I am curious . . .

Today is the birthday of Athanasius Kircher (May 2, 1601/2 - November 28, 1680), polymath with an insatiable curiosity, oft referred to as the master of a hundred arts.

Athanasius Kircher was a scholar who studied in many different branches of knowledge and sought connections among them in a quest to recover ancient pansophia (universal wisdom). He knew Hebrew, Aramaic, Coptic, Persian, Latin, and Greek as well as various "modern" languages. He had a genuine thirst for knowledge, enthusiastically corresponding with scholars, princes, popes, and missionaries throughout the world.

Athanasius Kircher published over forty books on virtually every imaginable subject during his lifetime. His books were sought after and read in virtually every corner of the world.

Athanasius Kircher made a study of Egyptian hieroglyphs, to which he is considered one of the early pioneers and to some as the founder of Egyptology. He was one of the first to observe microbes through a microscope. During an outbreak of the plague, he suspected that the plague was caused by an infectious microorganism - one of the small animals he viewed under the microscope. He was ahead of his time with his "microscopic idea" and even his ideas regarding effective measures to prevent the spread of the disease, such as, burning clothes worn by the infected or wearing facemasks to prevent the inhalation of germs.

In the 1670s, Athanasius Kircher opened the Museum Kircherianum, one of the first public museums, in which he displayed much of his inventive playfulness. He made robot-like models, equipping them with speaking tubes so that an automaton would seem to greet visitors from another room by name and participate in conversations. He used the "magic lantern technology" to create an early slide projector. He built a box of mirrors that would create a cascade of optical illusions and hopelessly confuse an unfortunate cat that he would place inside the container. He also designed a cat piano (as a cat lover, I certainly hope it was never built/played).



Trivia bit: Athanasius Kircher is credited with inventing the first megaphone.

Kircher images source (1)

Cat piano image source (1)