Kircher, Athanasius. Kircher, Afanasy Afanasy Kircher underworld

Athanasius Kircher (1602 - 1680), "learned Jesuit", " last man, who knew everything", "Jorge Luis Borges of the 17th century", "a learned charlatan" and "a learned ignoramus" was one of the most famous intellectuals of his time; his beautifully illustrated books were read by all of Europe (not excluding pre-Petrine Russia), his fellow Catholics, Protestant opponents, followers and critics marveled at his erudition. Kircher's interests included topics that now belong to such diverse disciplines as theology, ancient history, archaeology, religious studies, Egyptology, sinology, geology, hydraulics, optics, chemistry, physics, seismology, astrology, mathematics, Hebraic studies, Arabic studies, history of art and architecture. The main mission of the entire life of the Jesuit encyclopedist was to compile a huge compendium of knowledge, ancient and modern, that would comprehensively describe the world and God, subordinating this description to orthodox Catholic dogma, as it had developed by his time, Kircher. Kircher saw the source of human knowledge in ancient Egypt, which was the passion of his whole life: Kircher’s most famous work to this day is the huge compilation “Oedipus of Egypt” (1652-1654), an interpretation of the “philosophy of the Egyptians” based on the author’s reading of hieroglyphs (which has nothing to do with their true meaning). During the Enlightenment, Kircher was thoroughly ridiculed by modern European scientists: almost none of his significant scientific conclusions were recognized as correct by subsequent generations. At the same time, Kircher had a huge impact on culture, being the first professional researcher-writer (he largely supplied himself through the sale of his works and their regular reprints) and, to a certain extent, embodying the ideal of a baroque multimedia “encyclopedia of everything”, in which the image played no less a role than the text.
In the history of Western esotericism, Kircher remained as the author of the “sum” of magic, Kabbalah, astrology and Hermeticism of the Renaissance. The names of Marsilio Ficino, Pico della Mirandola, Giambatista Porta, as well as references to the Hermetic Corpus, the Chaldean Oracles, the Orphic hymns, the Zohar and the Sefer Yetzirah, do not leave its pages. Since much of Kircher's legacy is devoted to the study of pagan antiquity and the explanation of ancient religions, he is also important for the (pre)history of modern paganism. The translated chapter is an exposition of Kircher's theory of pagan theology - which influenced such important scholars of religion as Jacob Bryant (1715 - 1804) and Charles-François Dupuis (1742 - 1809). Although it cannot be said that Kircher was original in his theory (he himself constantly refers to the authority of Macrobius and Porphyry with their “monistic” interpretation of the pagan pantheons), his systems approach to scattered (and often incomplete and incorrect) data on ancient cults largely resembles the classifications of new paganism - from George Gemistus Plitho to the present day. From a Wiccan point of view, the attempt to reduce the entire pantheon to the "unfolding" of the primary divine couple - the Sun and the Moon - is more than remarkable. All this, despite the complete inconsistency of Kircher’s own historical data and his Catholic-tendentious explanation of ancient religions, makes his text very interesting.

Literature: Athanasius Kircher: The Last Man Who Knew Everything / ed. P. Findlen. N.Y., L.: Routeledge, 2004.

AFANASIY KIRCHER

Obeliscus Pamphilius, that is, a new explanation, and not previously attempted, of the Hieroglyphic obelisk, which recently from the old hippodrome of Caesar Antoninus Caracalla, moved to the Forum Agonale, restoring it in its integrity and decorating with it the Eternal City, INNOCENT TENTH, Pontifex Maximus. On which obelisk, the theology of the ancients, embodied in hieroglyphic symbols, according to various testimonies of Egyptian, Chaldean, Jewish, Greek antiquity and learning, sacred and profane, is here brought to light.
(Kircher A. Obeliscus Pamphilius... Romae: Typis Ludovici Grignani, 1650).

Book III. Mystagogia Aegyptiaca.

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Chapter ΧΙΙΙ.

All gods are reduced to the Sun, and all goddesses are reduced to the Moon.

That's how it works human nature that, rejecting everything that is hateful to the senses, she strives with all her might to those objects that are desirable, useful and favorable. To many people it seemed extremely painful to know God only with the intellect, without resorting to the help of sight. Therefore, since they did not see anything more beautiful and useful than the Sun, they considered him God. Moreover, the Sun, although it does not occupy the entire space with its huge body, brings life and health to the earth and plants, and imparts light to other stars, and makes the very vault of heaven visible. Minucius Felix elegantly speaks about this in “Octavia”: “Pay attention again to the sun, established in the sky: it pours its rays over all countries: it is present everywhere, it makes itself felt by everything and its lordship never changes.” And even Pliny himself, who
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mocked the fables about the gods, said: “Will someone say that we need to look for another God besides the Sun?” There are those who say that [the Greek word] ἥλιος (Sun) comes from the Hebrew אל, which means “God.” First of all, Macrobius, with numerous arguments, seeks to convince us that all gods are reduced to the Sun, and it alone is the Divinity that is worshiped, under numerous names, by all peoples. However, to understand this, we need to take a deeper look at our issue. In the first centuries after the Flood, when people struggled to comprehend the highest Lord of the entire universe, φῶς ὀικοῦιτα ἀπρόσιτον [dwelling in the inaccessible light], they noticed the influence of the celestial bodies on all those things that are necessary for life, as discussed above. Not distinguishing what is pure in nature and characteristic of the highest, these wicked ones, depicting the Divinity as their shocked sense saw it, did not recognize any other God than the one who determines the alternation of light and darkness, movement and rest, nights, days and years , weather and bad weather, moved by the natural mind, and led astray, as we read in the Scriptures which we hold sacred. For this reason, the Chaldeans, already in the first times after the Flood, when the cult of the true God was abandoned, adopted such a philosophy as described in books 1 and 2. The above quotes from Rambam speak about this in detail. The Chaldeans considered the greatest of the gods to be the Sun (which Phoenician theologians also call μόνον ὀυρανοῦ Θεὸν, [the only God of the sky]). The planets and other celestial bodies, which seem to obey the commands of the Sun, were called by the first [sages] of the Egyptians δωδεκαμόρια, standard-bearers and Θεοὶ βουλαῖοι, advisory gods, the planets ῥαβδοφόροι, that is, lictors, guardians, always abiding in the consistory of the blazing Sun. I believe that this wicked error did not take possession of people immediately after the flood, but that the original generations absorbed it not so many centuries later: this is how I understand the words of Moses in the 4th chapter of the Book of Genesis: “then they began אז הוחל לקרא בשׁם יהוה profane the name of Jehovah by calling upon him.” After all, the verb חלל means both “to begin” and “to profane”, “to defile” - in the latter sense it is used in the Book of Leviticus, ch. 19: לא חללת שם אלהיך . “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.” In Hebrew these words have the same sound. “Then the name of Jehovah was profaned by invocation,” as Onkelos explains, and another Chaldean interpreter, the son of Uziel, hiding under the name of Jonathan, Rashi, Radak and others, who understood this passage of Moses to mean that it speaks of the introduction of new deities. To profane the name of Jehovah by invoking means, in other words, to apply this most holy name, which designates the Creator and Lord of the entire universe, impiously to created things. Josephus Flavius ​​speaks wonderfully about this when he writes that the first 7 generations after the flood considered the One God, the Best and Greatest, to be δεσπότην εἰναι τῶν ὅλων [the Lord of All], and then they retreated ἐκ τῶν πατρίων ἐθισμῶν [from paternal customs], i.e. began to worship created things, or celestial bodies.
Hence comes the first principle applicable to the fictitious gods of the Egyptians: they are all reduced to the figures of Osiris and Isis, that is, the Sun and the Moon. These qualities mystically symbolize various types of sacred animals, like the kite - the fiery power of the Sun or Moon, the goat - fertility,
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humidity - crocodile, ibis - the power to absorb everything harmful, bulls - the power of ripening fruits, and so on, as discussed in more detail in various parts this essay. For the same reason, the main symbol of the Chaldeans was fire, among the Persians - Mithra, among the Babylonians - Bel, among the Jews - Tammuz, among the Phoenicians - Adonis, etc. The latter, the Phoenicians, who accepted the first kind of theology that we are talking about, considered ἀποῤῥὼξ, the viceroy or even the “banner” of the Sun, the king of the heavens. Since, due to the distance of the celestial bodies from earth, it was difficult for them to offer sacrifices directly, people decided that it was reasonable to dedicate symbols to them that would correspond to the nature of each of them. The Philistine dragon, whose figure is composed of parts of man and sea animals, is incorrectly considered as someone other than Neptune, Amphitrite, Salakia, Ocean or Thetis, or all of them together, that is, the sea itself (each of the gods could be characterized by both one or the other sex, as we will show in many other places), as a symbol characteristic of the early rude age of the great deity in the sacred assembly of the leaders of nature. After all, the mystery of the figure of Dagon does not allow us to assume that this is only a monument to the deceased; the same goes for the fish, which were said to be sacred to Dagon; they were worshiped as if they were symbols of the sea, in the same way as the heifers of the Egyptians, on account of the milk they gave, were first revered as symbols of the Earth, the nursing mother, then also of Isis or the Moon (for they recognized that all sustenance comes from from the beneficent forces of the Earth and the Moon), as well as symbols of the Sun, signified through the celestial sign of Taurus. All this was honored with the highest honors that befitted something divine. In the first centuries, only the beneficent forces of nature were revered in this way, then, when the cult of demons appeared, veneration spread to everything that was desired by superstition, and to demons who appeared under the names of dead people, and to the Sun and Moon, and all the rest, most celestial bodies that stood out with their brightness, on the sea and on the earth, and on all other active parts of nature. They all had rituals performed in front of the statues and columns dedicated to them, in such a way that, moving along the path of error, the wicked could no longer discern the difference either between dead people and demons, or between both and the natural properties of the universal machine, or even between those names , which they gave to those, others and others. Therefore, the Moon, Venus, Earth - all merge in the figure of Astarte, the Moon, Venus and the Sea - in the image of Dagon, and all of them together - in Isis; Sun, Jupiter, Saturn - in Baal, Moloch and Osiris; all the idols, whether they portrayed a hero or a demon, were hopelessly mixed up with each other from frequent invocations of him, which gave rise to countless waking ravings. From here came the household gods and countless geniuses, which we will talk about below; hence the equally numerous Moons, Venuses, Suns, Jupiters, Saturns; hence the countless statues of all nations, erected to anciently invented gods, differing from each other only by different names that sounded in different languages. The rituals of the pagans were just as similar to each other. And so among the ancients, from the diverse cult of a single deity, πολυθεεία [polytheism], which is described below, arose. The Greeks, following the Egyptians, Jews, Chaldeans, Babylonians, Phoenicians, added countless genealogies of gods to their pantheons; which all have their roots in the Sun and Moon alone. Thus, according to Macrobius and other authors cited above, Saturn, Jupiter,
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Pluto, Apollo, Bacchus, Mercury, Hercules, Aesculapius, Neptune, Vulcan, Mars, Pan, Aeolus, were nothing more than various properties of the Sun.
Since the sun measures times and years by its movement, it is called Saturn. Since it is the lord of all celestial bodies and the whole world, it is called Jupiter. Since it penetrates everywhere with its rays and illuminates everything, it is Apollo. The sun is called Mercury because it produces meteors that trace their path across the sky. It is Neptune because it rules over the sea and rivers. It is Pluto because it rules the underground regions. It is Bacchus, since it rules over the wine substance and other liquids, without which nothing can ripen. Since the Sun has strengthening power, it is called Hercules. The sun received the name Vulcan from its fiery nature, and Mars from the heat that awakens in the living: hence come skin diseases, madness, wars, murders and similar deeds of Mars. The sun is called Aesculapius because of the health it gives to bodies and souls, and Pan because of the fertility it imparts to everything. The sun is Aeolus because, by drawing large quantities of air into one place, it causes winds and storms. When these different properties were found in other planets, which, under the influence of sunlight, caused similar effects, these divine names were also attributed to them. If the Sun, united in nature, diverse in properties, was called the active principle of all things, then the Moon, also united, but diverse in strength, was depicted as the passive principle of things and the wife of the Sun. She was called the great Mother of the Gods, so that each of the goddesses could be reduced to her. At first the Moon was called Rhea, since it is subject to the expiration of the Sun, like a wife to a husband, and is, as it were, the mother of the generation itself. She is called Ceres, because she rules over fruits, Lucina, because, dispelling the darkness of the night, she fertilizes the soil, this underbelly of the world, with beneficent light, Venus, because of the fertile seed life and the desire to generate things, and since this consists of a liquid, she herself is depicted born from sea foam. She is Juno, in Greek ἤρα, from the air (aer), over which she rules, being called, from the seeds of the earth and plants that she brings into being (proserpere facit), Proserpina, and from flowers (floribus) and buds - Flora. She is Diana, due to the moistening power of the Moon, which gives birth to many things in wooded and fertile areas. She was awarded the name Minerva because of the lunar warmth, which, as we said above, contributes to the development of talents. She is called Hecate lower and subterranean because of the hundreds of kinds of things that she gives birth to in the underworld, Thetis - as the ruler of the seas and streams, and Bellona - from the heat that excess bile produces in bodies. Lest it appear that we are defending only our own assertions, I have thought it appropriate to confirm the above by the testimony of Eusebius alone. He's writing:

“Listen to this diligently: they call the power of fire Vulcan and erect statues of it in human form, with a blue cap on their head, symbolizing the vault of heaven, where the whole and pure fire is located. After all, the fire that fell from heaven to earth was weaker than the heavenly one and needs fuel, and therefore Vulcan is portrayed as lame. The same property found in the Sun,
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they call it Apollo, apparently from the movement of his rays, because in Greek πάλλειν means “to move.” Apollo, according to the singers, is surrounded by nine muses, that is, 7 planetary orbits, the eighth sphere, and the last one, which is the Moon. A laurel is dedicated to him, because this tree is fiery in nature, which is why it is hated by demons, and also because, when burned, it makes a loud crackling noise, which distinguishes it as a tree of divination. This same deity, since he heals the sick and drives away diseases, is called Hercules, ascribing to him twelve labors, for the sun passes through twelve signs of the Zodiac. Hercules is given the skin of a lion and a mace: the mace means the unequal movement of the Sun, the skin is the sign in which the Sun most of all shows its strength. The healing power of the Sun is symbolized by Aesculapius, whose staff is said to support the sick. This staff is entwined with snakes, a symbol of mental and physical health. After all, those knowledgeable in natural things say that, although other reptiles have the most coarse and earthly nature, the snake is distinguished by amazing properties: after all, it cures ill health of the body, and itself is reputed to be an expert in medicines. It was the snakes who discovered a plant that improves vision, and they even say that they know a certain herb that can rejuvenate. The fiery property of the Sun, thanks to which fruits ripen, is called Dionysus. At the completion of his annual cycle he is called Horus. Since the force that gives us fruit thereby increases wealth, it is called Pluto. Since corruption is hidden in this same property, Pluto is said to dwell with Serapis. Kerberus is depicted as having three heads because the Sun has three main positions in the upper heavens: sunrise, sunset and noon. The moon is called Diana, who, although she is a virgin, is nevertheless Lucina’s obstetrician, for the new moon contributes to childbirth in no small measure. What Apollo is to the Sun, Minerva, signifying prudence, is to the Moon. The Moon is further called Hecate because of the difference in the forms it heavenly body takes, depending on its distance from the Sun. Its properties are threefold. The properties of the new moon are depicted by the white and gold robes of the goddess and the torch she carries. The basket, which is depicted near the middle body of Hecate, means that as the light of the Moon increases, fruits ripen. Strength full moon depicts a fruitful flower, for she is given a golden branch in her hand, since it itself is ignited by the Sun, and the poppy is dedicated to Hecate because of its fertility and the many seed-souls that live in it, like in a city. After all, the poppy is a symbol of the city. Diana carries a bow because the pain of childbirth is very acute. They say that the fruitful force, which is called Ceres, lives with the Moon, which increases it; for Bona Dea, the Good Goddess, is possessed by the power of the Moon. The Moon also takes Dionysus for itself, partly because he, the horned god of fertility, partly because he symbolizes the region of clouds that extends directly below the Moon. The properties of Saturn are slowness, coldness; they were attributed to Saturn as time, depicting him as an old man, for time ages everything. Of the four seasons, those which are said to open the gates of air we have attributed to the Sun, the others to Ceres. The baskets carried by the deities of these seasons are filled with flowers (Spring carries her), or ears of corn (Summer carries her). The property of Mars, since it is fiery and associated with blood, they placed as the head of wars. About Venus they said that she possesses the property of generation and the cause of seed and desire; she is depicted as emerging from the sea, since it is a wet and hot element, and with her frequent movement she generates foam, which is a symbol of the seed. The power of speech and interpretation was called Mercury, who was depicted elongated and standing upright due to the intensity of speech, although the seminal
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the power of words extending everywhere. But when it was necessary to depict compound speech, part of it was depicted as the Sun, and was called Mercury, part - the Moon, which was called Hecate, part - the universe with the name Hermopanus, for he is the seed power of everything."

This is how Eusebius conveys the words of Porfiry. So that the reader can more easily perceive what is said above, it is appropriate to present the discussion about the diverse forces of the Sun and Moon, which, as we have shown, are the pagan gods and goddesses, in the form of symbolic diagrams.

Explanation of the following figure or diagram on p. 252.

In the diagram below there are two figures, the first - the Sun, the second - the Moon. Each shines with 12 rays, which are like 12 fingers, with which various natural actions are carried out; they are the various natural properties through which the Sun and the Moon, the Rulers of the whole world, govern everything. The ancients understood them under the names of various gods, whose names, according to the custom of various peoples, are placed around the circumference of the figures.

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From these diagrams it clearly follows that all these gods and goddesses, invented by mythologists, are nothing more than multiple properties of the single Sun and Moon, which, if combined, can be traced by their rays to the center, for all these rays share a single general nature. By these two natures everything that contains the sensory world lives and is nourished. They measure years, months and other periods of time. The life of all plants and animals depends on them. All pagan theology points to this Sun and his spouse, the Moon, which, as we have already said many times, all peoples adopted from the Egyptians, who were the first mortals to erect this huge pantheon, where all the gods were reduced to the Sun and the Moon, called Osiris and Isis . The Chaldeans followed the Egyptians with their Saturn and Rhea, to whom, like Osiris and Isis, they attributed everything. The Chaldeans were imitated by the Jews, who established the cult of Baal and Astarte, like the Phoenicians - the cult of Adonis, or Tammuz and Venus, the Persians - Mithra and Annaite, the Canaanites - Moloch and the so-called Venus, the Moabites - Chemosh and Baal-peor, the Philistines - Dagon and Atargatis.
So that the reader can understand the diversity of the cults of gods and goddesses among different peoples, it seemed appropriate to place here a table of their parallels, from which one could find out which of the above-mentioned gods corresponded to each other among different peoples, and which ones differed, and how they differed. Although, as we have shown, all gods and goddesses are reduced to the same thing, that is, the Sun and the Moon, and, consequently, to the single material force of the Sun, since the various gods and goddesses are nothing more than the different properties and actions of the Sun, in in our intellect they are present formally in the form of separate concepts. Reason commands us not to confuse them, and to make it easier for the reader to follow this command of reason, we reduce all pagan deities of both sexes to the Egyptian ones, from which they originated, so that the meaning of our reasoning is more clearly visible.
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Familiar with the history of the Jesuit order and scientific activities Some of its representatives will not be surprised by the fact that here, in the field of Egyptology, a place was found for one of the members of the order. Athanasius Kircher is a true son of his time, the 17th century, this era of sharp opposites, tireless searches and bold visions, the beginning of which saw Bacon, Kepler and Galileo, the middle - Descartes and Pascal, and the end illuminated by the names of Leibniz and Newton.

And not just anyone, but Leibniz himself confirms the right of Athanasius Kircher to be named next to them: “For the rest, I wish you, O you, who are worthy of immortality - to the extent that it falls to the lot of people, to which yours serves as a happy confirmation name, - immortality in an energetic old age full of youthful strength,” he wrote on May 16, 1670 to Kircher.

How did the son of Dr. Johann Kircher, adviser to the princely abbot Balthasar of Fulda and an official from the city of Haselstein, come to his studies in Egyptology, and what led him to this path?

Afanasy, as we have already noted, means “immortal.” But Athanasius was also the name of the great Patriarch of Alexandria, the saint by whose deeds Christian Egypt was glorified, and Egypt itself, in addition, was a country that at that very time aroused increased interest among the missionaries of the Society of Jesus.

The young student never lost sight of his ideal, embodied in the saint who gave him his name, and it just so happened that Christian Egypt gave him the first key to the knowledge of those secrets that in the future were finally revealed by the science of Egyptology.

Kircher's first and decisive meeting with Egypt took place in Speyer. This was in 1628. Athanasius has just been ordained and sent by his superiors to undergo a “probationary period” for one year in Speyer, where he must indulge in spiritual reflection in solitude. And then one day he is assigned to find some book. The young scientist searched the entire library, but did not find what he needed. But among her treasures he discovered a luxuriously illustrated volume.

The beautiful drawings depicted Egyptian obelisks, which Pope Sixtus V, despite great costs, ordered to be sent to Rome. Kircher's attention was especially attracted by the strange figures covering the edges of these powerful columns from top to bottom. At first, he mistook these amazing signs for the free creativity of ancient stonemasons, for simple ornaments.

However, the text of the essay, which he immediately delved into, soon brought him out of this delusion. There it was written in black and white that the wisdom of the ancient Egyptians was set forth in mysterious hieroglyphic signs and that it was carved in stone for the instruction of the people. But the key to understanding the mysterious letter has long been lost, and not a single mortal has yet managed to open this book behind seven seals.

And then the soul of the future researcher was ignited with the desire to decipher the hieroglyphs, read the texts and translate them. Without having the necessary, according to our current concepts, initial hypotheses, without that restraint, which is now the iron law of every scientific work, he dared to take on the texts and spoke publicly with his translations.

In the figure we show a sample from his "Sphinx mystagogica".

Kircher explained these hieroglyphs as follows: “The return to life of all things after the victory over Typhon, the moisture of nature, thanks to the vigilance of Anubis” (according to I. Friedrich). Any non-specialist can easily understand how Kircher came to this translation: he subtracted the “humidity of nature” from the wavy line, which actually means “water,” and in his mind the “vigilance of Anubis” was associated with the image of the eye.

In another case, he translates in a whole sentence the Roman-Greek royal title “autocrator” (“autocrat”) written in Egyptian alphabetic characters; Moreover, this interpretation of it cannot be accepted even with the most strong desire: “Osiris is the creator of fertility and all vegetation, whose productive power is brought down from heaven into his kingdom by Saint Mofta.”

“Absurdities” - this is how the translations of hieroglyphs made by Kircher are quite rightly called. However, those who spoke with excessive harshness about his “unheard-of audacity” lost sight of how closely Kircher was forced to adhere to the “delusional ideas” of Horapollo, responding to the ideal of the scientist of his time and how fully his absurd fantasies corresponded not only to the mystical assessment of everything, as regards vanishing antiquity, but also the downright morbid addiction of the 16th and 17th centuries to artificial symbols and allegories.

Egyptian writing contains three completely various types written characters that to modern man seems very strange at first; these are verbal signs, phonetic signs and determiners.

Verbal signs are signs that convey, through pictures, the concepts of specific creatures and objects without taking into account pronunciation. Following the example of cuneiform researchers, instead of the name “word sign,” the term ideogram (or logogram) was introduced. But along with sensually perceived objects and beings, there are also sensually perceived actions, that is, verbal concepts. For them, verbal signs can also be used without indicating the sound.

In addition, abstract concepts and actions (hence nouns and verbs) can be expressed ideographically using descriptive drawings, for example, “old age” - through a drawing of a bent man with a stick, “south” - through an image of a lily characteristic of Upper Egypt, “cool " - a vessel from which water flows, "find" - a heron, etc.

Sound signs, also called phonograms in contrast to ideograms, can be very heterogeneous in Egyptian. An entire word can replace another word based on its sound, as if in Russian we depicted a braid as a tool by drawing a woman’s braid, or the verb pech’ by ​​drawing a heating stove, etc. Thus, the picture for the Egyptian word wr “swallow” is also used for the word wr “big”, hprr “beetle” also means hpr “to become”. In this case, vowels located between consonants are not taken into account at all (which will be discussed below). Then drawings for more short words can be used to write parts of longer words. Thus, the word msdr “ear” can be composed as follows: ms “tail” + dr “basket” = msdr.

True, already in Clement of Alexandria one could read that hieroglyphs, along with word-signs, also contain simple letters. But it was precisely in Kircher’s time that people were less inclined than ever to believe this: hieroglyphs are just symbols, and if Greek translation the inscription on the obelisk (there was one such translation) does not contain anything profound, then it is erroneous; Afanasy Kircher immediately declared him as such!

And yet, even in this area (his other scientific discoveries received recognition), Athanasius Kircher left something truly significant to his posterity. He was the first (in his work published in Rome in 1643) to definitely show that the Coptic language, then the increasingly forgotten language of Egyptian Christians, was the ancient Egyptian vernacular - a conclusion that in any case could not be taken for granted at that time and which was later disputed and even ridiculed by eminent scientists.

Kircher owed the main materials for research in the field of the Coptic language to his close ties with the Roman Congregation for Propaganda, the highest papal missionary office, where the threads of leadership converged for a wide network of missionaries scattered throughout the world.

Kircher published a Coptic dictionary and even a Coptic grammar and thereby greatly contributed to awakening interest in the study of this ancient folk language. For more than two hundred years, his works served as the starting point for all research undertaken in the field of Coptic philology.

And this is the undeniable merit of Kircher. For Champollion, who later deciphered hieroglyphs and became a classic example of a decipherer, while still almost a child, proceeded from this discovery.

- (Kircher) (1601 1680), German naturalist, philologist, music theorist. Jesuit. Professor at the University of Würzburg (since 1628). From 1633 in Vienna, from 1635 in Rome. Specialist in Egyptian hieroglyphics. Treatises on music, including... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

- (16011680), German naturalist, philologist, music theorist. Jesuit. Professor at the University of Würzburg (since 1628). From 1633 in Vienna, from 1635 in Rome. Specialist in Egyptian hieroglyphics. Treatises on music, including “Universal... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

Kircher A.- KIRCHER (Kircher) Athanasius (160180), German. naturalist, philologist, musician. theorist. Jesuit. Prof. University of Würzburg (since 1628). From 1633 in Vienna, from 1635 in Rome. Egyptian specialist hieroglyphics. Treatises on music, including Universal... ... Biographical Dictionary

KIRCHER- (Kircher), Afanasy, b. 2 May 1602 in Geyz, d. 28 Nov 1680 in Rome; Jesuit scientist, professor of natural sciences. Sciences at the University of Würzburg, escaped from the horrors of the 30 Years' War by fleeing to Avignon, and from 1637 settled in Rome. Of his many... ... Riemann's Dictionary of Music

- ... Wikipedia

Linguistics ... Wikipedia

List of lunar craters A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S ... Wikipedia

Afanasy Kircher(German Athanasius Kircher, May 2, 1602, Gaisa (Rhön), near Fulda - November 27, 1680, Rome) - German encyclopedist scientist and inventor. One of the most learned people of his time, the author of many treatises on a wide variety of subjects (physics, natural Sciences, linguistics, antiquities, theology, mathematics), where along with accurate information, doubtful information from a modern point of view was reported. He is known for his works on Egyptology with an attempt to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs, as well as for archaeological research and the founding of an art museum in Rome that bore his name - the Kircherianum (1651-1773).

Compiled the “Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Chinese Empire” (1667). Many researchers are considered the inventor of a device for static projection - a magic lantern (lat. laterna magica).

Biography

At the age of sixteen he entered the Jesuit Order (1618). Later he taught philosophy and oriental languages ​​in Würzburg. His student and friend was a fellow member of the order, Caspar Schott (1608-1666).

During thirty years war(1618-1648) was forced to move to Avignon. In 1636, Kircher traveled through Sicily in the retinue of Landgrave Frederick of Hesse and, among other things, visited Syracuse. During a trip to Sicily, Kircher drew attention to mirages (lat. Fata morgana), quite common in the Strait of Messina, and found a satisfactory, in his opinion, explanation for them.

From 1637 he settled in Rome, where he taught mathematics. In Rome, in the Collegio Romano, Kircher's collection of natural history objects, antiquities, physical and mathematical instruments, described by Buonnani (1709) and Lattara (1773) in the book "Museo Kircheriano", is still preserved.

Kircher's books were in the libraries of many enlightened Europeans of the 17th century, such as the writer Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682).

Editions

Chronological list

• 1631 - lat. "Ars Magnesia"
• 1634 - “Magnes sive de arte magnetica” (2nd ed. 1641)
• 1635 - "Primitiae gnomoniciae catroptricae"
• 1636 - "Prodromus Coptus sive gyptiacus"
• 1637 - “Specula Melitensis encyclica, hoc est syntagma novum instrumentorum physico-mathematicorum”
• 1643 - "Lingua gyptiaca restituta"
• 1645-1646 - “Ars Magna Lucis et umbrae in mundo”
• 1650 - "Obeliscus Pamphilius"
• 1650 - “Musurgia universalis, sive ars magna consoni et dissoni”
• 1652-1655 - "dipus gyptiacus"
• 1656 - “Itinerarium extaticum s. opificium coeleste"
• 1657 - “Iter extaticum secundum, mundi subterranei prodromus”
• 1658 - "Scrutinium Physico-Medicum Contagiosae Luis, quae dicitur Pestis"
• 1660 - “Pantometrum Kircherianum… explicatum a G. Schotto”
• 1660 - “Iter extaticum coeleste”
• 1661 - "Diatribe de prodigiosis crucibus"
• 1663 - “Polygraphia, seu artificium linguarium quo cum omnibus mundi populis poterit quis respondere”
• 1664-1678 - “Mundus subterraneus, quo universae denique naturae divitiae” / “Underworld”
• 1665 - “Historia Eustachio-Mariana”
• 1665 - “Arithmologia sive de abditis Numerorum mysteriis”
• 1666 - “Obelisci Aegyptiaci… interpretatio hieroglyphica”
• 1667 - “China monumentis... illustrata” (Full title “China monumentis: qua sacris qu profanis, nec non variis naturae et artis spectaculis, aliarumque rerum memorabilium argumentis illustrata”)
• 1667 - “Magneticum naturae regnum sive disceptatio physiologica”
• 1668 - "Organum mathematics"
• 1669 - “Principis Cristiani archetypon politicum”
• 1669 - "Latium"
• 1669 - "Ars magna sciendi sive combinatorica"
• 1671 - "Ars magna lucis et umbrae"
• 1673 - “Phonurgia nova, sive conjugium mechanico-physicum artis et natvrae paranympha phonosophia concinnatum”
• 1675 - "Arca Noae" / "Noah's Ark"
• 1676 - "Sphinx mystagoga"
• 1679 - “Musaeum Collegii Romani Societatis Jesu”
• 1679 - "Turris Babel, Sive Archontologia"
• 1679 - “Tariffa Kircheriana sive mensa Pathagorica expansa”
• 1680 - “Physiologia Kircheriana experimentalis”