Athanasius Kircher (160280) was acknowledged to be the most learned man of his age. By profession a Jesuit priest, he made himself an authority on every subject under (and above) the sun and published the results of his researches in over thirty lavishly illustrated volumes in Latin. His museum in Rome was famous and visited by everybody in the world of learning. Inevitably, his work has been superseded in most areas of study, but he remains a key figure in the history of ideas and in recent years there has been a revival of interest, in which Joscelyn Godwin has played a leading role. But while every other aspect of his thought has been studied, the fascinating engravings with which he illustrated his ideas have been largely ignored. This book fills that gap. It is divided into 15 chapters grouped by the engravings subject; these illustrations reveal his singular mind and the way he was drawn to mysticism and magic.
Arvustused
'Magisterial ... a beautiful, absorbing and utterly wonderful book' - Times Higher Education 'An enchanting compendium of curiosities ... a stupendously good piece of design. Every illustration is reproduced in exactly the right place; the captions are superbly apt and very clearly signalled; the sidebars are tactfully positioned and filled with exactly the right amount of information. The author and the publisher have taken real, prolonged, and exhaustive pains to make a beautiful book, and succeeded' - Philip Pullman, Guardian
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The fascinating celebration of a man who dominated the intellectual world of the 17th century
| Preface |
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7 | (2) |
| Prologue: Interesting Times |
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9 | (4) |
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1 Kircher's Life and Work: an Overview |
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13 | (10) |
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23 | (24) |
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3 The Illustration of Kircher's Works |
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47 | (12) |
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59 | (18) |
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77 | (22) |
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99 | (28) |
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7 Naturalia: Fire and Water |
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127 | (16) |
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8 Naturalia: Air and Earth |
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143 | (14) |
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157 | (22) |
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10 Machines of Past and Present |
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179 | (12) |
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11 Machines: Magnetic and Optical |
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191 | (24) |
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215 | (22) |
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237 | (20) |
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257 | (13) |
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270 | (19) |
| Athanasius Kircher's Writings |
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289 | (1) |
| Bibliography of Works Cited |
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290 | (4) |
| Sources of Illustrations |
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294 | (1) |
| Index |
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295 | |
Joscelyn Godwin is Professor of Music at Colgate University, New York state. He is the author of many books, including A Renaissance Man and the Quest for Lost Knowledge and The Pagan Dream of the Renaissance, both published by Thames & Hudson. He has also edited or translated nineteen other books, including the first complete English translation of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, published by Thames & Hudson in 1999.
