Kircher, Athanasius. Afanasy Kircher Afanasy Kircher knew all languages

Undoubtedly, Athanasius Kircher is one of the most amazing phenomena of the 17th century. He was a scientist, thinker, collector, inventor, experimenter, illustrator and writer. He was distinguished by his extraordinary versatility and fruitfulness. Lichtenberg wrote: “When Athanasius Kircher put pen to paper, he produced a whole volume.” The list includes Elenchus librorum a P. Athanasio Kirchero e societate Jesu editorum, appended to his monumental work China illustrata (1667), lists 33 works of which he was the author and which were published at some time (mainly in quarto and folio). His total legacy is 44 volumes, letters are printed in 114 volumes. The titles of all his books are listed in Bibliothèque des écrivains de la Compagnie de Jésus, T. I, p. 422-433 and T. IV, 1046-1077). There is also an autobiography (in facisulus epistolarum Ath. Kircheri, Augustae Vindelicorum 1684).

Kircher worked in Rome, the center of the spiritual life of Italy and where the headquarters of the Jesuit Order was located. He could devote himself entirely to his scientific interests, taking advantage of the rich book treasures of the Order's library. The Jesuits brought reports to him from all over the world, and the Emperor assisted in the publication of his works in the form of luxurious volumes. He himself traveled.

Therefore, it is not surprising that none other than this native of Thuringia was the first to introduce the learned public of Europe to the Indian Devanagari script, which the Brahmins carefully hid from European newcomers, since they considered them “unclean.” Kircher revealed this secret in his aforementioned work, written in Latin, China Illustrata, a 237-page folio with numerous illustrations, maps and tables. This book is mainly dedicated to China, the Chinese and Chinese culture, but between pages 162 and 163 there are five tables illustrating Indian writing. One may wonder why a book about China also contains information about India. But it should be taken into account that in those days they did not make a sharp distinction between India and China from an ethnographic and geographical point of view. In addition, Kircher was simultaneously supplied with materials by two people, one of whom dealt with China and the other with India.

Kircher himself had never been to India. But he was lucky enough to be a friend of an expert on this country and its inhabitants. This friend introduced Kircher to Indian mythology, customs and "Brahmin letters". This was Father Heinrich Roth, a Jesuit missionary and one of the oldest Sanskrit scholars. He was from Bavaria. Born December 18, 1620 in Dillingen. Therefore, in Latin sources he is called Pater Henricus Roth (ius) Dilinganus. He was educated first in his hometown and then in Innsbruck. On October 25, 1639, he entered the Jesuit Order and was ordained a priest on May 29, 1649. In 1650, at his own request and with the blessing of the Jesuit General, he was sent to India, where he reached through Smyrna and Isfahan. Roth traveled all over India from south to north, from Goa to the Mughal kingdom on the Deccan, namely Bijapur, then crossed the Western Ghats and arrived at Golconda. From there, through Bengal and Delhi, he reached Agra.

Roth was firmly established in Agra from 1654. There he became rector of the Jesuit college, founded in this city in 1620.

Roth's name appears frequently in this book. Roth's own texts are also cited, for example, on pp. 156-162 the note De alia fabulosa doctrina Brachmanum, id est, de decem Incarnationibus Dei, quas Gentiles Indiani extra et intra Gangem credunt. Roth also owns the text on the “letters of the Brahmans” and the five accompanying tables on pp. 162 et seq.

Heinrich Roth knew Persian, Hindustani and Sanskrit. He was not the first European to study Sanskrit. It is known that the Florentine merchant and traveler Filippo Sassetti, who lived in Goa in 1583-1588, drew attention to sacred language Hindus and discovered peculiar genealogical connections between it and European languages (deva =dio, sapta =sette, sarpa =serpe, etc.). The Italian missionary Roberto de Nobili, born in 1577, who went to India in 1606 and died in 1656 in Mylapore, had a thorough knowledge of Sanskrit and the Brahmin script.

However, Roth was the first European to study this language in scientific basis and mastered it to such an extent that he could use it to conduct disputes with the Brahmins. Kircher writes that in six years Roth mastered Sanskrit to such an extent that he even compiled its grammar, which, unfortunately, was not published. It is likely that Roth had already thoroughly studied Sanskrit by 1664, since in that year Kircher received permission from the Jesuit General to print his book China Illustrata. Roth died in Agra on June 20, 1668.

Full title of Kircher's main book:

Athanasii Kircheri e Soc. Jesu China Monumentis qua Sacris qua Profanis, nec non variis Naturae & Artis Spectaculis, Aliarumque rerum memorabilium Argumentis Illustrata, Auspiciis Leopoldi Primi Roman. Imper. Semper Augusti Munificentissimi Mecaenatis. Apud Joannem Janssonium a Waesberge & Elizeum Weyerstraet, Anno MD. C. LXVII. Cum privileges.

The title scene is preceded by a painting of two people in oriental clothes. They hold a map of China and India. At the top is the sign of the Jesuit Order:

This is a Latinized transliteration of the Greek ΙΗΣΟΥΣ.

On the title page this monogram is repeated with the addition of an image of a heart (cult of the Heart of Jesus). Inscription:

A Solis Ortu usque ad Occasum laudabile Nomen Domini.

Kircher reports the following about Indian writing on p. 162f.:

Utuntur Brachmanes nonnullis literis, quas arcanas vocant, nullique tradere solent, nisi quos ex sua Secta indicant esse ad eas discendas aptiores: Verùm uti suprà dixi, cum P. Henricus Roth iis ad veram Salutis semitam deducendis totus intentus sine lingua & literatura eorum id velu tiἀ δύνατον videret, per quendam Brachmanem summâ benevolentiâ sibi devinctum, & jam ad Christi jidem suscipiendam inclinatum, totam & linguae & literaturae, philosophandique rationem literis hisce conditam, sex annorum impenso studio, consecutus est. Verùm nè quicquam curiosarum rerum omisisse videar, hîc elementa eorum, manu Patris Rothii eleganter descripta adnectam.The Brahmins use certain letters, which they call secret, and which they usually do not reveal to anyone except those of their sect whom they consider most capable of learning these letters. However, as I already mentioned above, when Father Heinrich Roth, having a decisive intention to turn them to the true path to Salvation, discovered that this was impossible without [knowledge of] language and literature, he managed to master the knowledge of language, literature and philosophy, hidden in these letters, after six years of persistent study, with the help of a certain Brahman, whom he managed to attract with his benevolence and who was already inclined to convert to the Christian faith. However, so that it does not seem that I have omitted any of these curious things, I will enclose here some of them, carefully copied by the hand of Father Roth.

Sunt hujusmodi Characteres in tanta apud dictos Brachmanes veneratione, ut eos non ab hominibus inventos, sed à Divinioris alicujus Numinis magisterio institutos dictatosque arbitrentur, tanto studio propagatos; ut quod sanè mirum est, vel ipsos Sinas ad Deorum suorum simulacra iis veluti mysticis, & nescio quid Divinum sub se continentibus notis, adornanda impulerint, uti in Sinensium Idolorum descriptione patuit: Egò verò eorundem anatomiâ factâ, nil sivè apicum rationem s, ive eorundem in unam literam contractionis strueturam spectes, quod aut ingenio polleat, aut mysticum quidpiam tibi promittat, nihil unquam indagare potui; Undè semper credidi, eos ab Hebraeis & Saracenis instructos (quos grandia sub eorum literis ex Cabala deductis mysteria effutire audierant) eadem deindè & suis characteribus ad altiores superstitionis radices in animis suae doctrinae Sectatorum fundandas attribuisse. Vix enim monumentum reperias, quod suis hisce fanaticis Characteribus non defoedent. Scripsit olim ad me P. Antonius Ceschius Tridentinus, eximius in Mogorica Christi vinea multorum annorum Operarius, in Bazaino Indiae urbe montem se reperisse, quem Pagodes Bazaini vocant, cujus rupes paenè tota hujusmodi Characteribus incisis exornabatur, quorum & copiam mihi sua manu decerptam ad ejus interpretationem eruendam transmisit; Verùm cum nec literarum inusitatos ductus, neque linguam nossem, eos in suochao relinquendosius consult duxi, quàm vano labore iis enodandis, magno temporis dispendio oleum operamque perdere. Atque haec de Indorum dogmatis dixisse sufficiat.

The Brahmins so reverence these kinds of letters that they believe that they were not invented by men, but at the behest of some Deity, dictated and established, and also so diligently disseminated that one must only ask oneself with surprise whether they, perhaps, have not encouraged the Chinese themselves decorating the idols of their Gods with these seemingly mystical signs containing something Divine, as can be seen from the description of Chinese idols. Having analyzed their structure, whether it was the principle of the arrangement of the tops, or the principle of combining letters into one ligature, I could never find anything that could either have any meaning of a witty invention, or promise you something mystical. Therefore I have always believed that they, having been taught by the Jews and Arabs (who, they heard, extracted the great secrets [hidden] under their letters, with the help of the Cabal), attributed the same to their letters, based on a more deeply rooted superstition in the nature of his sectarian teachings. For it is difficult to find a monument that these fanatics would not disfigure with their signs. Once Pater Anthony Tseskhius Tridentinus, who has been working in the Mogul vineyard of Christ for many years, wrote me a letter [Mogoricameans “Mughal”, i.e. related to the Mughal Empire ]. According to him, in the Indian city of Basin [ near Bombay, where it existed since 1549 CollegiumJesuit Societies ] there is a mountain called the Basin Pagodas, the spurs of which are almost entirely decorated with carved letters of this kind, a copy of which he sent me with his own hand for interpretation. However, since I knew neither the unusual letters nor the language, I decided that it would be better to leave them in their original chaos than to waste time in vain labor, wasting both oil [for the lamp] and effort. This is sufficient for the exposition of Indian dogmas.

Father Roth, of course, was not a calligrapher or engraver. He only carefully rewrote (describere = transfer to paper, rewrite) his materials, which the Dutch calligrapher and engraver W. vander Laegh transferred it to copper plates. At the bottom of each table there is his signature: W. vander Laegh scripsit et sculp (sit). But this signature is only in the first edition.

A detailed description of the tables is not my task. Those interested can refer to the original, scanned by Google.

It should only be noted that all erroneous spellings are entirely the responsibility of the engraver, who is not familiar with the subject. Father Roth himself did not have the opportunity to supervise the printing of the book, and Father Kircher was by no means an expert in Sanskrit and Devanagari. In addition, correcting engravings is much more expensive than correcting typed text. It is unlikely that printers would agree to re-engraving.

Conclusion

Umberto Eco writes in detail about Father Athanasius Kircher and his works in the book “In Search of a Perfect Language” on p. 161f.

- (Kircher) (1601 1680), German naturalist, philologist, music theorist. Jesuit. Professor at the University of Würzburg (since 1628). From 1633 in Vienna, from 1635 in Rome. Specialist in Egyptian hieroglyphs. Treatises on music, including... ... Encyclopedic Dictionary

- (16011680), German naturalist, philologist, music theorist. Jesuit. Professor at the University of Würzburg (since 1628). From 1633 in Vienna, from 1635 in Rome. Specialist in Egyptian hieroglyphs. Treatises on music, including “Universal... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

Kircher A.- KIRCHER (Kircher) Athanasius (160180), German. naturalist, philologist, musician. theorist. Jesuit. Prof. University of Würzburg (since 1628). From 1633 in Vienna, from 1635 in Rome. Egyptian specialist hieroglyphics. Treatises on music, including Universal... ... Biographical Dictionary

KIRCHER- (Kircher), Afanasy, b. 2 May 1602 in Geyz, d. 28 Nov 1680 in Rome; Jesuit scientist, professor of natural sciences. Sciences at the University of Würzburg, escaped from the horrors of the 30 Years' War by fleeing to Avignon, and from 1637 settled in Rome. Of his many... ... Riemann's Dictionary of Music

- ... Wikipedia

Linguistics ... Wikipedia

List of lunar craters A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S ... Wikipedia

Familiar with the history of the Jesuit order and scientific activity Some of its representatives will not be surprised by the fact that here, in the field of Egyptology, a place was found for one of the members of the order. Athanasius Kircher is a true son of his time, the 17th century, this era of sharp opposites, tireless searches and bold visions, the beginning of which saw Bacon, Kepler and Galileo, the middle - Descartes and Pascal, and the end illuminated by the names of Leibniz and Newton.

And not just anyone, but Leibniz himself confirms the right of Athanasius Kircher to be named next to them: “For the rest, I wish you, O you, who are worthy of immortality - to the extent that it falls to the lot of people, to which yours serves as a happy confirmation name, - immortality in an energetic old age full of youthful forces,” he wrote on May 16, 1670 to Kircher.

How did the son of Dr. Johann Kircher, adviser to the princely abbot Balthasar of Fulda and an official from the city of Haselstein, come to his studies in Egyptology, and what led him to this path?

Afanasy, as we have already noted, means “immortal.” But Athanasius was also the name of the great Patriarch of Alexandria, the saint by whose deeds Christian Egypt was glorified, and Egypt itself, in addition, was a country that at that very time aroused increased interest among the missionaries of the Society of Jesus.

The young student never lost sight of his ideal, embodied in the saint who gave him his name, and it just so happened that Christian Egypt gave him the first key to the knowledge of those secrets that in the future were finally revealed by the science of Egyptology.

Kircher's first and decisive meeting with Egypt took place in Speyer. This was in 1628. Athanasius has just been ordained and sent by his superiors to undergo a “probationary period” for one year in Speyer, where he must indulge in spiritual reflection in solitude. And then one day he is assigned to find some book. The young scientist searched the entire library, but did not find what he needed. But among her treasures he discovered a luxuriously illustrated volume.

The beautiful drawings depicted Egyptian obelisks, which Pope Sixtus V, despite great costs, ordered to be sent to Rome. Kircher's attention was especially attracted by the strange figures covering the edges of these powerful columns from top to bottom. At first, he mistook these amazing signs for the free creativity of ancient stonemasons, for simple ornaments.

However, the text of the essay, which he immediately delved into, soon brought him out of this delusion. There it was written in black and white that the wisdom of the ancient Egyptians was set forth in mysterious hieroglyphic signs and that it was carved in stone for the instruction of the people. But the key to understanding the mysterious letter has long been lost, and not a single mortal has yet managed to open this book behind seven seals.

And then the soul of the future researcher was kindled with the desire to decipher the hieroglyphs, read the texts and translate them. Without having the necessary, according to our current concepts, initial hypotheses, without that restraint, which is now the iron law of every scientific work, he dared to take on the texts and spoke publicly with his translations.

In the figure we show a sample from his "Sphinx mystagogica".

Kircher explained these hieroglyphs as follows: “The return to life of all things after the victory over Typhon, the moisture of nature, thanks to the vigilance of Anubis” (according to I. Friedrich). Any non-specialist can easily understand how Kircher came to this translation: he subtracted the “humidity of nature” from the wavy line, which actually means “water,” and he associated the “vigilance of Anubis” with the image of the eye.

In another case, he translates in a whole sentence the Roman-Greek royal title “autocrator” (“autocrat”) written in Egyptian alphabetic characters; Moreover, this interpretation of it cannot be accepted even with the strongest desire: “Osiris is the creator of fertility and all vegetation, whose productive power is brought down from heaven into his kingdom by Saint Mofta.”

“Absurdities” - this is how the translations of hieroglyphs made by Kircher are quite rightly called. However, those who spoke with excessive harshness about his “unheard-of audacity” lost sight of how closely Kircher was forced to adhere to the “delusional ideas” of Horapollo, responding to the ideal of the scientist of his time and how fully his absurd fantasies corresponded not only to the mystical assessment of everything, as regards vanishing antiquity, but also the downright morbid addiction of the 16th and 17th centuries to artificial symbols and allegories.

Egyptian writing contains three completely various types written characters that to modern man seems very strange at first; these are verbal signs, phonetic signs and determiners.

Verbal signs are signs that convey, through pictures, the concepts of specific creatures and objects without taking into account pronunciation. Following the example of cuneiform researchers, instead of the name “word sign,” the term ideogram (or logogram) was introduced. But along with sensually perceived objects and beings, there are also sensually perceived actions, that is, verbal concepts. For them, verbal signs can also be used without indicating the sound.

In addition, abstract concepts and actions (hence nouns and verbs) can be expressed ideographically using descriptive drawings, for example “old age” - through a drawing of a bent man with a stick, “south” - through an image of a lily characteristic of Upper Egypt, “cool " - a vessel from which water flows, "find" - a heron, etc.

Sound signs, also called phonograms in contrast to ideograms, can be very heterogeneous in Egyptian. A whole word can replace another word based on its sound, as if in Russian we depicted a braid as a tool by drawing a woman’s braid, or the verb pech’ by drawing a heating stove, etc. Thus, the picture for the Egyptian word wr “swallow” is also used for the word wr “big”, hprr “beetle” also means hpr “to become”. In this case, vowels located between consonants are not taken into account at all (which will be discussed below). The pictures for shorter words can then be used to write parts of longer words. Thus, the word msdr “ear” can be composed as follows: ms “tail” + dr “basket” = msdr.

True, already in Clement of Alexandria one could read that hieroglyphs, along with word-signs, also contain simple letters. But it was precisely in the time of Kircher that they were less inclined than ever to believe this: hieroglyphs are simply symbols, and if the Greek translation of the inscription on the obelisk (there was one such translation) does not contain anything profound, then it is erroneous; Afanasy Kircher immediately declared him as such!

And yet even in this area (others scientific discoveries received recognition) Afanasy Kircher left something truly significant for posterity. He was the first (in his work published in Rome in 1643) to definitely show that the Coptic language, then the increasingly forgotten language of Egyptian Christians, was the ancient Egyptian vernacular language - a conclusion that in any case could not be taken for granted at that time and which was later disputed and even ridiculed by eminent scientists.

Kircher owed the main materials for research in the field of the Coptic language to his close connections with the Roman Congregation for Propaganda, the highest papal missionary office, where the threads of leadership converged for a wide network of missionaries scattered throughout the world.

Kircher published a Coptic dictionary and even a Coptic grammar and thereby greatly contributed to awakening interest in the study of this ancient vernacular. For more than two hundred years, his works served as the starting point for all research undertaken in the field of Coptic philology.

And this is the undeniable merit of Kircher. For Champollion, who later deciphered hieroglyphs and became a classic example of a decipherer, while still almost a child, proceeded from this discovery.

(1680-11-27 ) (78 years old)

Biography

He taught philosophy and oriental languages in Würzburg; During the Thirty Years' War he moved to Avignon to the Jesuits, then to Rome, where he taught mathematics. One of the most learned people of his time, he wrote many treatises on a wide variety of subjects, where, along with accurate information, fables are reported without the slightest critical attitude towards them.

From his works on physics and mathematics we know

"Ars magna lucis et umbrae" (),
"Musurgia universalis" (about sound and music, including the theory of affects),
"Organum mathematicalum".

Ideas about the structure of the Earth are set out in his work “Mundus subterraneus” (“Underworld”, 1664), zoological knowledge of that time was summarized by Kircher in the book “Arca Noae” (“Noah’s Ark”, 1675).

Among his philological and antiquarian printed works the following are known:

"Prodromus copticus" ()
"Oedipus Aegyptiacus" (),
“China monumentis... illustrata” (), etc.

Known for his works on Egyptology with an attempt to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs. He compiled a grammar of the Coptic language, and his descriptions were later actively used by Champollion, who achieved his first real successes.

Particularly famous was the one compiled by Kircher. Illustrated Encyclopedia Chinese Empire ( ,), in which he collected information and maps about China from Jesuits from China who visited Rome, including Michal Boym, Alvaro Semedo, Martino Martini and Johann Grüber. At the same time, the encyclopedia mixed scientific information with fantastic pseudo-historical interpretations.

He is considered by many researchers to be the inventor of a device for static projection - the magic lantern.

This and other books by Kircher were in the library of Sir Thomas Browne, as well as in the libraries of many other enlightened Europeans of the 17th century.

Memory

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Literature

Nasonov R. A. Afanasy Kircher // Great Russian Encyclopedia. T. 14. M., 2009, p. 50.
Yates F. Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic tradition. M.: NLO, 2000, pp. 367-372 (and also according to the index)
Tomsinov V. A. « Brief history Egyptology" (a separate chapter is devoted to Kircher)

Excerpt characterizing Kircher, Athanasius

“They have everything the same,” thought Nikolai, looking into the living room, where he saw Vera and his mother with the old woman.
- A! Here comes Nikolenka! – Natasha ran up to him.
- Is daddy at home? – he asked.
– I’m so glad you came! – Natasha said without answering, “we’re having so much fun.” Vasily Dmitrich remains for me one more day, you know?
“No, dad hasn’t come yet,” said Sonya.
- Coco, you have arrived, come to me, my friend! - said the countess's voice from the living room. Nikolai approached his mother, kissed her hand and, silently sitting down at her table, began to look at her hands, laying out the cards. Laughter and cheerful voices were still heard from the hall, persuading Natasha.
“Well, okay, okay,” Denisov shouted, “now there’s no point in making excuses, barcarolla is behind you, I beg you.”
The Countess looked back at her silent son.
- What's wrong with you? – Nikolai’s mother asked.
“Oh, nothing,” he said, as if he was already tired of this same question.
- Will daddy come soon?
- I think.
“Everything is the same for them. They don't know anything! Where should I go?” thought Nikolai and went back to the hall where the clavichord stood.
Sonya sat at the clavichord and played the prelude of the barcarolle that Denisov especially loved. Natasha was going to sing. Denisov looked at her with delighted eyes.
Nikolai began to walk back and forth around the room.
“And now you want to make her sing? – what can she sing? And there’s nothing fun here,” thought Nikolai.
Sonya struck the first chord of the prelude.
“My God, I am lost, I am a dishonest person. A bullet in the forehead, the only thing left to do is not sing, he thought. Leave? but where? anyway, let them sing!”
Nikolai gloomily, continuing to walk around the room, glanced at Denisov and the girls, avoiding their gaze.
“Nikolenka, what’s wrong with you?” – asked Sonya’s gaze fixed on him. She immediately saw that something had happened to him.
Nikolai turned away from her. Natasha, with her sensitivity, also instantly noticed her brother’s condition. She noticed him, but she herself was so happy at that moment, she was so far from grief, sadness, reproaches, that she (as often happens with young people) deliberately deceived herself. No, I’m having too much fun now to spoil my fun by sympathizing with someone else’s grief, she felt, and said to herself:
“No, I’m rightly mistaken, he should be as cheerful as I am.” Well, Sonya,” she said and went out to the very middle of the hall, where, in her opinion, the resonance was best. Raising her head and lowering her lifelessly hanging hands, as dancers do, Natasha, energetically shifting from heel to toe, walked through the middle of the room and stopped.
“Here I am!” as if she was speaking in response to the enthusiastic gaze of Denisov, who was watching her.
“And why is she happy! - Nikolai thought, looking at his sister. And how isn’t she bored and ashamed!” Natasha hit the first note, her throat expanded, her chest straightened, her eyes took on a serious expression. She was not thinking about anyone or anything at that moment, and sounds flowed from her folded mouth into a smile, those sounds that anyone can make at the same intervals and at the same intervals, but which a thousand times leave you cold, in the thousand and first times they make you shudder and cry.
This winter Natasha began to sing seriously for the first time, especially because Denisov admired her singing. She no longer sang like a child, there was no longer in her singing that comic, childish diligence that was in her before; but she still did not sing well, as all the expert judges who listened to her said. “Not processed, but a wonderful voice, it needs to be processed,” everyone said. But they usually said this long after her voice had fallen silent. At the same time, when this raw voice sounded with irregular aspirations and with efforts of transitions, even the expert judges did not say anything, and only enjoyed this raw voice and only wanted to hear it again. In her voice there was that virginal pristineness, that ignorance of her own strengths and that still unprocessed velvet, which were so combined with the shortcomings of the art of singing that it seemed impossible to change anything in this voice without spoiling it.