Between the expansive scholarship of the Renaissance and the emerging scientific age, all knowledge was his domain
Athanasius Kircher’s Theatre of the World,
by Joscelyn Godwin
Thames & Hudson (September 2009)
‘The world is bound by secret knots
– Athanasius Kircher
On the face of it, the Jesuit scholar Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680) presents a somewhat baffling figure. A respected teacher of subjects as diverse as Hebrew, Greek, mathematics, philosophy and oriental languages, he taught for a number of years in Jesuit Colleges at Heiligenstadt, Mainz, Würzburg and Avignon, before settling down to teach and work in Rome.
