The 17th-century German polymath Athanasius Kircher, driven by a profound curiosity about the origins of languages and the interconnectedness of ancient civilisations, discussed the origins and meaning of Egyptian writings at great length and made an ambitious attempt to decipher the hieroglyphs. This fascination for Egypt, already detectable in his earlier works (e.g. the Prodromus Coptus, 1636) or in the imposant Oedipus Aegyptiacus (1652-54), is matched with a deep interest in China and the Far East in his monumental China Illustrata (1667), whose final section delves into a captivating – yet unlikely – comparison between the hieroglyphs and the Chinese writing system. In drawing parallels between Egyptian and Chinese characters, Kircher explored potential similarities in their symbolic systems, also proposing a speculative theory of a universal language that transcended geographical and cultural boundaries. Although his interpretations have been largely discredited in subsequent scholarship, Kircher’s pioneering efforts reflect the broader intellectual currents of his time, when Christian writers tried to find the ‘seeds’ of Christianity in many ancient traditions and stand as a testament to the intellectual curiosity and challenges faced in the early attempts to decipher ancient scripts and to undercover their hidden and mysterious meaning. This paper provides a general discussion on Kircher and diffusionism and proposes a hypothesis about the source of his description of the Chinese characters and writing styles.
Tra ideogrammi e geroglifici: la lingua primigenia nella China Illustrata di Athanasius Kircher e nel dibattito coevo
Tommasi Chiara Ombretta
2024-01-01
Abstract
The 17th-century German polymath Athanasius Kircher, driven by a profound curiosity about the origins of languages and the interconnectedness of ancient civilisations, discussed the origins and meaning of Egyptian writings at great length and made an ambitious attempt to decipher the hieroglyphs. This fascination for Egypt, already detectable in his earlier works (e.g. the Prodromus Coptus, 1636) or in the imposant Oedipus Aegyptiacus (1652-54), is matched with a deep interest in China and the Far East in his monumental China Illustrata (1667), whose final section delves into a captivating – yet unlikely – comparison between the hieroglyphs and the Chinese writing system. In drawing parallels between Egyptian and Chinese characters, Kircher explored potential similarities in their symbolic systems, also proposing a speculative theory of a universal language that transcended geographical and cultural boundaries. Although his interpretations have been largely discredited in subsequent scholarship, Kircher’s pioneering efforts reflect the broader intellectual currents of his time, when Christian writers tried to find the ‘seeds’ of Christianity in many ancient traditions and stand as a testament to the intellectual curiosity and challenges faced in the early attempts to decipher ancient scripts and to undercover their hidden and mysterious meaning. This paper provides a general discussion on Kircher and diffusionism and proposes a hypothesis about the source of his description of the Chinese characters and writing styles.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
