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)
The Universal History of the Characters of Letters and Languages: An Unknown Manuscript by Athanasius Kircher (2011/2012)
“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
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BAV Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana
BNP Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris
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AN UNKNOWN MANUSCRIPT BY ATHANASIUS KIRCHER 321
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