Exploring the Kingdom of Saturn: Kircher's Latium and Its Legacy (2012)
Evans, Harry B. (Author)
University of Michigan Press
Physical Details: pp.; ill.; maps; bibl.; index
Language: English
Exploring the Kingdom of Saturn assesses a pioneering study of ancient Latium by one of the most interesting figures in the history of learning, the Jesuit polymath Athanasius Kircher. Although Kircher's Latium, published in 1671, is not without errors in its reading of the ancient monuments and topography of the area around Rome, this highly influential work launched future topographical study of the Roman campagna. Harry B. Evans investigates Kircher's Latium, its methods and accuracy, its possible use as a reference now, the scholarly quarrel between Kircher and rival scholar Raffaello Fabretti, and the Vatican's publications committee's involvement with Latium. While Kircher himself is well known for his many publications on a wide variety of subjects---Egyptian hieroglyphs, linguistics, natural science, musicology, and the history of China---his work as an archaeologist and topographer has often been dismissed. But his Latium is worth a detailed assessment: not only was it an early attempt to link ancient literary and historical sources to physical evidence, with splendid illustrations and maps, but the book spurred enormous interest in the region, prompting a more sophisticated study of it by Kircher's contemporaries and later generations. Anyone interested in the history of archaeology, the world of seventeenth-century Italian antiquarians and scholars, and the fascinating region of Latium itself will want to learn more about Kircher's achievements and the scholarly legacy of his book.
...MoreDescription On Athanasius Kircher's work as an archaeologist and topographer.
Review Olshin, Benjamin B. (2013) Review of "Exploring the Kingdom of Saturn: Kircher's Latium and Its Legacy". Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 163-164).
Similar Citations
Book
Ingrid Baumgärtner;
(2014)
Fürstliche Koordinaten: Landesvermessung und Herrschaftsvisualisierung um 1600
(/isis/citation/CBB266615617/)
Book
Giordano Bertuzzi;
(2018)
La Garfagnana: Relazioni e conflitti nei secoli con gli stati e i territori confinanti
(/isis/citation/CBB659551453/)
Book
Fletcher, John Edward;
Fletcher, Elizabeth;
Trompf, G. W.;
Kircher, Athanasius;
(2011)
A Study of the Life and Works of Athanasius Kircher, “Germanus incredibilis”: With a Selection of His Unpublished Correspondence and an Annotated Translation of His Autobiography
(/isis/citation/CBB001251872/)
Book
Rößler, Hole;
Burkart, Lucas;
Asmussen, Tina;
Furrer, Frederik;
(2013)
Theatrum Kircherianum: Wissenskulturen und Bücherwelten im 17. Jahrhundert
(/isis/citation/CBB001551220/)
Book
Glassie, John;
(2012)
A Man of Misconceptions: The Life of an Eccentric in an Age of Change
(/isis/citation/CBB001251249/)
Article
Guckelsberger, Kurt;
(2013)
Das moderne Kartenbild von Europa auf der Carta Itineraria Waldseemüllers von 1511/1520
(/isis/citation/CBB001421749/)
Book
Hellyer, Marcus;
(2005)
Catholic Physics: Jesuit Natural Philosophy in Early Modern Germany
(/isis/citation/CBB000501549/)
Article
Giulio Magli;
Eugenio Realini;
Mirko Reguzzoni;
Daniele Sampietro;
(2014)
High-Precision GPS Survey of Via Appia: Archaeoastronomy-Related Aspects
(/isis/citation/CBB893507007/)
Article
Mario Cams;
(2018)
Blurring the Boundaries: Integrating Techniques of Land Surveying on the Qing’s Mongolian Frontier
(/isis/citation/CBB111379837/)
Article
Ziller Camenietzki, Carlos;
(1995)
L'extase interplanétaire d'Athanasius Kircher: Philosophie, cosmologie et discipline dans la Compagnie de Jésus au XVIIe siècle
(/isis/citation/CBB000070988/)
Article
Carolino, Luís Miguel;
(2002)
Lux ex occidente--Un regard européen sur l'Inde au XVIIe siècle: Athanase Kircher et les récits des missionnaires jésuites sur science et religion indiennes
(/isis/citation/CBB000740632/)
Chapter
Stolzenberg, Daniel;
(2006)
Utility, Edification, and Superstition: Jesuit Censorship and Athanasius Kircher's Oedipus Aegyptiacus
(/isis/citation/CBB000640804/)
Article
Waddell, Mark A.;
(2006)
The World, As It Might Be: Iconography and Probabilism in the Mundus subterraneus of Athanasius Kircher
(/isis/citation/CBB000651426/)
Article
Luca Ciancio;
(2018)
“Immoderatus fervor ad intra coërcendus”: Reactions to Athanasius Kircher’s Central Fire in Jesuit Science and Imagination
(/isis/citation/CBB594645702/)
Article
Ingrid D. Rowland;
(2005)
Poetry and Prophecy in the Encyclopedic System of Athanasius Kircher
(/isis/citation/CBB859505830/)
Article
Daxecker, Franz;
(2000)
Der Jesuit Athanasius Kircher und sein Organum mathematicum
(/isis/citation/CBB000111495/)
Article
Francesco Luzzini;
(2013)
Il paradosso di Kircher (che paradosso non è)
(/isis/citation/CBB321171622/)
Thesis
Amanda Jensen;
(2019)
Universal Music, Universal Magic: Esoteric Thought in Athanasius Kircher's Musurgia Universalis
(/isis/citation/CBB623994805/)
Article
Maurizio Torrini;
(2005)
Da Galileo a Kircher: percorsi della scienza gesuitica
(/isis/citation/CBB936700551/)
Article
Christopher M. Graney;
(2019)
How to Make the Earth Orbit the Sun in 1614
(/isis/citation/CBB573664538/)
Be the first to comment!