Athanasius Kircher was the
17th century's Jesuit version of the
übergeek. His scholarly attentions were drawn to egyptology, astronomy, magnetism, languages, optics, music, geology, mathematics and many many other pursuits. The
"dude of wonders" invented novel machines such as the
mathematical organ and
magnetic clock, established one of the first museums, published about 40 academic works (with
beautiful accompanying illustrations) and was globally revered as one of his time's greatest intellectuals. He is also the main link in the
Voynich manuscript mystery. [
MI]
posted by peacay
on Aug 7, 2005 -
12 comments
