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The Universal History of the Characters of Letters and Languages: An Unknown Manuscript by Athanasius Kircher (2011/2012)

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The Universal History of the Characters of Letters and Languages: An Unknown Manuscript by Athanasius Kircher (2011/2012)

The Universal History of the Characters of Letters and Languages: An Unknown Manuscript by Athanasius Kircher (2011/2012)

    Daniel Stolzenberg
“UNIVERSAL HISTORY OF THE CHARACTERS OF LETTERS AND LANGUAGES”: AN UNKNOWN MANUSCRIPT BY ATHANASIUS KIRCHER Daniel Stolzenberg, University of California, Davis 1. Introduction A previously unknown manuscript by the Jesuit scholar Athanasius Kircher (1601/2–1680) con- tains an outline for a multivolume work entitled Characterum literarum linguarumque totius universi historia universalis (Universal history of the characters of letters and languages of the whole world).1 The outline is conserved at the Vatican Library in Barb. Lat. 2617, a volume of miscel- laneous manuscripts, and covers both sides of two leaves (figs. 1–4).2 The original enclosing sheet identifies the contents as “a short plan or ideal sketch of the undertaken work.”3 The manuscript is in Kircher’s hand and is signed by him but is not listed under his name in the index of the Fondo Barberini, which explains why it has hitherto escaped notice. Kircher’s authorship probably eluded the compiler of the index because his name appears on neither the first nor the last of its four sides, but only on the second-to-last. Following introductory comments, this article provides a transcrip- tion of the Latin text, with facsimiles of the original document, followed by an English translation. The document is undated, but circumstantial evidence indicates that the outline was written early in Kircher’s career, close to the time of his arrival in Rome in November 1633 and before his composition of Prodromus Coptus, published in 1636. The foremost reason for such a dating is the way Kircher signed his name: “Athanasio Kircher Buchonio,” referring to Buchonia, the region in the Upper Rhineland where he was born and raised. This is precisely how Kircher identified himself on the title page of the Primitiae catoptricae gnomonicae, published in Avignon in 1635, although the manuscript presumably was completed before he left France in September 1633. He does not use this form in any of his other published works. His earliest publication, Ars magnesia (Würzburg 1631), did not provide a geographical epithet. In subsequent publications, from Pro- dromus Coptus (Rome 1636) to Ars magna lucis et umbrae (Rome 1646), he added the name of his hometown, Fulda, consistently identifying himself as Athanasius Kircher “Fuldensis-Buchonius.” His Musurgia universalis (Rome 1650) featured a solitary “Fuldensis.” Thereafter, beginning with Obeliscus Pamphilius (published later in 1650), he ceased to use any geographical epithet.4 This evidence suggests that the outline was probably composed before Prodromus Coptus. 1 Recent years have seen a flurry of Kircher scholarship. In nes.” All three are in the same hand (not Kircher’s). They English, two very good overviews of his life and work are are undated, but the enclosing page that once wrapped them Godwin 2009 and Findlen 2004. is dated 12 March 1654. BAV Barb. Lat. 2617, fols. 40–49. 2 3 BAV Barb. Lat. 2617, fols. 33–34. The codex includes BAV Barb. Lat. 2617, fol. 35r. another, indexed text by Kircher (fols. 40–41), a report on 4 the location of the ancient city of Alessio, which appears In the poems that Kircher contributed to Bouchard with similar reports by Lucas Holstenius and Hieronymus 1638, published the same year, he signed himself simply Pastritius, under the title “De situ Civitatis Alessii allegatio- “Fuldensis.” MAAR 56/57, 2011/2012 306 DANIEL STOLZENBERG Other considerations support a date at least that early. If, as I argue below, the outline shows the influence of Claude Duret and Blaise de Vigenère, it is significant that Kircher was interested in both authors during his first months in Rome, as testified by a letter that he wrote in December 1633, asking Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc to send him copies of their books.5 Furthermore, it seems unlikely that Kircher would have conceived such an ambitious, all-consuming project—and one that subsumed his hieroglyphic studies—after he had embarked on Oedipus Aegyptiacus, his magnum opus on that topic, which he had conceived by February 1635.6 His failure to mention Coptic at the conclusion of the outline among the Oriental languages from whose literature he intended to extract the content of the Historia universalis suggests that he prepared the outline before immersing himself in the study of that language in the middle of 1634.7 The fact that the manuscript is formally signed, combined with the ornamental handwriting of the title, suggests a presentation copy. Given the probable date of its composition and its provenance (the Fondo Barberini), I think it likely that Kircher prepared the outline as a research proposal to present to Cardinal Francesco Barberini, his patron during his first years in Rome. Perhaps he pre- sented it to the cardinal before or during their first meeting in November 1633, during which they discussed the interpretation of hieroglyphs, the Kabbalah, and Arabic literature.8 I have not come across any mention of the project in Kircher’s correspondence (for example, he never mentions it in his surviving letters to Peiresc), which suggests that the plan was short-lived.9 As a proposal for a single work, the Historia universalis was stupefyingly ambitious, in the tradi- tion of baroque polymathy.10 In the first volume alone, Kircher promised to write about the universal history of languages, their origin, variety, corruption, from the mixing of peoples, the affinity of one to another, and also the characters of each language; together with the gram- matical rules and vocabularies of all languages flourishing in this age in the entire world, arranged briefly, efficiently, and by a new and extraordinary method for teaching anyone in a short time, together with other marvelous things relating to this subject. A table at the end of the outline listed seventy languages, organized by geographical region, that Kircher would treat, most of which he optimistically (if enigmatically) described as either “already possessed” or “easily to be had.” Five subsequent volumes were to be devoted to: the mysteries of 5 Kircher to Peiresc, Rome, 1 December 1633, BNP FF universalis: translating an Arabic manuscript about the hi- 9538, fol. 234r. From this letter, Kircher appeared to be eroglyphs and interpreting the inscriptions on several Roman familiar with the books from his time in France, and he obelisks. See Stolzenberg forthcoming, chap. 2. directed Peiresc to the bookseller in Avignon who could provide copies. 9 Alegambe’s 1643 entry on Kircher lists among his forthcom- ing works a certain Linguarum omnium, quas auctor callet, 6 See Kircher to Peiresc, Rome, 8 February 1635, BNP FF methodicae instructiones. The title suggests a more modest 9362, fol. 15r. version of book one of the Historia Universalis, “all the languages in the world” being replaced by “all the languages 7 Coptic does appear in the list of languages to be treated which the author knows.” Alegambe and Rivadeneira 1643, in book one, which is given on the final page of the outline. 48–49. Significantly, Kircher used the form Coptitica. In his pub- lished works on Coptic, Kircher used this form only to refer 10 For example, compare Kircher’s project to Peter Lambeck’s to the Copts as people and used the form Copta to identify similarly audacious and unrealized plan to write “A literary the language—again suggesting that he composed the outline history, containing a general narrative of the origin, rise, before embarking seriously on the study of that language. transformation, fall, and restoration of all the languages, sciences, faculties, and liberal arts, in chronological order 8 Kircher to Peiresc, Rome, 1 December 1633, BNP FF through all the centuries, with a special account of famous 9538, fol. 234r. After the meeting, Kircher was charged by men and women.” Morhof, Polyhistor 1.2, as quoted in the cardinal with a project much narrower than the Historia Grafton 1985, 41. AN UNKNOWN MANUSCRIPT BY ATHANASIUS KIRCHER 307 Egyptian hieroglyphs; cryptography and steganography; the Kabbalah; superstitious magic and the great art of Ramon Llull; and the divinatory arts. Although Kircher did not carry out the Historia universalis as such, it is striking how many of the projects that he eventually realized during his long career were already conceived at this early date. The origin and diffusion of languages, which was to have been discussed in part one, “The Confusion of Babel,” became the subject matter of Kircher’s last work, Turris Babel (Amsterdam 1679). Part two, “The Egyptian Labyrinth,” was to contain the hieroglyphic studies that instead took form as Oedipus Aegyptiacus (Rome 1652–1654) and other works. The description of the third “steganographic- cryptological” volume points toward his Polygraphia nova et universalis (Rome 1663), combining as it does a kind of universal language scheme with a defense of Trithemian cryptography. The study of the Kabbalah, designated for the fourth part, appeared as a lengthy treatise within Oedipus Aegyp- tiacus, although as late as 1646 Kircher intended to publish an independent work on the subject.11 The condemnations of illicit magic and divination in books five and six of the Historia universalis also correspond to sections of Oedipus Aegyptiacus, as well as to other works, notably Arithmologia (Rome 1665), which was devoted to magical seals. The Lullist combinatory art, which was to be treated in book five, became the subject of Ars magna sciendi, published in 1669 in Amsterdam. Kircher’s projected Universal History of the Characters of Letters and Languages of the Whole World would have encapsulated a lifetime of scholarship in a single, audacious, if unrealizable, book. From lists of forthcoming works by Kircher published in Alegambe’s Jesuit bibliography of 1643 and at the end of the 1646 edition of Ars magna lucis et umbrae it was previously known that Kircher had conceived many of his future works by the mid-1640s.12 The outline of the Historia universalis pushes back the conception of many of those projects by a decade. But it should not be taken as evidence that Kircher did not evolve intellectually. Even as he went on to realize individual components of the Historia universalis, his research took on a new character. For example, the strong influence of antiquarian scholarship that characterized Kircher’s publications about Egyptian hieroglyphs and ancient magic was absent from the outline, suggesting that his approach changed under the influence of the antiquarian scholarly milieu that he joined when he moved to Rome at the end of 1633.13 Similarly, the outline’s description of the Kabbalah emphasized natural magic based on the doctrine of signatures, in contrast to Kircher’s treatise, “Cabala Hebraeorum,” in Oedipus Aegyptiacus, which more accurately reflected authentic Jewish traditions.14 The project at the nucleus of Kircher’s Historia universalis, to comprehensively describe the world’s languages, reached back to the sixteenth century.15 In Mithridates (1555) Conrad Gesner had examined “the different languages both of the ancients and those used today among the vari- ous nations of the entire world,” setting the template for subsequent works, among them, Claude Duret’s Thresor de l’histoire des langues de cest univers (1613; second edition, 1619).16 Kircher read and annotated Duret’s book, whose influence may be detected in his title, “Universal history of the characters of letters and languages of the whole world,” which seems to play on Duret’s “Treasury of the history of the languages of this world.”17 Kircher’s description of the first volume, 11 See the list of forthcoming publications at the end of Biggemann 2007; Stolzenberg 2004. Kircher 1646, n.p., after index. 15 On linguistic scholarship in this period, see Droixhe 1987; 12 See the citation in previous note and Alegambe and Rivad- Droxihe 1978; Céard 1980. eneira 1643, 48–49. 16 Gesner 1555; Duret 1619. 13 See Stolzenberg forthcoming. 17 A copy of Duret’s Thresor that once belonged to the library 14 On Kircher’s treatment of the Kabbalah, see Schmidt- of the Collegio Romano (now Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale 308 DANIEL STOLZENBERG “The Confusion of Babel,” echoes Duret’s subtitle: “containing the origins, beauties, perfections, declines, mutations, changes, conversions, and destructions of languages”; and the list of languages at the end of Kircher’s outline bears comparison to the similar list on the title page of Duret’s book. (Unlike Duret, however, Kircher did not include the languages of birds and animals and added a category of “the invented languages of certain nations.”)18 Kircher’s classification of languages into groups, each headed by a “mother” language (“Hebraea mater,” “Latina mater,” “Germanica mater,” etc.) owed a debt to Joseph Scaliger and Abraham Mylius, the first scholars to organize languages into families based on linguistic similarities, which they attributed to a common mother language, or lingua matrix.19 “Character” served as the linking concept that united the various parts of Kircher’s projected work. Alphabets, hieroglyphs, ciphers, natural signatures, Kabbalistic symbols, magical figures, the letters of the Lullist combinatory art: all fell within the scope of his “universal history.” That alphabets should be given so central a place in the study of language was typical of early modern scholarship, which often assumed a deeper relationship between languages and writing systems than recognized by modern linguistics. The prominence of alphabets in works on the history and diversity of languages was due in part to accessibility—even in the absence of linguistic understanding, a language, as instantiated by its script, could be possessed between the covers of a book—as well as the exotic appeal of unfamiliar characters. But it was also related to widespread beliefs about their magical properties, rooted in the notion that at least some writing systems were of supernatural origin. Take, for example, Guillaume Postel’s Linguarum duodecim characteribus differentium alphab- etum introductio (1538) and Teseo Ambrogio’s Introductio in Chaldaicam linguam, Syriacam atque Armenicam et decem alias linguas characterum differentium (1539), the foundational texts of Oriental philology, as well as two of the earliest studies of comparative linguistics.20 As indicated by their titles, Postel and Ambrogio privileged alphabets in their treatment of Near Eastern languages, an emphasis that was related to their shared interest in the Kabbalah. Ambrogio’s Introductio, followed by later works like Blaise de Vigenère’s Traicté des chiffres, ou secrètes manières d’escrire (1587) and Duret’s Thresor moved freely between expositions of genuine alphabets and ones that today would be considered imaginary, such as the characters supposedly written by demons and attributed to Ludovico, magician of Split,21 the magical alphabets of Solomon, Appolonius of Tyana, and Vergil the philosopher,22 or the kabbalistic alphabet of the angel Raziel.23 Vigenère’s treatise, which brought together topics such as hieroglyphs, the Kabbalah, and cryptography under the rubric of “secret ways of writing,” may well have inspired Kircher’s expansive use of “character” as a principle for organizing diverse domains of knowledge. The six volumes of Kircher’s Historia universalis brought together the primary strands that Paolo Rossi identified as facets of the early modern revival of Lullism: “the cabala and hieroglyphic writing, artificial and universal languages, the search for the primary constitutive principles of all possible knowledge, the art of memory and a preoccupation with logic understood as a ‘key’ to the 20 di Roma 6.1E.5) contains many annotations in Kircher’s Postel 1538; Albonesi 1539. hand, largely in sections pertaining to the Kabbalah. Kircher 21 cited Duret in both Prodromus Coptus (e.g., 113, 215) and Postel and Ambrogio, who became friends through their Oedipus Aegyptiacus (e.g., 2.1, 117) and also borrowed from mutual interest in Oriental languages, corresponded on the the Thresor without citation (e.g., Prodromus Coptus, 133: subject of this and other magical or otherwise unusual alpha- Thresor, 380; Oedipus Aegyptiacus 2.1, 107: Thresor, 119). bets. See the letters printed at the end of Albonesi 1539, 192ff. 18 22 Duret 1619. Vigenère 1587, 327v–329r. 19 23 Scaliger 1610, 119–122; Mylius 1612. Duret 1619, 117. AN UNKNOWN MANUSCRIPT BY ATHANASIUS KIRCHER 309 hidden secrets of reality.”24 As such, it offers support for Thomas Leinkauf’s claim that the Lullist combinatory method was basic to the underlying structure of Kircher’s thought.25 At the same time, the proposed work’s title and some of its subject matter call to mind the tradition of historia litteraria, a genre of early modern scholarship that aimed to provide readers with comprehensive, encyclopedic overviews of the totality of human knowledge by narrating human history through the lense of littera, meaning literature or textual productions.26 One might describe Kircher’s proposed work as a historia litteraria based on a Lullist rather than a humanist connotation of “letters.” 2. Document 27 Athanasius Kircher, Characterum literarum linguarumque totius universi historia universalis. BAV Barb. Lat. 2617, fols. 33r–35v. [fol. 33r; fig. 1] Characterum Literarum Linguarumque totius universi HISTORIA UNIVERSALIS in 6. Tomos distributa quorum tituli sequuntur Tomus 1. Confusio Babel Tomus 2. Labyrinthus Aegyptiacus Tomus 3. Steganographus Criptologus Tomus 4. Cabalicus Philosophicus Mysticus Tomus 5. Disquistorius Magicus Tomus 6. Theologicus Historicus TOMUS PRIMUS seu Confusio Babel Discutit universam linguarum historiam, originem, varietatem, corruptionem, e commistione gentium, affinitatem unius ad alteram characteres quoque uniuscuiusque linguae proprios: una cum praeceptis Grammaticalibus et Lexicis linguarum omnium hoc saeculo in toto orbe terrarum vigentium, brevi expeditâ & ad unamquamque exiguo tempore adiscendam methodo nová et rarâ dispositis 24 27 Rossi 2000, 29. I wish to thank the anonymous reviewer who suggested improved readings of the Latin text. Unfortunately, Kircher 25 Leinkauf 1993. was not as brilliant a Latinist as the reviewer, so a few sole- cisms remain. I have refrained from the use of “sic,” as the 26 See Kelley 1999. reader may compare the transcription to the facsimiles in figures 1–4. 310 DANIEL STOLZENBERG [fol. 33v; fig. 2] una cum aliis rebus admirandis [ad] hanc materiam concurrentibus. Tomus Secundus Labyrinthus Aegyptiacus Tradit difficilem illam et hactenus incognitam Hieroglyphicorum historiam, Literarum hactenus ignorabilium, characterum dico Aegyptiacorum Lectionem ex ignoratis et absconditis linguarum thesauris erutam, eorumque characterum mysteria sub symbolis et parabolis hucusque latentibus delegit et enodat. Tomus Tertius In quo de verâ secreto et impenetrabiliter scribendi loquendive ratione et methodo ad quodvis etiam intervalli spatium possibili tractatur. Methodum Trithemianam in steganographia sua promissam veram esse et omni suspicionis labe carentem clare et in praxis demonstrabitur. Item qua ratione quilibet etiam imperitus omni linguarum genere epistolas conscribere possit, et eadem methodo scriptas intelligere, panditur. Ostendentur in hoc parte multa naturae mysteria & mathematicarum secreta recondita. Res certa et infallibilis omni instantiâ et praesumptione carens, sed continuo et indefesso studio et experientia tandem divina bonitate favente adinventa. Tomus Quartus Cabalicus Philosophicus Mysticus In quo tractatur de vera Cabalae utriusque et seu quod idem est naturalis et super- nalis sapientiae Hebraeorum doctrinâ ex abstrusioribus philosophiae Hebraicae fontibus petita et demonstrata. In cuius prima parte agitur de physiognomia rerum omnium naturalium ut Animalium, plantarum, lapidum per characteres eorum iis ab Authore naturae impressos. [fol. 34r; fig. 3] Tractatur in hac parte quoque de signaturis rerum omnium naturalium Cabalicis, chimicis, Botani- cis, de 3 mundorum ordine et dependentia multa curiosè tractantur, cum refutatione tamen, omnis Cabalae superstiosae indoctis modo usitatae. In 2.da de symbolica et mystica Heb: theologia Tomus Quintus Disquisitorius Magicus In quo primo omnia superstitiosae characteristicae Cabalae fundamenta convelluntur. Activitas figurarum, sigillorumque contra Coclenium, Gaffarellum, Burgrafium, Mizaldum, aliosque charac- terolatras refutatur; Amuletorum ex Hebraeorum[,] Arabum, Chaldaeorum, Persarum, Indorum, Afrorum, Europaeorumque officina superstitiosa depromptorum, nullitas apertè demonstratur. Raymundi Lulli ars magna examinatur, methodous facilis ostenditur ad facilem totius acquisitionem. AN UNKNOWN MANUSCRIPT BY ATHANASIUS KIRCHER 311 Fig. 1. Bibliotheca Apostolica Vatican, Barb. Lat. 2617, fol. 33r (photo © Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana). 312 DANIEL STOLZENBERG Fig. 2. Bibliotheca Apostolica Vatican, Barb. Lat. 2617, fol. 33v (photo © Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana). AN UNKNOWN MANUSCRIPT BY ATHANASIUS KIRCHER 313 Fig. 3. Bibliotheca Apostolica Vatican, Barb. Lat. 2617, fol. 34r (photo © Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana). 314 DANIEL STOLZENBERG Fig. 4. Bibliotheca Apostolica Vatican, Barb. Lat. 2617, fol. 34v (photo © Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana). AN UNKNOWN MANUSCRIPT BY ATHANASIUS KIRCHER 315 Tomus Sextus Theologicus Historicus In quo omnia divinatoriarum scientiarum fundamenta, quae characteribus innituntur; uti sunt astrologia, geomantia, chiromantia similesque improbis modo usurpatae tum rationibus et histo- riis admirandis, tum ex utroque iure damnabiles et veluti innumeris diabolicae illusionis periculis refertae, refutantur, damnantur, et reprobantur. Omnia Ad Laudem et gloriam Dei omnipotentis, S.S. Romanae Ecclesiae utilitatem, totiusque Reip: literariae bonum, indefesso studio ac labore, partim propriâ adinventiône, partim ex Latinorum, Graecorum, Hebraeorum, Chaldaeorum, Persarum, Arabum, Syrorum, Aethiopum, aliisque reconditis Autho- rum monumentis eruta et in lucem prolata, a minimo servile e minimâ societate Iesu Athanasio Kircher Buchonio. Omnia ad maiorem Dei gloriam. [Text continues on next page.] [fol. 34v; fig. 4] Catalogus Linguarum omnium de quibus in 1 Tomo tractabitur. [Along the left-hand side, written vertically from top to bottom:] Atque haec Linguae quae asterisco notantur, iam habentur, vel facilié haberi possunt aliunde. 1 Classis Linguarum Classis 2 Classis 3 Linguarum Orientalis doctrinalium Occidentalium Ling: septentrionaliu[m] ortarum e latina. occidental. + Hebraea Mater + Latinâ mater + Germanica Mater + Graeca + Latina antiqua + Belgica seu Flandrica + Syra + Italica + Antiqua Saxonica + Chaldaea + Gallica + Anglica + Arabica + Hispanica + Scotica + Aethiopica + Lusitanica + Hibernica + Armena + Sardoa + Suecia seu Gothica + Georgiana + Corsicana + Danica + Coptitica + Proventialis + Norwegia et Islandica + Samaritana + Sicula + Lapponica + Graeca vulgaris 316 DANIEL STOLZENBERG Classis 4 Linguar. Classis 5 Linguarum Classis 6 Linguarum Septentrion. Oriental. Meridional. Afrorum Indiae Oriental. + Sclawonica mater. + Maurica mater Malabarica + Turcica vulgaris Fezzana et Barbara Moluccana + Moscovitica Aegyptiaca antiqua Sina Mogolica Bengalarum + Polonica Abyssina mater Iavana + Lituanica Gilolana + Persica + Illyrica Congana Mogolica + Bohemica Monomotapana Hircana + Hungarica Insulae S. Laurent. Sina + Graeca vulgaris mater Iaponica + Iberica Tartarica + Bulgarica Kirkassorum + Cypria Classis 7 linguarum Class. 8. Indiae Occident. Amer: de linguis fictis certarum Gentium. &c. + Mexicana + Peruvana Novi Regni Brasiliana Floridana Chilana + Hyiana Canarica Cannibalum Septent: America [fol. 35r: blank] [fol. 35v: written in lower left-hand corner:] Suscepti Operis brevis Ichnographia seu idealis delineatio [End of document] AN UNKNOWN MANUSCRIPT BY ATHANASIUS KIRCHER 317 TRANSLATION UNIVERSAL HISTORY of the Characters of Letters and Languages of the whole world divided in 6 tomes whose titles follow Tome 1. The Confusion of Babel Tome 2. The Egyptian Labyrinth Tome 3. Cryptological Steganographic Tome 4. Kabbalistic Mystical Philosophical Tome 5. Investigative Magical Tome 6. Theological Historical Tome One or The Confusion of Babel Discusses the universal history of languages, their origin, variety, corruption, from the mixing of peoples, the affinity of one to another, and also the characters of each language; together with the grammatical rules and vocabularies of all languages flourishing in this age in the entire world, ar- ranged briefly, efficiently, and by a new and extraordinary method for teaching anyone in a short time, together with other marvelous things relating to this subject. Tome Two The Egyptian Labyrinth Treats that difficult and hitherto unknown history of the hieroglyphs, the reading of hitherto un- known letters, I mean the Egyptian characters, dug up from unknown and concealed treasuries of languages, and collects and explains the mysteries of their characters under hitherto hidden symbols and parables. Tome Three Steganographic Cryptological In which is treated the true rule and method of writing or speaking secretly and impenetrably even across any possible interval of space. It is shown clearly and in praxis that the Trithemian method, promised in his steganography, is true and without any stain of suspicion. Also it is disclosed how anyone, even inexperienced in every sort of language, may write letters, and by the same method understand writing. In this section many mysteries of nature and recondite secrets of mathematics are revealed. This certain and infallible matter is without any boasting and presumption, but found out by constant and tireless study and experience with, finally, the favor of divine goodness. 318 DANIEL STOLZENBERG Tome Four Kabbalistic Philosophical Mystical In which the true doctrine of the Kabbalah is treated, both Bereishit and Merkabah, or what is the same, the natural and supernal wisdoms of the Hebrews, derived and demonstrated from the most abstruse sources of Hebrew philosophy. The first part concerns the physiognomy of natural things, such as animals, plants, [and] stones through characters impressed on them by the Author of nature. Also treated in this part are the kabbalistic, chemical, [and] botanical signatures of all natural things; the order and dependence of the three worlds are treated very curiously, with however a refutation of all the superstitious Kabbalah now used by the ignorant. In the second [part], concerning the symbolic and mystical theology of the Hebrews. Tome Five Investigative Magical28 In which first all the foundations of the superstitious Kabbalah of characters are demolished. The action of figures and seals is refuted versus Goclenius, Gaffarel, Burggrav, Mizauld, and other abusers of characters;29 the invalidity of amulets taken from the superstitious workshop of the Hebrews, Arabs, Chaldeans, Persians, Indians, Africans and Europeans is clearly demonstrated. The great art of Ramon Llull is examined and a simple method for the easy acquisition of the whole encyclopedia is revealed. Tome Six Theological Historical In which all the foundations of the divinatory sciences, which rely on characters, such as astrology, geomancy, chiromancy, and similar [practices] currently abused by wicked people, by admirable reasons and histories, and from both laws, are refuted, discredited, and condemned as stuffed with countless dangers of diabolical deceit. For the praise and glory of omnipotent God, the advantage of the Holy Roman Church, and the good of the entire Republic of letters, with tireless study and toil, partly by my own invention, partly dug up and brought to light from [the memorials] of the Latins, Greeks, Hebrews, Chaldeans, Persians, Arabs, Syrians, Ethiopians, and other recondite memorials of authors, by the least servant from the least Society of Jesus, Athanasius Kircher of Buchonia. All for the greater glory of God [Text continues on next page.] 28 The title, “Disquisitorius magicus,” evokes the Jesuit theo- weapon salve, which was the object of Jesuit attacks at this logian Martin Del Rio’s influential Disquisitionum magicarum time. Antoine Mizauld (1510–1578) wrote on astrological libri sex. Del Rio 1599–1600. medicine and is said to have written on astrological images. None of their works is late enough to help date Kircher’s 29 Rudolf Goclenius the Younger (1572–1621), Jacques manuscript. See Goclenius 1609; Gaffarel 1629. On Burg- Gaffarel (1601–1681), and Johann Ernst Burggrav (fl. 1600– grav, see Thorndike 1923–1958, 8:413–414; on Mizauld, 1629) all wrote on natural magic, including the controversial Thorndike 1923–1958, 5:299–301, 327. AN UNKNOWN MANUSCRIPT BY ATHANASIUS KIRCHER 319 Catalogue of all the languages that are treated in Tome One. And those languages that are marked by an asterisk [+] are already possessed or can easily be had from somewhere else. 1 Class of Languages Class 2 Class 3 of North of Oriental doctrines of Western Languages: Western originating from Latin. Languages. + Hebrew mother + Latin mother + Germanic Mother + Greek + Ancient Latin + Belgian or Flemish + Syriac + Italian + Ancient Saxon + Chaldean + French + English + Arabic + Spanish + Scottish + Ethiopian + Portuguese + Irish + Armenian + Sardinian + Swedish or Gothic + Georgian + Corsican + Danish + Coptic + Provençal + Norwegian and Icelandic + Samaritan + Sicilian + Lapp + Common Greek Class 4 North Class 5 Southern Class 6: Languages Eastern Languages African Languages of the East Indies. + Slavonic mother + Moorish mother Malabarian + Common Turkish Fesian and Berber Maluku + Russian Ancient Egyptian Mughal Chinese Bengalese + Polish Abyssinian mother Javan + Lithuanian Gilolese [?] + Persian + Albanian Congolese Mughal + Czech Mutapan Hircanese [?] + Hungarian Of the Island of St. Chinese + Common Greek mother Lawrence [Madagascar] Japanese + Iberian Tartar + Bulgarian Circassian + Cyprian Classis 7 of Languages Class. 8. of the American East Indies on the invented languages of certain Nations &c. + Mexican + Peruvian Of the New Kingdom Brazilian Floridian Chilean + Hyian [?] Canarian Cannibalean South American 320 DANIEL STOLZENBERG Bibliography ABBREVIATIONS BAV Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana BNP Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris ARCHIVAL SOURCES Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Barb. 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