Athanasius Kircher: a Renaissance man and the quest for lost knowledge

The German Jesuit Athanasius Kircher did not die until 27 November 1680, at the ripeold age of seventy-eight or seventy-nine.2 His body was buried in Il Gesu? and his heart inthe Marian shrine of Mentorella, south of Rome. Despite Baldigiani's mournfuldescription of Kircher, reports of his demise were somewhat exaggerated. Kircher wasstill writing his own letters to correspondents as late as November 1678, when heapologized to one colleague for any sloppiness inadvertently caused by his "tremblinghand."3 A trickle of letters continued, though increasingly composed by assistants, untilthe winter