bought at the bank. She led me into a world where chance could rule everything, for everything was related to everything, and any part that you did not take was firmly linked to the whole."
Kircher mastered the art of establishing connections between seemingly completely different things and concepts. "Omnia in omnibus", which translates as "all in all," was his motto. The flip side of his nature was a passion for secrets, hidden analogies, codes and magic tricks.
If it were possible to describe Kircher in one word, I would certainly call him a magician. No, he was not the kind of magician who casts spells and fires lightning. Kircher had the mind of a magician. He saw the world differently than everyone else, and this helped him expand his knowledge in a dubious, from a modern point of view, way.
Kircher's conviction that “everything is in everything” inevitably led to a search for connections and an almost painful need for systematization. His work, like an encyclopedia, covers all areas of science. He wrote monumental works in mathematics, medicine, geology, geography, geodesy, archeology, astronomy, theology, alchemy, miracles, and politics. He invented many mechanical machines, designed a magnetic clock, a primitive calculator and an apparatus for geodetic calculations. He eagerly pounced on the inventions of the time, such as the telescope and the microscope: he was able to recognize sunspots where no one saw them, and he made out the plague bacillus before the microscope was improved for observing bacteria.
During his countless travels, from the borders of Europe to China itself, Kircher was engaged in geological research, observed the actions of the ebb and flow, took soil samples, and after the eruption of Vesuvius, he even climbed a rope into the crater to take measurements from the inside.
Vesuvius from the book by Athanasius Kircher & quot; Mundus Subterraneus & quot; (1664).
But most of all, after his countless travels, Kircher boasted of his knowledge of languages. He was known as a polyglot, speaking eighteen languages, including Chinese. His superbly designed work, China Illustrata, was an encyclopedia of China that combined accurate cartography with mythical elements such as dragons.
Promotional video:
Map of China from the book of Athanasius Kircher * China Illustrata *.
In 1663, his book "Polygraphia" was published with a description of the "polyglot code in five languages", which could be used to encrypt and transmit messages in Latin, Italian, French, Spanish and German, while decoding could be done in any of these languages.
A little later, Kircher constructed a secret writing bureau, with slatted tables so that letters could be quickly encrypted and deciphered. In one of his books, he gives an example of a letter, at first glance completely innocent, but containing a secret message "the bearer of this is a traitor and a murderer."
One of the letters of Athanasius Kircher.
Kircher saw so many hidden connections in everything that from the outside it may seem like mania.
Apparently, it was his suspicion that prompted him to create listening systems, which were stuffed with the cabinet of curiosities he had established - the Kircherianum Museum in Collegio Romano.
The Kircherianum Museum”at the Collegio Romano.
But the greatest fame in the field of linguistics and cryptography brought Kircher his monumental work "Egyptian Oedipus" (Oedipus Aegyptiacus, 1652-1655), in which he attempted to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs. In the book, Kircher writes that these mysterious signs hide what is left of the knowledge that God revealed to people before the Flood. He considers Egypt to be the cradle of all knowledge. Until Champollion reveals the meaning of hieroglyphs (1822), Athanasius Kircher's work on Egypt would be considered fundamental. Pope Alexander VII himself took lessons in reading hieroglyphs from him.
Kircher's book "Egyptian Oedipus" (Oedipus Aegyptiacus, 1652-1655).
Kircher's passion for Egypt forces him to delve into the most complex geographic exploration, in the process of which he comes to the Egyptian city called Heliopolis, or 'civitas Solis', the City of the Sun. He says that the Arabs called this city "Ainschems", that is, "the eye of the sun," and that there was a wonderful mirror in the temple of the sun, constructed with the greatest art in such a way that it reflected the rays of the sun."
Pyramids from the book of Kircher * Sphinx Mystagoga *.
In his book "The Great Art of Light and Shadow" (1647), Kircher described a construction of parabolic mirrors capable of lighting a tree at any distance. There is an interesting engraving in this book that was nearly three centuries ahead of George Lucas's Star Wars: in the upper left corner is a parabolic mirror used to collect sunlight and focus it on a target.
From the book of Athanasius Kircher * The Great Art of Light and Shadow *.
Kircher also used a system of mirrors to construct a crazy sundial - a hobby that spawned a fantastic clockwork that works with incendiary glasses and steam and emits a new steam whistle every hour.
Kircher also developed impressive optical illusions and sheer provocations. So he described the means to force the enemy army to retreat: to launch a kite at night in the form of a dragon, with candles inside, and the inscription “Ira Dei” (Latin - “The wrath of God”).
But most of all Kircher was remembered by the inhabitants of Rome, where he was engaged in teaching. He was obsessed with the idea of making a movie. Contrary to the truth in many sources, he is referred to as the creator of the "magic lantern" (Laterna magica). However, Kircher was the first to use the projector for impressive performances, where sound effects were used in addition to the image.
Sinner in Hell: * magic lantern * Athanasius Kircher in action.
Kircher is known for his early work in acoustics, where he developed the wave theory of sound. He developed an acoustic amplifier and put forward the idea of creating color musical instruments, and was also the author of the famous "Theory of affect" about the specific effect of music on emotions and human psyche. He, apparently, was the first of the Europeans to come up with the idea of a programmable musical instrument.
From the book of Athanasius Kircher * Musorgia universalis *.
In his book “Musorgia universalis” (The Universal Musical Element), published in 1662, he writes that he built a special machine with which one can get the musical notation of the nightingale's songs. It is not known what came of this, but he gives the musical notation of the voices of a chicken, rooster, cuckoo and quail. Kircher hardly suspected that in less than three hundred years the gramophone would make his car unnecessary.
From Kircher's book * Musorgia universalis *.
Among other musical quirks of Kircher, one can single out the "Cat's Piano", in which live cats are used instead of the mechanical part. Yes, yes, do not be surprised, at the time of Kircher it was believed that the meow of cats can cure melancholy. A short animated film The Cat Piano has even been released on the theme of the cat piano, which tells the story of the city of cats, where musicians are kidnapped by a man to make a cat piano.
It is curious to note that Kircher's musical discoveries and innovations were noted by Walter (Johann Gottfried) himself, having told about him in his book "Instructions in Musical Composition" (1708).
Athanasius Kircher.
During his lifetime, Athanasius Kircher enjoyed great respect among European intellectuals and rulers. This alone could provide Kircher with any support in his research and endeavors. But it is worth noting that Kircher had an entrepreneurial streak, so he knew how to dispose of the wealth created from his scientific works, of which more than 40 came out during his lifetime. Kircher sells the exclusive rights to publish and reprint most of his books to the Amsterdam publisher Joannes Janssonius van Waesberge) for a very substantial sum for those times.
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was so fascinated by the scientific works of Kircher that he wrote him a letter wishing him immortality. And Leibniz's famous work Discourses on Combinatorial Art came out after intensive correspondence with Kircher about Ars magna, a project of a systematic encyclopedia, where all sciences would be derived from the already known through substitution. The starting point here was the total analogy of all things. Descartes also strove for something similar.
Book "Ars magna".
If everything is contained in everything, then there must be an all-science that unites everything at once. This was Kircher's obsession, which eventually pushed him to create a comprehensive machine and a single table (Tabula alphabetorum artis nostrae - the alphabetical table of our knowledge), from where "everything possible" can be deduced combinatorially.
An unusual "supercomputer" called the Organum Mathematicum (or "mathematical organ"), which Kircher described as "a machine that connects all opposites," made it possible to perform relatively simple arithmetic, geometric and astronomical calculations. The Quick Organ Guide (as they would call it now) was about 850 pages in length.
His all-science reached its culmination in The Art of Combination, where he made the most ambitious attempt to embrace the world order with combinations of words and numbers, and thus solve all the riddles of the world. Undoubtedly, in this passion one can see Kircher's long-standing fascination with kabbalah - a metaphysical system into which the initiate was supposed to come to know the Universe. It is worth noting that Kircher was one of the most famous followers of the hermetic-cabalistic tradition.
The tree of life from the book of Kircher * Egyptian Oedipus *.
In conclusion, I would like to remind you that Athanasius (Athanasius) is a Greek name meaning "immortal." Kircher was wildly popular during his lifetime, but after his death he was anathema. But this is not the end, because his work is of great interest to a huge number of researchers. Perhaps, after some time, the world will again discover Atanasius Kircher, as it was most recently with Leonardo da Vinci.
