Talk:Athanasius Kircher

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From the 1911 Encyclopedia Brittanica

KIRCHER, ATHANASIUS (1601-1680), German scholar and mathematician, was born on the 2nd of May 1601, at Geisa near Fulda. He was educated at the Jesuit college of Fulda, and entered upon his noviciate in that order at Mainz in 1618. He became professor of philosophy, mathematics, and Oriental languages at Wurzburg, whence he was driven (1631) by the troubles of the Thirty Years War to Avignon. Through the influence of Cardinal Barberini he next (I635) settled in Rome, where for eight years he taught mathematics in the Collegio Romano, but ultimately resigned this appointment to study hieroglyphics and other archaeological subjects. He died on the 28th of November 1680.

Kircher was a man of wide and varied learning, but singularly devoid of judgment and critical discernment. His voluminous writings in philology, natural history, physics and mathematics often accordingly have a good deal of the historical interest which attaches to pioneering work, however imperfectly performed; otherwise they now take rank as curiosities of literature merely. They include Ars Magnesia (1631); Magnes, sive de arte magnetica opus tripartitum (1641); and Magneticum naturae regnum (1667); Prodro,nus Coptus (1636); Lingua Aegyptiaca restituta (1643); Obeliscus Pam philius (1650); and Oedipus Aegyptiacus, hoc est universalis doctrinae hieroglyphicae instauratio (1652-1655)works which may claim the merit of having first called attention to Egyptian hieroglyphics; Ars magna lucis et umbrae in mundo (1645-1646); Musurgia universalis, sive ars magna consoni et dissoni (1650); Polygraphia, seu artificium tin guarum quo cum omnibus mundi populis potent quis respondere (1663); Mundus subterraneus, quo subterrestris mundi opificium, universae denique naturae divitiae, abditorum effectuum causae demonstrantur (1665-1678); China illustrata (1667); Ars magna sciendi (1669) ; and Latium (1669), a work which may still be consulted with advantage. The Specula Melitensis Encyclica (1638) gives an account ofakindof calculating machine of his invention. The valuable collection of antiquities which he bequeathed to the Collegio Romano has been described by Buonanni (Musaeum Kircherianum, 1709; republished by Battara in 1773).

Seems much more thorough and list all his major works and dates.

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There seems to be some doubt as to whether he's Kircher or Kirchner, and whether he was born in 1601 or 1602; in both cases I've gone with the Catholic Encyclopedia, since it's the word of God. Markalexander100 09:35, 24 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Contents 1 Athanasius Kircher's "deciphering" hieroglyphics 2 Athanasius Kircher's weather forcaster & Leibniz's characteristica universalis 3 Date of death 4 properties of sound

[edit] Athanasius Kircher's "deciphering" hieroglyphics

"His work on Egyptian hieroglyphics anticipated the decisive work of Champollion," This is tongue-in-cheek I suppose. His work was gobbledy-gook. Famously. Wetman 07:41, 29 Sep 2004 (UTC)

No. As the article says, Although his approach to deciphering the texts was flawed, he did pioneer serious study of hieroglyphs, and the data which he collected were later used by Champollion in his successful efforts to decode the script. Markalexander100 09:37, 29 Sep 2004 (UTC)

A mixed bag might be a better description. He did a lot of work in gathering copies of inscriptions, but his ideas of how the heiroglyphics worked was both so wrong and so intellectually convoluted that a good number of post-Champollion scholars have argued that it in many ways was an impediment to real progress in understanding Egyptian writing. -- Infrogmation 22:06, 25 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Kircher's approach was based on ideas that they were examples of some kind of 'divine language', and was not investigated in the ways that are considered to be acceptable now. Kircher's system are a fascinating diversion, but that is probably about it. The data-collection aspect sounds feasible though. --Trithemius 00:17, Nov 26, 2004 (UTC)

'dd Wsr' should not be translated as 'Osiris says', rather as 'given force', I think.

[edit] Athanasius Kircher's weather forcaster & Leibniz's characteristica universalis

In 1940 P.P.Weiner wrote that a weather-forecaster invented by Athanasius Kirchner, "interested Leibniz in connection with his own attempts to invent a universal language" (1940).

Does anyone have any familiarity with A) Kircher's weather-forecater, and B) it's connection ot Leibniz's universal language? Sholto Maud 06:15, 18 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Date of death

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica [1] and Catholic Encyclopedia [2] say 28th November, the "Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon" [3] and my 1905 Brockhaus Enzyklopädie say 27 November. Is there a reliable source that tells us the date exactly, or explains the discrepancy? Kusma (討論) 09:04, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] properties of sound

Didn't he perform an early bell&vacuum experiemnt, before Robert Boyle? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 129.2.42.105 (talk) 15:39, 24 January 2007 (UTC).