The World, As It Might Be: Iconography and Probabilism in the Mundus subterraneus of Athanasius Kircher (2006)
Waddell, Mark A. (Author)
Centaurus: International Magazine of the History of Mathematics, Science, and Technology
Volume: 48
Pages: 3--22
Edition Details: Special Issue: New Work in Early Modern Science
Language: English
Though one of the best-studied Jesuit naturalists of the 17th century, Athanasius Kircher (1602--1680) remains something of an enigma to modern scholars. Frequently associated with traditions of Renaissance magic and esotericism, and thereby cast as an anachronism at odds with the forward-looking character assigned by historians of science to the 17th century, Kircher was nonetheless a typical product of his time and, more importantly, of the Society of Jesus. This study explores one of Kircher's most important works, the Mundus subterraneus of 1665, in an effort to establish how specific spiritual and intellectual traditions present within the Society affected both the questions that Kircher posed and the methodologies he adopted to answer them. Using a combination of iconography and narrative structure, Kircher emphasized the contemplation of the probable rather than the accumulation of `facts', thereby permitting his audiences to glimpse for themselves the unseen realms of the world. Drawing on specific meditative traditions already circulating within the Society, as well as strains of an anti-skeptical probabilism that was gaining strength in the Society's schools, Kircher thus shaped an approach to the hidden depths of the Earth that can be usefully linked to his institutional and intellectual contexts.
...MoreArticle Barker, Peter (2006) New Work in Early Modern Science. Centaurus: International Magazine of the History of Mathematics, Science, and Technology (p. 1).
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