Was Athanasius Kircher just about the coolest guy ever, or what?
Thursday, May 23rd, 2002
The New York Institute for the Humanities at New York University
presents Was Athanasius Kircher just about the coolest guy ever, or what?
7-10 PM
Hemmerdinger Hall
NYU Main Building
100 Washington Square East, corner of Washington Place
Was Athanasius Kircher just about the coolest guy ever, or what?
Not your traditionally phrased academic
question, granted, but then Athanasius Kircher, the splendid polymath
inventor / magus / sage / linguist/ and Jesuit museum-manóone of the
most deliriously outstanding figures in seventeenth century Baroque
Rome (or, for that matter, anywhere anytime)óis hard to characterize in
just about any other terms.
This past year, the four-hundredth
anniversary of his birth (in May 1602, into a poor family in Geisa,
Germany) has seen major conferences and exhibitions devoted to
Kircherís life and mind and work in Chicago, Stanford, Los Angeles, and
Rome. This May 23rd, at 7 pm, the New York Institute for the Humanities
at NYU will be hosting the New York installment of this ongoing
free-floating celebration. The predominant tenor of the eventóas of the
manówill be one of marvel and amazement.
A man of voracious curiosity, Kircher
(1602-1680) did pioneering work in fields as varied as acoustics;
optics (he invented the magic lantern, precursor to the modern slide
projector); vulcanology (at one point he had himself lowered on a rope
into a roiling Mt. Vesuvius); Egyptology (his was one of the earliest
attempts to decipher hieroglyphics, and as part of that passion, he was
responsible for dotting Rome with many of the obelisks gracing its
squares to this day); cybernetics (he perfected an early calculating
machine); linguistics (after exploring the relations between Latin,
Greek, Hebrew, Chaldaic, Arabic, Armenian, and countless other tongues,
he endeavored to synthesize a universal language); and the general
theory of magnetism. He was one of those remarkable scholars active as
alchemy was morphing into chemistry, and astrology into astronomy. He
composed, even for instruments he himself hadnít invented; his
imagination ranged freely, from Ancient Babylon to contemporary Mexico
and China; by his death at the age of 78, he had penned over forty
folio volumes, surveying and amplifying just about every field of
scholarly endeavor of his time.
In addition, as keeper of the Jesuitsí
principal wonder cabinet / museum, he was able to draw on the resources
of that far-flung order (whose representatives had scattered themselves
from Greenland to Patagonia, from China to California) in his arguably
successful attempt to fashion the greatest trove of marvels and
curiosities of his time, which survives to this day as the celebrated
Museum Kircherianum in Rome,
In recent years, Athanasius Kircher has
been a focus of study and enthusiasm on the part of many of the
foremost scholars and wonder-practitioners of our own time, several of
whom will be participating in the NYIH event, including:
Paula Findlen (Stanford University), author of a pioneering book on Renaissance museums, Possessing Nature
and one of the worldís leading historians of sixteenth and seventeenth
century science, will discuss Kircherís connections to the culture of
the New World.
Michael John Gorman (Stanford
University) co-creator of a web-based edition of Kircherís
correspondence and leading student of Kircherís wonderful machines,
will demonstrate his work in both fields.
Anthony Grafton (Princeton
University), author of Leon Battista Alberti and a specialist on the
cultural history of the Renaissance will follow Kircher as he recreates
the ancient world, deciphers hieroglyphs, and recreates the city of
Rome.
David Wilson (Museum of Jurassic
Technology), MacArthur fellow, artist and polymath, will describe an
exhibition that has brought Kircher back to life for hundreds of
museums visitorsóin one of the few places in the world that resembles
Kircherís museum.
The end of the evening will feature the observations of two commentators:
D. Graham Burnett, Princeton University, author of Masters of All They
Surveyed and A Trial by Jury.
Eroll Morris, the celebrated documentarian (Fast Cheap and Out of Control, A Brief History of Time, and The Thin Blue Line) whose wideranging interests and innovative techniques reflect much of the Kircherian temper.
Recent resources on Athanasius Kircher include:
The Ecstatic Journey: Athanasius Kircher in Baroque Rome
Ingrid Rowland, University of Chicago Library, 2000
The Great Art of Knowing: The Baroque Encyclopedia of Athanasius Kircher;
ed by David Stolzenberg, Stanford University Libraries ,2001;
including essays by Paula Findlen and Michael John Gorman
ìThe World is Bound with Secret Knots: The Life and Works of Athanasisus Kircherî
Exhibition at the Museum of Jurassic Technology;
online at http://mjt.org/exhibits/knots.html
For Information and press accreditation
please contact Shonna Keogan at the NYU Press Office at 212.998.6797.
For general infomation please contact the NYIH at 998-2100.
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