49 Are We Alone in the Universe? The Science and Strategies to Search for Evidence of Past Life on Earth, in the Solar System, and Beyond: In Memory of Jack Farmer—Father of Exopaleontology, Face of Astrobiology, Teacher to Thousands Around the World (Posters)

Sunday, 15 October 2023
8:00 AM - 5:30 PM
Hall B

THE ART OF KNOWING THE NATURAL WORLD: ANALYSIS OF COMPLETE TRANSLATIONS OF ATHANASIUS KIRCHER'S ITINERARIUM EXSTATICUM I & II (1656) AND MUNDUS SUBTERRANEUS (1678)

Paper number: 49-5
Program: Special Sessions
Time: 8:00 AM – 5:30 PM

Authors

Abstract

Seventeenth-century Europe was fermenting with competing concepts in natural philosophy and the art of memory (in particular, logical devices to conceptually structure the natural world). Developments in these areas influenced what we, in retrospect, now called the Scientific Revolution. Jesuit scholar Athanasius Kircher's (1602-1680) contributions to the development of the Earth Sciences were recognized in his day through a celebrated museum at the Roman College and publications "Itinerarium Exstaticum" (1656 and later editions) and the twelve-book encyclopedic "Mundus Subterraneus" (1664 and later editions). Kircher's works were influential, controversial, disseminated and discussed among important scholars of the day, including Nicolas Steno (1638-86), John Locke (1632-1704), Robert Moray (1608?-73), and Henry Oldenburg (1618-77). Excepting a 1682 Dutch publication of Mundus, neither work was ever translated in its entirety from Latin. Therefore, contemporary recognition of Kircher's contribution to the 17th-century development of the Earth Sciences has been largely limited to translated excerpts and discussion of imagery displayed in "Mundus Subterraneus."

For the first time, the "Itinerarium Exstaticum" and the "Mundus Subterraneous" are translated in full, from Latin to English. The "Itinerarium Exstaticum I & II" describe the planets and the Earth told as a fictitious journey across the solar system, through a dialog with an angel, Cosmiel. The "Mundus Subterraneus" is a comprehensive account of Nature and Earth's physical features (geography), interior and surficial processes (geology), and organisms (biology). The application of digital technologies, including digital scanning, OCR for historical print type (OCR4all), traditional human translation supported by online Latin-English dictionaries, and machine language translation tools (OpenAI, Google, and Lingvanex) made possible the decade-long effort to transcribe and translate these works.

These translations permit a broader contextual analysis of Kircher's approach to natural philosophy and his use of memory devices for classifying the Earth and the natural world. In addition, these full translations give context and meaning to much-cited illustrations. These translations allow Kircher's contributions to be placed within the dynamic 17th-century Scientific Revolution.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 55, No. 6

doi: 10.1130/abs/2023AM-391912

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