Athanasius Kircher

Kircher, Phonurgia nova, 1673. View online.

Athanasius Kircher (1601/02 – 1680) was a German Jesuit scholar.

Works

(in Latin unless noted)

• Ars Magnesia, Herbipoli: Zinck, 1631, 63 pp, WDB, Gallica.
• Primitiae gnomoniciae catroptricae, Avenione: Pivot, 1635, 228 pp, BSB.
• Prodromus coptus sive aegyptiacus, Romae: Fide, 1636, 338 pp, MPIWG.
• Specula Melitensis encyclica, hoc est syntagma novum instrumentorum physico-mathematicorum, 1637.
• Magnes sive de arte magnetica, Romae: Grignani, 1641, 916 pp, MPIWG.
• Lingua aegyptiaca restituta, Romae: Scheus, 1644, 622 pp,, Gallica, RBR.
• Ars magna lucis et umbrae in decem libros digesta, Romae: Scheus, 1646, 935 pp, MPIWG, LHL, RBR.
• Obeliscus pamphilius, Romae: Grignani, 1650, 560 pp, MPIWG, IA, RBR.
• Musurgia universalis, sive ars magna consoni et dissoni, Romae: Corbelletti, and Grignani, 1650, 690 pp, MPIWG, RBR.
• Oedipus aegyptiacus, 3 vols., Romae, 1652-54, 424+440+546+592 pp, MPIWG v1, UH v1, MPIWG v2/1, Google v2/1, MPIWG v2/2, Google v2/2, Google v3.
• Itinerarium extaticum s. opificium coeleste, Romae: Mascardi, 1656, WDB.
• Iter extaticum secundum, mundi subterranei prodromus, Romae, 1657, BSB.
• Scrutinium physico-medicum contagiosae luis, Romae: Mascardi, 1658, 252 pp, MPIWG, HUL.
• Pantometrum Kircherianum ... explicatum a G. Schotto, 1660, 408 pp, MPIWG.
• Iter extaticum coeleste, quo mundi opificium, Herbipoli: Endter, 1660, MPIWG, RBR.
• Diatribe de prodigiosis crucibus, Romae: Deuerlin, 1661, BSB, RBR.
• Polygraphia, 1663, RBR.
• Mundus subterraneus, 2 vols., Amsterdam: Jansson-Waesberg, 1665; 1678, 366+507 pp, MPIWG v1, MPIWG v2, UOL.
• Historia Eustachio-Mariana, Romae: Varesius, 1665, WDB.
• Arithmologia sive de abditis Numerorum mysteriis, Romae: Varesi, 1665, 301 pp, MPIWG.
• Obelisci Aegyptiaci, Romae: Varesi, 1666, 146 pp, MPIWG, RBR.
• China monumentis, 237 pp, Amsterdam: Meurs, 1667, MPIWG.
• Magneticum naturae regnum sive disceptatio physiologica, Romae: Lazaris, 1667, 136 pp, MPIWG.
• Organum mathematicum, 1668.
• Principis Cristiani archetypon politicum, 1669.
• Latium, Amsterdam: Jansson-Waesberg, 1669, 263 pp, MPIWG.
• Ars magna sciendi sive combinatorica, Amsterdam: Waesberge & Weyerstraet, 1669, 482 pp, MPIWG.
• La Chine […] illustrée de plusieurs monuments tant sacrés que profanes.., 1670.
• Ars magna lucis et umbrae, Amsterdam, 1671, UCM.
• Phonurgia nova, sive Conjugium mechanico-physicum artis et naturae paranympha philosophia concinnatum, Kempten: Rudolph Dreherr, 1673, PDF, SLUB, Gallica. Early book on sound, acoustics and music; describes acoustic apparatuses and phenomena such as the tuba stentorophonica [the loud trumpet], the statua citofonica [the talking statue], or the Aeolian harp. Commentaries: [1], [2].
• Arca Noë, Amsterdam: Jansson-Waesberg, 1675, Google.
• Sphinx Mystagoga, Amsterdam: Jansson-Waesberg, 1676, WDB.
• Musaeum Collegii Romani Societatis Jesu, Amsterdam: Jansson-Waesberg, 1679, 66 pp, MPIWG.
• Turris Babel, sive archontologia, Amsterdam: Jansson-Waesberg, 1679, 357 pp, MPIWG.
• Tariffa Kircheriana sive mensa Pathagorica expansa, 1679.
• Physiologia Kircheriana experimentalis, Amsterdam: Jansson-Waesberg, 1680, WDB.

Literature

• Joscelyn Godwin, Athanasius Kircher: A Renaissance Man and the Quest for Lost Knowledge, Thames & Hudson, 1979, 96 pp, Log.
• Paula Findlen (ed.), Athanasius Kircher: The Last Man Who Knew Everything, Routledge, 2003, PDF.
• John Edward Fletcher, A Study of the Life and Works of Athanasius Kircher, ‘Germanus Incredibilis’: With a Selection of his Unpublished Correspondence and an Annotated Translation of his Autobiography, ed. Elizabeth Fletcher, Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2011, 656 pp, Log.
• Daniel Stolzenberg, Egyptian Oedipus: Athanasius Kircher and the Secrets of Antiquity, University of Chicago Press, 2013, 320 pp.
• Daniel Stolzenberg, "Athanasius Kircher and the Hieroglyphic Sphinx", Public Domain Review, Sep 2014, HTML.
• Roberto Buonanno, The Stars of Galileo Galilei and the Universal Knowledge of Athanasius Kircher, Springer, 2014, PDF.