Athanasius Kircher

Athanasius Kircher, S.J.
Portrait of Kircher at age 53 from Mundus Subterraneus (1664)
Religion	Roman Catholicism
Order	Society of Jesus
Personal
Born	2 May 1602 Geisa, Imperial Abbey of Fulda, Holy Roman Empire
Died	28 November 1680 (1680-11-29) (aged 78) Rome, Papal States
Religious career
Works	Priest, scholar and scientist
Ordination	1628

Athanasius Kircher, S.J. (sometimes erroneously spelled Kirchner; Latin: Athanasius Kircherus, 2 May 1602 – 28 November 1680) was a German Jesuit scholar and polymath who published around 40 major works, most notably in the fields of comparative religion, geology, and medicine. Kircher has been compared to fellow Jesuit Roger Boscovich and to Leonardo da Vinci for his enormous range of interests, and has been honored with the title "Master of a Hundred Arts". He taught for more than forty years at the Roman College, where he set up a wunderkammer. A resurgence of interest in Kircher has occurred within the scholarly community in recent decades.

Kircher claimed to have deciphered the hieroglyphic writing of the ancient Egyptian language, but most of his assumptions and translations in this field were later found to be nonsensical. He did, however, correctly establish the link between the ancient Egyptian and the modern Coptic languages, and some commentators regard him as the founder of Egyptology. Kircher was also fascinated with Sinology and wrote an encyclopedia of China, in which he noted the early presence there of Nestorian Christians while also attempting to establish links with Egypt and Christianity.

Kircher's work in geology included studies of volcanoes and fossils. One of the first people to observe microbes through a microscope, Kircher was ahead of his time in proposing that the plague was caused by an infectious microorganism and in suggesting effective measures to prevent the spread of the disease. Kircher also displayed a keen interest in technology and mechanical inventions; inventions attributed to him include a magnetic clock, various automatons and the first megaphone. The invention of the magic lantern is often misattributed to Kircher, although he did conduct a study of the principles involved in his Ars Magna Lucis et Umbrae.