“a certain dark and bristling valley”: For the story of Kircher’s abduction by the “heretic horseman,” see ibid., pp. 48–52.
“the utmost zeal”: Ibid., p. 52.
“more than 2,000 secrets of medicine”: In Paula Findlen, Possessing Nature: Museums, Collecting, and Scientific Culture in Early Modern Italy (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994), p. 222.
“The Wolf is afraid of the Urchin”: Giambattista della Porta, Natural Magick, by John Baptista Porta, a Neopolitane: In Twenty Books . . . Wherein are set forth all the Riches and Delights of the Natural Sciences (London: Thomas Young and Samuel Speed, 1658), p. 9.
“a Man out of his senses for a day”: Ibid., p. 219.
“to Adorn Women, and Make them Beautiful”: Ibid., p. 233.
“A magnificence not to be scoffed at”: Vita, p. 52.
“optical illusions on a grand scale as well as a pyrotechnic display”: Reilly, Athanasius Kircher, S.J., pp. 35, 111.
an illuminated flying dragon: Johann Stephan Kestler, Physiologia Kircheriana Experimentalis: Qua Summa Argumentorum Multitudine & Varietate . . . (Amsterdam: Jansson-Waesberg, 1680), pp. 246–247.
“I was exhibiting things” . . . “Several accused me falsely”: Vita, p. 52.
“bad angels”: Gorman, “Between the Demonic and the Miraculous.”
“In order to free myself from this lowly charge”: Vita, p. 52.
“those men departed completely satisfied in every way”: Ibid., p. 54.
Chapter 5. Chief Inciter of Action
The Prince-Elector of Mainz: It was one of his predecessors who played an important role in the circumstances—some might say caused the circumstances—that started the Reformation. After paying Rome for the privilege of overseeing the sale of indulgences within the German provinces, the Prince-Elector brought on an overeager preacher-salesman, Johann Tetzel, whose range of offerings eventually and infamously included forgiveness for sins not yet committed. That led Martin Luther to nail his ninety-five theses to the door of the church in Wittenberg.
“private recreation”: Vita, pp. 55–56.
“When a strong magnet is placed in Peter’s breast”: Translation in Gorman, “Between the Demonic and the Miraculous.”
“restores husbands to wives”: In Gerrit Verschuur, Hidden Attraction: The History and Mystery of Magnetism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), p. 8.
Medical uses of the lodestone: Martha Baldwin, “Athanasius Kircher and the Magnetic Philosophy,” Ph.D. diss., University of Chicago, 1987, pp. 359–363.
Gout and the afflicted person’s toenails: Ibid., p. 373.
“anointed with garlic”: William Gilbert, On the Magnet: Magnetick Bodies Also, and on the Great Magnet of the Earth: A New Physiology, Demonstrated by Many Arguments & Experiments, trans. S. P. Thompson and the Gilbert Club (London: Chiswick Press, 1900), p. 2.
“an experiment with seventy excellent diamonds”: Ibid., p. 143.
“stupendous implanted vigour”: Ibid., p. 68.
“the chief inciter of action in nature”: William Gilbert, De Magnete, trans. P. Fleury Mottelay (New York, 1958), p. 333, in J. A. Bennett, “Cosmology and the Magnetical Philosophy 1640–1680,” Journal for the History of Astronomy 12 (1981), p. 165.
“built all Astronomy”: In Bennett, “Cosmology and the Magnetical Philosophy,” p. 165.
“length, breadth, heights, depths, areas”: J. F. Reimann, Versuch einer Einleitung in die Historiam Literariam . . . (1708), vol. 4, p. 179, in Fletcher, “Astronomy,” p. 54.
“delighted to such a marvelous degree”: Vita, pp. 54–57.
twelve major and thirty-eight minor sunspots: Fletcher, “Astronomy,” p. 54.
“not without wonderment”: Athanasius Kircher, Ars Magna Lucis et Umbrae, in Decem Libros Digesta . . . (Rome: Scheus, 1646), pp. 6–8, in Bach, “Athanasius Kircher and His Method,” p. 43, n. 49.
“I was utterly occupied”: Vita, p. 57.
The plague in Prague: Wedgwood, Thirty Years War, p. 190.
insides eaten away by a huge worm: Ibid., p. 202.
“Arabia, Palestine, Constantinople”: The Latin is in Daniel Stolzenberg, “Egyptian Oedipus: Antiquarianism, Oriental Studies, and Occult Philosophy in the Work of Athanasius Kircher,” Ph.D. diss., Stanford University, 2004, p. 78, n. 20.
“For the love of God”: Ibid., p. 78, n. 21; translation amended.
“Was it by chance”: Vita, p. 58.
“Instantly carried away with curiosity”: Ibid., pp. 58–59.
“It was the opinion of the ancient theologians”: In Curran, “Renaissance Afterlife of Ancient Egypt,” p. 109.
“From that very moment”: Vita, pp. 59–60.
“high peace resided over the Catholics”: Ibid., p. 63.
“wretched plight”: Friedrich Spee (1631) in Alan C. Kors and Edward Peters, eds., Witchcraft in Europe, 400–1700: A Documentary History (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001), p. 357.
“highly derivative”: Baldwin, “Athanasius Kircher and the Magnetic Philosophy,” p. 140.
“a primary and radical vigor”: On Kircher’s first book, see ibid., pp. 140–141.
“new and sudden whirlwinds of wars”: Vita, p. 61.
The march of Gustavus Adolphus: Wedgwood, Thirty Years War, pp. 295–296.
“the entire College was dissolved”: Vita, p. 66.
“At Bamberg the bodies lay unburied”: Wedgwood, Thirty Years War, pp. 320–321.
Chapter 6. Beautiful Reports
“Since all things in Germany”: Vita, p. 67.
“an Egyptian sky”: In Fletcher, “Astronomy,” p. 54.
“talent” was “good”: The Latin and an English translation is in Stolzenberg, “Egyptian Oedipus,” p. 80, n. 26.
“strange combination”: Reilly, Athanasius Kircher, S.J., p. 40.
“fell in with”: Vita, p. 68.
On Peiresc: See Peter N. Miller, Peiresc’s Europe: Learning and Virtue in the Seventeenth Century (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000). See also Pierre Gassendi, The Mirrour of True Nobility & Gentility, Being the Life of the Renowned Nicolaus Claudius Fabricius, Lord of Peiresk, trans. William Rand (London: J. Streater, for Humphrey Moseley, 1657).
“On those dayes on which the Posts”: Gassendi, Mirrour of True Nobility, pp. 162–163.
“could not have been very intimate”: Stolzenberg, “Egyptian Oedipus,” p. 23. See Peiresc to Dupuy, October 11, 1632, Philippe Tamizey de Larroque, ed., Lettres de Peiresc (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1888–1898), vol. 2, p. 359; and Peiresc to Gassendi, April 5, 1633, Tamizey de Larroque, Lettres de Peiresc, vol. 4, pp. 300–301. Peiresc was not the first person, nor was he the last, to have trouble getting his name straight. The problem was apparently exacerbated by the existence of another Jesuit, named Balthazar Kitzner. See Stolzenberg, “Egyptian Oedipus,” p. 24, n. 4.
“Rabbi Barachias Nephi of Babylon”: Peiresc to Gassendi, Aix, April 5, 1633, Tamizey de Larroque, Lettres de Peiresc, vol. 4, pp. 300–301.
“all written with Hieroglyphick Letters”: Gassendi, Mirrour of True Nobility, p. 207.
“made me more hopeful”: Peiresc to Gassendi, March 2, 1633, Tamizey de Larroque, Lettres de Peiresc, vol. 4, p. 295; compare Stolzenberg, “Egyptian Oedipus,” p. 26.
“rare courtesie and affability”: Gassendi, Mirrour of True Nobility, p. 160.
“great pleasure in taking him around”: Peiresc to Dupuy, Aix, May 21, 1633, Tamizey de Larroque, Lettres de Peiresc, vol. 2, p. 528.
“by reason of mice”: Gassendi, Mirrour of True Nobility, p. 166.
“waited upon him”: Ibid., p. 164.
the bones of a giant: Miller, Peiresc’s Europe, p. 30.
“an evil magician, a doctor”: In Willi
am Huffman, introduction to William Huffman, ed., Robert Fludd (Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 2001), p. 31.
“He has beautiful reports”: Peiresc to Dupuy, Aix, May 21, 1633, Tamizey de Larroque, Lettres de Peiresc, vol. 2, p. 528.
“If the experiment that you describe”: Descartes to Mersenne, July 22, 1633, in Paul Tannery and Cornelis de Waard, eds., Correspondance du P. Marin Mersenne, religieux minime (Paris: G. Beauchesne, 1932–1988), vol. 3, pp. 457–460.
“No such author or text”: See Stolzenberg, “Egyptian Oedipus,” p. 47.
“I am called to Vienna”: Vita, p. 70. It’s not clear whether Kircher had really been designated imperial mathematician in Vienna, or if the emperor just wanted to add another mathematician to his staff. Kircher curiously mentioned in one letter that he had been ordered to Trieste, but he referred to Vienna in others. See Stolzenberg, “Egyptian Oedipus,” p. 30, n. 25.
“Upon learning this”: Vita, p. 70.
“will surely be delayed”: In Stolzenberg, “Egyptian Oedipus,” p. 31.
Waterwheel story: See Vita, p. 73.
“one third of an hour after two” . . . “to be a miracle of any kind”: Peiresc’s account of the demonstration is translated in Thomas L. Hankins and Robert J. Silverman, Instruments and the Imagination (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1995), pp. 23–27.
“The bother that he made”: “Note de Peiresc Après la Visite du P. Kircher,” September 3, 1633, Lettres à Claude Saumaise et à Son Entourage, ed. Agnes Bresson (Florence: Olschki, 1992), p. 380, in Stolzenberg, “Egyptian Oedipus,” p. 35.
“I discovered it unfitting”: Ibid., p. 381. The French is in Stolzenberg, “Egyptian Oedipus,” p. 36, n. 39.
“he refused to admit it”: Ibid., pp. 381–382, in Stolzenberg, “Egyptian Oedipus,” p. 37. Translation amended.
“was suffused with joy”: Vita, p. 69.
Kircher’s account of his journey to Vienna: Ibid., pp. 74–86.
“presence alone seems to have”: Godwin, Athanasius Kircher, p. 13.
Chapter 7. Secret Exotic Matters
Kircher’s travel plans and reassignment to Rome: See Stolzenberg, “Egyptian Oedipus,” p. 34, n. 32; p. 38, n. 45.
magnificence and filth frequently competed: Joseph Forsyth, Remarks on Antiquities, Arts, and Letters: During an Excursion in Italy, in the Years 1802 and 1803 (London: J. Murray, 1816), p. 167.
“rare music” was “sung”: John Evelyn, Diary and Correspondence of John Evelyn, F.R.S.: to which is subjoined the private correspondence between King Charles I and Sir Edward Nicholas, and between Sir Edward Hyde, afterwards Earl of Clarendon, and Sir Richard Browne, ed. William Bray (London: Henry Colburn, 1850), vol. 1, pp. 108–109.
Bernini’s special effects: Filippo Baldinucci, The Life of Bernini (1682), trans. Catherine Engass (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2006), pp. 83–84.
“In Rome, one sees only beggars”: In Richard E. Spear, “Scrambling for Scudi: Notes on Painters’ Earnings in Early Baroque Rome,” The Art Bulletin 85, no. 2 (June 2003), p. 312.
“Being environed with walls”: Evelyn, Diary and Correspondence, vol. 1, pp. 136–137.
“horses, all kinds of corn”: Fioravante Martinelli and Henry Cogan, A Direction for Such As Shall Travell Unto Rome: How They May with Most Ease and Conveniency View All Those Rarities, Curiosities, and Antiquities Which Are to Be Seene There (London: Henry Herringman, 1654), p. 217.
Collegio Romano gave “place to few”: Evelyn, Diary and Correspondence, vol. 1, p. 132.
“I paid my respects” . . . “requested that I tell him”: Kircher to Peiresc, December 1, 1633; the Latin is in Stolzenberg, “Egyptian Oedipus,” p. 73, n. 4.
“to the Vatican library”: Ibid., p. 75, n. 6.
“News is that there is a Jesuit”: Raffaello Maggiotti to Galileo, March 18, 1634, in Le Opere di Galileo Galilei (Florence: G. Barbera, 1968), vol. 16, p. 66.
“did not deliberately deceive”: Findlen, “The Last Man Who Knew Everything . . . Or Did He?,” p. 19.
God “sets limits”: Vita, p. 91.
“lest I fall in with the label of fraud”: Ibid., p. 92.
“I am hurt”: In Stolzenberg, “Egyptian Oedipus,” pp. 124–125.
multivolume work he planned to call Universal History: A complete transcript and translation of Kircher’s outline for this book is in Stolzenberg, “Egyptian Oedipus,” Appendix 2, pp. 343–357.
“Father Atanase Kircher is having his Egyptian”: Jean Baptiste-Doni to Mersenne, September 30, 1635, in Paul Tannery and Cornelis de Waard, eds., Correspondance du P. Marin Mersenne, vol. 5 (Paris: Éditions du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1959), p. 412.
It quoted Barachias Nephi: Stolzenberg details the way in which “Barachias Nephi” morphed into the Arab “Barachias Albenephius” or “Barachias Abenephius” in this and subsequent books. See Stolzenberg, “Egyptian Oedipus,” pp. 27, n. 13; 47–48; 51, n. 79. Here, for the general-interest reader, he will continue to go by “Barachias Nephi.”
Mount Horeb inscription: See Stolzenberg, “Egyptian Oedipus,” pp. 118–119.
“many arguments”: In Ingrid D. Rowland, The Ecstatic Journey: Athanasius Kircher in Baroque Rome (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), pp. 87–88.
“unabashedly proclaimed”: Curran, “Renaissance Afterlife of Ancient Egypt,” p. 127.
Chapter 8. Habitation of Hell
“it happened that”: Vita, p. 87.
Fabio Chigi: See Ingrid D. Rowland, “Etruscan Inscriptions from a 1637 Autograph of Fabio Chigi,” American Journal of Archaeology 93, no. 3 (1989), pp. 423–428; also see Paula Findlen, “Scientific Spectacle in Baroque Rome: Athanasius Kircher and the Roman College Museum,” in Mordechai Feingold, ed., The Jesuits and the Scientific Revolution (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2002), p. 282.
Ramon Llull: See Umberto Eco, The Search for the Perfect Language, trans. James Fentress (London: Fontana Press, 1997), pp. 53–69.
“enthusiastic capacity for fatiguing detail”: Bach, “Athanasius Kircher and His Method,” p. 26.
Description of the Maltese observatory: Ibid., pp. 51–52, nn. 97, 99, 100; and Rowland, Ecstatic Journey, p. 10.
asking for a reassignment to Egypt or to the Holy Land: Stolzenberg, “Egyptian Oedipus,” pp. 77–78, n. 18.
“I found such a Theater of Nature”: Athanasius Kircher, The Vulcano’s, Or, Burning and Fire-Vomiting Mountains, Famous in the World, with Their Remarkables: Collected for the Most Part Out of Kircher’s Subterraneous World, and Exposed to More General View in English (London: J. Darby, for John Allen and Benjamin Billingsly, 1669), p. 34.
“mariners are wont to allure it”: In Reilly, Athanasius Kircher, S.J., p. 67.
Kircher’s account of the earthquakes in Calabria: Vita, pp. 133–147.
paid homage to Lucretius, Virgil, Lucan, and Dante: See Findlen, Possessing Nature, pp. 184–192.
“miracles of subterraneous nature”: Kircher, The Vulcano’s, p. 34; for his account of exploring Vesuvius, see pp. 35–36.
Chapter 9. The Magnet
“delayed” him in Rome . . . very dark “states of spirit”: In Stolzenberg, “Egyptian Oedipus,” pp. 129–130, nn. 193, 195.
Instruments in Kircher’s cubiculum: Gorman, “Between the Demonic and the Miraculous.”
limestone stalactites, ostrich eggs . . . and other things: Ingrid D. Rowland, “Athanasius Kircher and the Musaeum Kircherianum,” Humanist Art Review (n.d.), www.humanistart.net/kircher_idr/kircher.htm.
As long as circumstances “held me in Rome”: Vita, p. 94.
“someone in each college of the entire Society”: In Baldwin, “Athanasius Kircher and the Magnetic Philosophy,” p. 85.
one Jesuit in Lithuania: Michael John Gorman, “The Ange
l and the Compass: Athanasius Kircher’s Geographical Project,” in Paula Findlen, ed., Athanasius Kircher: The Last Man Who Knew Everything (New York: Routledge, 2004), p. 247.
“rattle my adversaries’ distrust of my work”: Vita, p. 94.
Holy Roman Emperor as new patron: See Stolzenberg, “Egyptian Oedipus,” pp. 129–131, nn. 193–196.
“We must always maintain that the white I see”: Ignatius of Loyola, Personal Writings, p. 358.
“absurda, indigna, et intolerabilis”: In Martha Baldwin, “Magnetism and the Anti-Copernican Polemic,” Journal for the History of Astronomy 16 (1985), p. 159.
“Woe to all iron implements”: Athanasius Kircher, Magnes, sive De Arte Magnetica Opus Tripartum Quo Praeterquam Quod Universa Magnetis Natura (Rome: Scheus, 1641), p. 544. This is a rather famous line.
“wished to philosophize prudently”: In Baldwin, “Magnetism and the Anti-Copernican Polemic,” p. 160.
“that prodigal of nature”: In Martha Baldwin, “Kircher’s Magnetic Investigations,” in Daniel Stolzenberg, ed., The Great Art of Knowing: The Baroque Encyclopedia of Athanasius Kircher (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Libraries, 2001), p. 28.
“coition or union”: Robert Fludd, Mosaicall Philosophy: Grounded Upon the Essentiall Truth or Eternal Sapience: Written First in Latin, and Afterwards Rendred into English (London, Printed for H. Moseley, 1659), p. 299.
“sucketh and attracteth”: Ibid., p. 245.
Kircher’s studies of heliotropic plants: See Baldwin, “Athanasius Kircher and the Magnetic Philosophy,” p. 350.
“kind of material”: In Hankins and Silverman, Instruments and the Imagination, p. 29.
“pulls what is similar to its own nature”: In Baldwin, “Athanasius Kircher and the Magnetic Philosophy,” p. 381.
“putrid, contagious and noxious to men”: Ibid., p. 403.
tarantulas and “tarantellas”: See ibid., pp. 429ff.
vegetable lamb plant of Tartary: Ibid., pp. 341–343.
“earned not insignificant applause”: Vita, p. 94.
“a very large volume on the magnet”: In Eugenio Lo Sardo, Iconismi e Mirabilia da Athanasius Kircher (Rome: Edizioni dell’Elefante, 1999), pp. 13–14.
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