Reading


The following is merely intended as a small, introductory selection of scholarly studies relating to Kircher and his correspondence. More detailed bibliographies can be found in the general works cited. We also invite user contributions to our bibliography of works relevant to Kircher studies. If you would like to add a book or article to this list, please email Suzanne Sutherland Duchacek.

General Works

Paula Findlen, ed. Athanasius Kircher: The Last Man Who Knew Everything. New York: Routledge, 2004.

John Fletcher, ed. Athanasius Kircher und seine Beziehungen zum gelehrten Europa seiner Zeit. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1988. A preliminary list of Kircher’s manuscripts and letters made by John Fletcher may be found on pp. 152-181.

Joscelyn Godwin. Athanasius Kircher: A Renaissance man and the quest for lost knowledge. London: Thames and Hudson, 1979.

Joscelyn Godwin. Athanasius Kircher’s Theatre of the World: The Life and Work of the Last Man to Search for Universal Knowledge. Rochester, Vt.: Inner Traditions, 2009.

Ignacio Gomez de Liano. Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680), Itinerario del extasis, o Las imagenes de un saber universal. Madrid: Ediciones Siruela, 1986.

Thomas Leinkauf. Mundus combinatus. Studien zur Struktur der barocken Universalwissenschaft am Beispiel Athanasius Kirchers SJ (1602-1680). Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1993.

Conor Reilly. Athanasius Kircher: a master of a hundred arts, 1602-1680. Studia Kircheriana, Wiesbaden: Edizioni del Mondo, 1974.

Valerio Rivosecchi. Esotismo in Roma Barocca: Studi sul Padre Kircher. Rome: Bulzoni, 1982.

Studies of Kircher’s Correspondence

Kircher’s correspondence has been the subject of a large number of articles by John Fletcher. For a selection, see especially

John Fletcher. Athanasius Kircher and his correspondence. In J. Fletcher (ed.). Athanasius Kircher und seine Beziehungen. cit.,pp. 139-195.

_________. A brief Survey of the unpublished Correspondence of Athanasius Kircher, S.J. (1602-1680). Manuscripta. 1969; 13(3): 150-160.

Other relevant articles by Fletcher on more specific aspects of the correspondence include

_________. Astronomy in the life and Correspondence of Athanasius Kircher. Isis. 1970; 61: 52-67.

_________. Johann Marcus Marci writes to Athanasius Kircher. Janus. 1972; 59: 95-118.

_________. Athanasius Kircher and Duke August of Brunswick-Lüneburg. A chronicle of friendship. In Fletcher (ed.). Athanasius Kircher und seine Beziehungen. cit.,pp. 99-138.

On Kircher’s close epistolary relationship with Fabio Chigi, later Pope Alexander VII see

Alberto Bartòla. Alessandro VII e Athanasius Kircher S.I. Ricerche e appunti sulla loro corrispondenza erudita e sulla storia di alcuni codici chigiani. Miscellanea Bibliothecae Apostolicae Vaticanae. 1989; III: 7-105.

On the importance of Kircher’s correspondence as a source for the history of Jesuit missionary activities, see

J. Wicki. Die Miscellanea Epistolarum des P. Athanasius Kircher S.J. in missionarischer Sicht. Euntes Docete, 1968; XXI: 221-254.

On Kircher’s correspondents in Mexico, see

Ignacio Osorio Romero. La Luz Imaginaria: Epistolario de Atanasio Kircher con los novohispanos. Mexico City: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 1993.

On Kircher’s epistolary relationship with the Jesuit astronomer Giambattista Riccioli, see

Ivana Gambaro. Astronomia e Tecniche di Ricerca nelle lettere di G.B. Riccioli ad A. Kircher. Genova: Quaderni del Centro di studio sulla storia della tecnica del Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche 15; 1989.

On Kircher’s relationship with his disciple Kaspar Schott, see

Kaspar Schott: La technica curiosa; saggio introduttivo di Michael John Gorman e Nick Wilding; con uno studio linguistico e traduzioni annotate dal latino a cura di Maurizio Sonnino; prefazione di Paolo Galluzzi.: Roma: Edizioni dell’Elefante, 2000.

Museum Catalogs

Eugenio Lo Sardo, ed. Athanasius Kircher: il museo del mondo. Roma: De Luca, 2001 (catalogue of the exhibition on Kircher’s museum held at the Palazzo Venezia, Rome, 28 febbraio-22 aprile 2001).

Ingrid Rowland. The Ecstatic Journey: Athanasius Kircher in Baroque Rome. Chicago: University of Chicago Library, 2000 (catalogue of the exhibition on Kircher held at the Department of Special Collections, University of Chicago Libraries, 2000).

Daniel Stolzenberg, ed. The Great Art of Knowing: The Baroque Encyclopedia of Athanasius Kircher. Stanford, California: Stanford University Libraries, 2001 (catalogue of the exhibition on Kircher held at the Department of Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries, April to July 2001).

The curator of the Rome exhibition, Eugenio Lo Sardo, has also published a separate volume on Kircher including Italian translations of excerpts from some of Kircher’s works:

Eugenio Lo Sardo, ed. Iconismi & Mirabilia da Athanasius Kircher. Roma: Edizioni dell’Elefante, 1999.
Kircher’s Museum

M. Casciato, M. Ianniello and M. Vitale, eds. Enciclopedismo in Roma barocca: Athanasius Kircher e il museo del Collegio Romano tra Wunderkammer e museo scientifico. Venice: Marsilio, 1986.

Paula Findlen. Scientific Spectacle in Baroque Rome: Athanasius Kircher and the Roman College Museum. Roma Moderna e Contemporanea. 1995; 3: 625-665.

___________, Possessing Nature: Museums, Collecting, and Scientific Culture in Early Modern Italy, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994.

Aldagisa Lugli. Inquiry as Collection: The Athanasius Kircher Museum in Rome. RES. 1986; 12: 109-124.
Kircher’s instruments and machines

Apart from the works dealing with Kircher’s instruments in the context of his Museum, studies include

Thomas L. Hankins and Robert J. Silverman. Instruments and the Imagination. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1995, Chapters 2 and 3.

On Kircher’s mathematical organ, see:

Mara Miniati. Les “cistae mathematicae” et l’organisation des connaissances au XVIIe siècle. In Cristine Blondel et al. (eds.). Studies in the History of Scientific Instruments. London: Roger Turner Books, 1989, pp. 43-51.

Kircher’s Cultural Context

A study which places the work of Kircher and his disciples in the context of the cultural and political interests of the Habsburg monarchy is

R. J. W. Evans. The Making of the Habsburg Monarchy: An Interpretation. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1979, Chapters 9-12.

Specific Studies

Apart from the studies included in the collective works listed above, the following is a very small selection of studies with relevance to particular areas of Kircher’s activity:

Martha Baldwin. The Snakestone Experiments: An Early Modern Medical Debate. Isis. 1995; 86 (3): 394-418 (on Kircher’s polemic with Francesco Redi about the efficacy of magnetic medicine).

Carlos Ziller Camenietzki. L’Extase interplanetaire d’Athanasius Kircher: philosophie, cosmologie et discipline dans la Compagnie de Jésus au XVIIe siècle. Nuncius. 1995; X (1): 3-32 (on Kircher’s Itinerarium Exstaticum, 1656).

Catherine Chevalley. L’Ars Magna Lucis et Umbrae d’Athanase Kircher. Néoplatonisme, hermétisme et “nouvelle philosophie”. Baroque. 1987; 12: 95-109 (on Kircher’s optical encyclopedia, the Ars Magna Lucis et Umbrae, 1646).

George E. McCracken. Athanasius Kircher’s universal polygraphy. Isis. 1948; 39: 215-228 (on Kircher’s universal language, described in his 1663 Polygraphia nova).

Luca Nocenti. Vedere Mirabilia: Kircher, Redi, Anatre Settentrionali, Rarità Orientali e Mosche nel Miele. Rivista di estetica, 2002; XLII: 26-60

Dino Pastine. Lanascita dell’idolatria: l’Oriente religioso di Athanasius Kircher, Firenze: La Nuova Italia, 1978 (on Kircher’s religious syncretism and sinology).

Ulf Scharlau. Athanasius Kircher, 1601-1680, als Musikschriftsteller. Ein Beitrag zur Musikanschauung des Barock. Marburg: Studien zur hessischen Musikgeschichte, 1969 (on Kircher as a music theorist and composer).

Gerhard F. Strasser. Science and Pseudoscience: Athanasius Kircher’s Mundus Subterraneus and his Scrutinum … Pestis. In G. Scholz Williams and Stephan K. Schindler (eds.). Knowledge, Science, and Literature in Early Modern Germany, Chapel Hill and London: The University of North Carolina Press, 1996: pp. 219-240.

Boleslaw Szczesniak. Athanasius Kircher’s “China Illustrata”. Osiris. 1952; 10: 385-411.

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