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A contemporary of Descartes and Newton, Athanasius Kircher, S. J. (1601/2-80), was one of Europe's most inventive and versatile scholars in the baroque era. He published more than thirty works in fields as diverse as astronomy, magnetism, cryptology, numerology, geology, and music. But Kircher is most famous-or infamous-for his quixotic attempt to decipher the Egyptian hieroglyphs and reconstruct the ancient traditions they encoded. In 1655, after more than two decades of toil, Kircher published his solution to the hieroglyphs, Oedipus Aegyptiacus, a work that has been called "one of the most learned monstrosities of all times." Here Daniel Stolzenberg presents a new interpretation of Kircher's hieroglyphic studies, placing them in the context of seventeenth-century scholarship on paganism and Oriental languages. Situating Kircher in the social world of baroque Rome, with its scholars, artists, patrons, and censors, Stolzenberg shows how Kircher's study of ancient paganism depended on the circulation of texts, artifacts, and people between Christian and Islamic civilizations. Along with other participants in the rise of Oriental studies, Kircher aimed to revolutionize the study of the past by mastering Near Eastern languages and recovering ancient manuscripts hidden away in the legendary libraries of Cairo and Damascus. The spectacular flaws of his scholarship have fostered an image of Kircher as an eccentric anachronism, a throwback to the Renaissance hermetic tradition. Stolzenberg argues against this view, showing how Kircher embodied essential tensions of a pivotal phase in European intellectual history, when pre-Enlightenment scholars pioneered modern empirical methods of studying the past while still working within traditional frameworks, such as biblical history and beliefs about magic and esoteric wisdom.

Egyptian language --- Occultism --- Orientalism --- Egyptology --- Egyptien (Langue) --- Occultisme --- Orientalisme --- Egyptologie --- Writing, Hieroglyphic. --- History. --- History --- Ecriture hiéroglyphique --- Histoire --- Kircher, Athanasius, --- Europe --- Italy --- Italie --- Intellectual life --- Vie intellectuelle --- -929 KIRCHER, ATHANASIUS --- -Orientalism --- -Egyptology --- -Ancient Egyptian studies --- 929 KIRCHER, ATHANASIUS Biografie. Genealogie. Heraldiek--KIRCHER, ATHANASIUS --- Biografie. Genealogie. Heraldiek--KIRCHER, ATHANASIUS --- -Biografie. Genealogie. Heraldiek--KIRCHER, ATHANASIUS --- -003.21 Beeldschriften. Hiërogliefen --- 003.21 --- 932 --- -Occultism --- -Italy --- Beeldschriften. Hiërogliefen --- Ancient Egyptian studies --- East and West --- Art, Black (Magic) --- Arts, Black (Magic) --- Black art (Magic) --- Black arts (Magic) --- Occult, The --- Occult sciences --- Religions --- Supernatural --- New Age movement --- Parapsychology --- Afroasiatic languages --- 932 Geschiedenis van Egypte--tot 640 --- Geschiedenis van Egypte--tot 640 --- -Intellectual life --- -History. --- 003.21 Beeldschriften. Hiërogliefen --- 932 Geschiedenis van Egypte tot 640 --- Geschiedenis van Egypte tot 640 --- 932 History of ancient Egypt (to 640 AD) --- History of ancient Egypt (to 640 AD) --- -003.21 Beeldschriften. Hiërogliefen --- Beeldschriften. Hiërogliefen --- Writing, Hieroglyphic --- -History --- Gay culture Europe --- Egyptian hieroglyphics --- Hieroglyphics, Egyptian --- Italia --- Italian Republic (1946- ) --- Italianska republika --- Italʹi︠a︡nskai︠a︡ Rėspublika --- Italien --- Italii︠a︡ --- Italii︠a︡ Respublikasi --- Italiĭsʹka Respublika --- Itālija --- Itālijas Republika --- Italijos Respublika --- Italikē Dēmokratia --- Īṭāliyā --- Italiya Respublikasi --- It'allia --- It'allia Konghwaguk --- İtalya --- İtalya Cumhuriyeti --- Iṭalyah --- Iṭalye --- Itaria --- Itaria Kyōwakoku --- Jumhūrīyah al-Īṭālīyah --- Kgl. Italienische Regierung --- Königliche Italienische Regierung --- Laško --- Lýðveldið Ítalía --- Olasz Köztársaság --- Olaszország --- Regno d'Italia (1861-1946) --- Repubblica italiana (1946- ) --- Republiḳah ha-Iṭalḳit --- Włochy --- Yidali --- Yidali Gongheguo --- Ιταλική Δημοκρατία --- Ιταλία --- Итальянская Республика --- Италианска република --- Италия --- Италия Республикаси --- Італьянская Рэспубліка --- Італія --- Італійська Республіка --- איטאליע --- איטליה --- רפובליקה האיטלקית --- إيطاليا --- جمهورية الإيطالية --- イタリア --- イタリア共和国 --- 意大利 --- 意大利共和国 --- 이탈리아 --- 이탈리아 공화국 --- Sardinia (Italy) --- athanasius kircher, antiquity, history, archaeology, music, geology, numerology, cryptology, magnetism, astronomy, hieroglyphs, egypt, decode, decipher, translate, oriental languages, paganism, rome, baroque, world civilizations, islam, christianity, damascus, cairo, language, linguistics, esoteric wisdom, magic, bible, religion, egyptology, occultism, orientalism, oedipus, theology, tradition, nonfiction. --- -Egyptian language --- -Writing, Hieroglyphic