Athanasius Kircher

Timeline

1. 1602–1633Fulda · GermanyBorn in the Rhineland, he received Jesuit humanist and scientific training at Fulda, Mainz, Cologne, and elsewhere; he began teaching in 1628 and lectured in Würzburg, Avignon, and other places in the 1630s, covering mathematics, Oriental languages, and mechanical devices, laying the groundwork for his later career as a polymath in Rome.
2. 1633–1651Rome · LazioIn 1633 he went to the Collegio Romano to teach mathematics and Oriental languages; from 1638 he established within the college a museum renowned across Europe, collecting Egyptian antiquities, natural specimens, and mechanical marvels. In the 1640s he published works such as Magnes and Oedipus Aegyptiacus, attempting to unlock ancient wisdom through the key of hieroglyphs; though often misread, this pioneered the field of Egyptology.
3. 1651–1680Rome · LazioBetween 1651 and 1660 he successively published Subterranean World, Musurgia Universalis, and China Illustrata (1667), integrating geology, acoustics, medicine, and exotic knowledge with boundless curiosity. His museum attracted visiting envoys and scholars from many countries; although some of his theories were later disproven, his work still represents the summit of Jesuit intellectual synthesis in the seventeenth century. He died in Rome on November 27, 1680.