The Ecstatic Journey: Athanasius Kircher in Baroque Rome (review)

Jesuit contributions to various areas of early modern culture have recently become topics of intense scholarly interest. The remarkable successes of the early Society of Jesus in reforming education, developing new artistic and theatrical styles, launching missionary activities (especially in the New World and Asia), and so forth provide fertile ground for early modernists in many disciplines, including the history of science and medicine. Perhaps one of the most famous Jesuits from this last perspective is the polymath Athanasius Kircher, whose massive correspondence (now being edited) and often ponderous published works are full of natural-philosophical observations and speculations, as well as natural and artificial wonders.

The present volume is the catalog of an exhibit held in spring 2000 at the Department of Special Collections of the University of Chicago. As such, it is profusely illustrated with frontispieces, title pages, and other engravings from Kircher's many publications, as well as with further engravings that serve to fill in the context of Kircher's Rome. The reproductions are of high quality, and besides being beautiful in their own right, they will prove useful to those lecturing on Kircher. The volume begins with an introductory essay on Kircher's life and times, setting him in the context of both the Society of Jesus and seventeenth-century Rome. This is followed by about twenty-five short chapters, focusing on discrete aspects of Kircher's work: Copernicus and Copernicanism, geology, tarantism, universal language, the interpretation of hieroglyphics, spontaneous generation, and scripture and science, to name but a few.

Specialists in the history of science and medicine will be uncomfortable with some parts of the book. The historiography is slightly dated in some areas—for example, in discussions of science and religion, which do not always seem to appreciate the more nuanced readings of recent scholarship. Similarly, the sometimes excessive praise of Giordano Bruno seems drawn undiluted from Frances Yates. The author avoids the issue of how many of Kircher's wonderful machines were actually built, and may err on the side of taking him too literally (although this stance is admittedly better than blandly rejecting them tout court). There are also a few errors of fact, as when, for example, Pierre Gassendi is referred to as a Franciscan and "Royal Astronomer" (pp. 53-54).

Nonetheless, this catalog serves to introduce the fascinating figure of Kircher—and "Jesuit science" more broadly—to a wide audience. It also succeeds in reproducing the sense of wonder that Kircher's activities endeavored to invoke. The many fine illustrations make for very pleasant viewing, and every reader will have cause to marvel at Kircher's fertile mind and wide range of activities. Even after three centuries, he can still fire the imagination with wonder.