Athanasius Kircher's Theatre of the World - Hardcover

'Beautifully produced ... even a modern reader can scarcely withhold a widening of the eyes at the splendour, the richness, the sheer graphic power of the images on display here. Godwin is a learned and lightly treading guide ... The author and the publisher have taken real, prolonged, and exhaustive pains to make a beautiful book, and succeeded' - Philip Pullman, Guardian 'A vast and beautiful book' - The Spectator 'The best general introduction to the man available' - The Art Newspaper 'Masses of Kircher's fabulous images as a beautiful, absorbing and utterly wonderful book. Everyone concerned with this project deserves warmest congratulations' - The Times Higher Education Supplement

Athanasius Kircher (1602–80) was acknowledged to be the most learned man of his age. By profession a Jesuit priest, he made himself an authority on every subject under (and above) the sun and published the results of his researches in over thirty lavishly illustrated volumes in Latin. His museum in Rome was famous and visited by everybody in the world of learning. Inevitably, his work has been superseded in most areas of study, but he remains a key figure in the history of ideas and in recent years there has been a revival of interest, in which Joscelyn Godwin has played a leading role. But while every other aspect of his thought has been studied, the fascinating engravings with which he illustrated his ideas have been largely ignored. This book fills that gap. It is divided into 15 chapters grouped by the engravings’ subject; these illustrations reveal his singular mind and the way he was drawn to mysticism and magic.

Table of Contents

Classical Antiquity · Biblical Archaeology · Natural Phenomena Religion · Astronomy · Topography · Animals and Plants · The Surface and Interior of the Earth · Magnetism · Machines and Music