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Paper: |
Athanasius Kircher: The 17th Century Science
at the Crossroads |
Volume: |
441, The Inspiration of Astronomical Phenomena VI |
Page: |
547 |
Authors: |
Buonanno, R. |
Abstract: |
Athanasius Kircher, who entered the Society of Jesus in 1628, is a
peculiar scientist who is in love with everything he sees and with
everything he thinks he sees. He is a non-Galilean scientist whose
general attitude is not obscurantism but rather a defense of
established faith. He arrives in Rome in the fall of 1633 when he is
in his thirties. Even if at the epoch Kircher has already written some
of his many books, it is amazing that Galileo does not even quote him
in the letters he will wrote in the rest of his life. In spite of
having stridden along a minor scientific path, opposite of that shown
by Galileo, it is nonetheless surprising to find out that Athanasius
Kircher was gifted with remarkable intuition, and was in some cases
even decades in advance with respect to the age he lived in. |
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