Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680) was a German scientist who could compete with Leonardo da Vinci in terms of eclectic genius. A Jesuit living in Italy, he published 39 books on all sorts of subjects, each of which blended different viewpoints: observations, speculations, folk myths and original inventions. They were simultaneously encyclopedias, manuals and essays. For example, Musurgia Universalis (1646), a treatise on music, established a correlation between the harmony of music and the proportions of the universe, reproduced birdsongs in musical notation, explained how musical instruments work, and described how to build a water-powered automatic organ. He tried to decipher the Egyptian hieroglyphics in Lingua Aegyptiaca Restituta (1643), surveyed Chinese culture in China Monumentis (1667), and pioneered geophysics in Mundus subterraneus (1665). He realized that magnetism and gravity were similar phenomena. He believed in the evolution of animals. He studied the 1656 bubonic plague, correctly predicting that the disease was due to creatures that could be seen only with a microscope, as well as the 1630 eruption of a Sicilian volcano, correctly predicting that the core of the Earth contained fire. Many of his books described his own inventions: a calculating machine in Specula Melitensis Encyclica (1638), the magic lantern in Ars Magna Lucis Et Umbrae (1646), a geometric calculator in Pantometrum Kircherianum (1669), the megaphone in Phonurgia Nova (1673), etc. Kirchers lifetime obsession was the problem of encoding and decoding. In 1651 he founded the first public museum, located in the vast, labyrinthine edifice of the Collegio Romano, the Jesuit headquarters in Rome, where he had been working since 1933. Some of the books were decorated with intricate drawings. In the Ars Magna Sciendi (1669) Kircher introduced a kind of symbolic logic that could be used to prove the truth of any statement. The fourth chapter, Ars Combinatoria, uses this diagram (popularized by Umberto Ecos Foucaults Pendulum) to explain the mathematical properties of his machine. But Kircher must have been aware that this diagram also shows the power of straight lines to create the optical illusion of curvature. Incidentally, Kirchers Ars Magna Sciendi continued a project originally started around 1275 by the medieval Spanish mystic and alchemist Ramon Llull (1232-1316), who spent his life developing a combinatorial system of letters and revolving wheels that would allow missionaries to prove systematically the truth of the Christian faith to the Jews and the Muslims who doubted them. Basically, Llull (perhaps inspired by the zairja used by Arab astrologers) had pioneered the mechanical production of truth. Llulls Ars Magna (1305) influenced Gottfried Leibnizs ars combinatoria, which in turn influenced the development of symbolic logic that in turn influenced the birth of computer science. FRONTPIECE FOR ARITHMOLOGIA The above art work by Athanasuis Kircher for his book Arithmologia (1655) demonstrates the symbolism of the tetractys, the Lo Shu, and the Pythagorean Theorem. This suggests that Kircher may have realized the connection of the Pythagorean Theorem and the Lo Shu, the Chinese cosmological model for Time and Space. Kircher was an avid Sinologist and wrote over 40 books including China Illustrated in Monuments (1667); therefore, Kircher may have been aware of the Chinese reverence for the Lo Shu. Kircher assigns the Lo Shu Magic Square a higher hierarchy than the Pythagorean Theorem and the Tetractys. The 3x3 Magic Square is being held by an angel in Heaven, a parallel reference to the Chinese belief that the Lo Shu was presented to humankind from Heaven. The model of the Pythagorean Theorem, in contrast, sits on the terrestrial Earth. A clue to Kirchers research into Chinas ancient history through his own study of the Chinese language can be found in Kirchers book Oedipus Aegyptiacus (Vol. 1., p. 70): I confess, for a long time I had regarded all this (dynastes and the Atlantis) as pure fables to the day when, better instructed in Oriental languages, I judged that all those legends must be, after all, only the development of a great truth..... Kircher must have used his better understanding of the Chinese language to read and comprehend ancient Chinese books that were in the possession of the Vatican. The burning of libraries and books took place in China, c. 213 BC and many times since. The priceless Chinese texts were the oldest books in the world, some found safety via the Silk Road and fell into the hands of the Church. This would explain how Kircher was aware of the Luo Shu as a gift from Heaven and its relationship to the Pythagorean Theorem. Perhaps there even is a connection of the Luo Shu with Atlantis! Kircher also uses the Enneagram at the top of the frontpiece, possibly suggesting that the Enneagram and the Luo Shu are Heavenly gifts to Humankind and are connected to the language of numbers
Posted on: Sun, 17 Aug 2014 23:32:47 +0000
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