It is perhaps most famous for the exceptionally lavish fold-out plates of Roman obelisks which it contains, each page dedicated to one of the obelisks re-discovered in baroque Rome or new obelisks with pseudo-hieroglyphics by Kircher, devised according to his own scheme or interpretation or hieroglyphics as pictograms or, in baroque practice, emblems or impresa. It has memorable images of exotic bird and animals, of one of the first magic-lanterns or projected images, its text hints at the presence of machines which are little short of computers, it also illustrates numerous wonderful machines, be those clockwork automata, chiming and ambulant clocks, or multiplying and distorting mirrors. "This superbly produced edition, with many expertly-engraved illustrations is one of the most sumptuous and most curious examples of high baroque book production.
#Wunderkammer trainslation full
Peter Davidson is Senior Research Fellow of Campion Hall, University of Oxford.Īthansius Kircher's Celebrated Museum, a prodigious baroque book recording the vast cabinet of curiosities of the Society of Jesus at the Roman College, is here given in facsimile for the first time with full English translation and commentary. Jane Stevenson has taught at the Universities of Aberdeen, Warwick and Sheffield. At last a text which has often been mentioned in studies of baroque Rome, of museums in early-modern Italy, of intellectual networks in 17th-century Europe, is available to the English-speaking reader in a lavish edition which preserves and enhances the splendor of the original production.ĭaniel Höhr teaches languages and music in his native Rhineland.Īnastasi Kallinikos is Head of Classics and Arundell Librarian at Stonyhurst College, Clitheror, Lancashire. The edition also contains an afterword, reflecting on the current state of scholarship on Kircher, his museum, and his world. The commentary also identifies passages which refer to others of Kircher's numerous and prodigious works. There is also a commentary to the translation, identifying objects, sources and facts while also explaining something of the status which the museum and its description share, as epitomes of the scarcely-credible range of activities and disciplines in which Kircher involved himself. It is perhaps most famous for the exceptionally lavish fold-out plates of Roman obelisks which it contains, each page dedicated to one of the obelisks re-discovered in baroque Rome or new obelisks with pseudo-hierolgyphics by Kircher, devised according to his own scheme of interpretation of hieroglyphics as pictograms or, in baroque practice, emblems or impresa.Ī full facsimile, including foldout plates, is offered here, together with the first English translation of a notoriously problematic Latin text. It has memorable images of exotic birds and animals, of one of the first magic-lanterns or projected images, its text hints at the presence of machines which are little short of computers, it also illustrates numerous wonderful machines, be those clockwork automata, chiming and ambulant clocks, or multiplying and distorting mirrors. This publication, with many expertly-engraved illustrations, is one of the most sumptuous and most curious examples of high baroque book production. the facsimile includes 28 illustrations and 7 folio-size foldouts (28 ¾" x 18")Īthanasius Kircher's catalogue of the prodigious early museum (a Wunderkammer or cabinet of curiosities) which he assembled and arranged at the Roman College of the Society of Jesus was completed by his assistant Giorgio de Sepi for publication in 1678. With a translation of the Latin text by Anastasi Callinicos and Daniel Höhr, annotated by Jane Stevenson.Įdited, with an afterword, by Peter DavidsonĮarly Modern Catholicism and the Visual Arts Series, Vol.
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