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Thesis ID: CBB001561967

Egyptian Oedipus: Antiquarianism, Oriental Studies, and Occult Philosophy in the Work of Athanasius Kircher (2004)

Stolzenberg, Daniel (Author)

Stanford University
Findlen, Paula

Publication Date: 2004
Edition Details: Advisor: Findlen, Paula
Physical Details: 389 pp.
Language: English

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This dissertation examines the quixotic attempt of the Jesuit scholar Athanasius Kircher (1601/2--1680) to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs. Kircher's hieroglyphic studies are best understood as the offspring of an encounter between Renaissance occult philosophy and antiquarianism, the latter embracing the discipline of Oriental studies. Against previous interpretations that have viewed Kircher's project as primarily philosophical and aimed at providing ideological support to the Church, this dissertation explains it as a historical endeavor to expand knowledge of antiquity by studying Near Eastern sources. The first three chapters chronicle the progress of Kircher's hieroglyphic studies from their inception in the early 1630s, under the sponsorship of Nicolas Claude Fabri de Peiresc, until the publication of Obeliscus Pamphilius (1650) and Oedipus Aegyptiacus (1652--4). They situate Kircher in the world of European Oriental studies, recreating the networks of individuals and institutions that facilitated his studies, especially in Rome. The subsequent chapters analyze different aspects of Kircher's published works, including his use of sources, the influence of censorship, his historical narrative explaining ancient truth and superstition, his method of translating hieroglyphs, and his rhetorical strategies to convince readers of his claims. Kircher's use of sources in Arabic and other Near Eastern languages is investigated and the story of his role in the birth of European Coptic studies is told in detail. Kircher's heavy dependence on earlier authors, especially those associated with late antique and Renaissance Neoplatonism, has made it easy to view him as an anachronistic continuator of Renaissance Hermetism. But Kircher put received traditions to new uses, turning the texts of Renaissance occult philosophy into tools of antiquarian research. The great irony of his enterprise is that, in order to become the antiquarian hero who solved the hieroglyphic enigma, he sacrificed the values that defined antiquarian scholarship at its best: skepticism, scrupulous concern with accuracy, and restraint with respect to speculative hypotheses. Nonetheless his work must be seen as a product of innovative trends in early modern erudite scholarship---an effort to practice state of the art antiquarian research without the support of a critical approach to his sources.

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Description Cited in Diss. Abstr. Int. A 64 (2004): 4170. UMI order no. 3111799.

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