The Man Who Knew Everything: The Strange Life of Athanasius Kircher - Softcover

Peters

Softcover

ISBN 10: 155451973X ISBN 13: 9781554519736

Publisher: Annick Press, 2017

Synopsis

The Man Who Knew Everything is a biography of Athanasius Kircher, a 17th-century German Jesuit and scientist. He was one of the modern world’s first scientific celebrities―the Einstein or Stephen Hawking of his time. In 1638, Kircher was lowered into the smoking crater of Mt. Vesuvius to observe how volcanoes work. After thirty years, he published an 800-page volume of his findings―along with theories about fossils, geography, the Earth’s core, dragons, the location of the lost city of Atlantis, and more. Kircher has been described as the last Renaissance man, the first postmodernist, and “the man who knew everything.” The Man Who Knew Everything celebrates Kircher’s insatiable curiosity, his willingness to ask questions and to suggest answers, even when he sometimes got it wrong. Peters’ dramatic re-telling of Kircher’s life is complemented by colorized versions of his etchings, and lively illustrations by the award-winning artist, Roxanna Bikadoroff.

About this title

About the Authors

Marilee Peters is a communications officer, magazine editor and author living in Vancouver, BC. Volcano Cowboy is her fourth book from Annick Press.

Roxanna Bikadoroff is an award-winning artist whose illustrations have been published internationally for more than twenty-five years. Her work has been shown around the world, and has appeared in the New Yorker, The Walrus, and on the covers of books by the likes of Angela Carter, Flannery O’Connor, Bill Richardson, and Roald Dahl.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Rome, 1655 The carriage rumbled through the maze of narrow, cobblestoned streets. As it passed by, people pointed and chattered. Queen Christina of Sweden, one of the most brilliant and fascinating women in all of Europe, had just arrived in Rome, and the whole city was clamoring to meet her. But the queen had refused all the invitations to glittering parties. Instead, she wanted to go to a museum. Not just any museum, mind you―the Kircherian Museum, a collection of the most exotic, unusual, and awe-inducing objects the world had to offer. Finally, the queen’s carriage stopped before a long, pale-pink marble building, and her coachman opened the heavy, gilded carriage door. A man in dark priest’s robes stood by the building’s massive carved entrance. But this was no ordinary priest. This was the most famous scientist in all of Europe. “Athanasius Kircher,” Queen Christina exclaimed as she raced up the steps toward him. “I’ve been dying to meet you.” The Man Who Knew Everything Step inside the Kircherian Museum! Feast your eyes upon the strangest wonders ever collected under one roof: A mermaid’s bones. A brick from the Tower of Babel. A statue that speaks. Marvel at strange fossils and exotic animals, at magnetic clocks and musical machines. Behold Egyptian obelisks covered in mysterious hieroglyphics, a hall of mirrors, and more curiosities than you could ever dream of. How did the Kircherian Museum come to hold all these bizarre and fantastical objects? And who was its mysterious owner―the man Queen Christina had turned down all Rome’s wealthy and powerful to meet? Athanasius Kircher was more than a scientist. He was a star. No single description could contain him. He was an inventor, an author, an adventurer. He published books on music, math, travel, and medicine. He built microscopes and machines. He spoke dozens of languages, and could break secret codes. He claimed to know what lay under the earth and why the sky was blue. He had even descended inside an active volcano―and lived to tell the tale! People called him “The Man Who Knew Everything.” Kircher was a curious man, living in a time when there were many more questions about the world than there were answers. And he believed that by asking the right questions, he could understand all the mysteries of the universe. Did he always get it right? Not even close! His translations of Egyptian hieroglyphics were nonsense. His speaking statue was a fraud. He gave stories and myths the same weight as facts. Kircher was a showman as much as a scientist―closer to P.T. Barnum than to Einstein. So how did he become his era’s biggest scientific celebrity, and why are people still fascinated by him today?

Edition details

• Publisher: Annick Press
• Publication date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 155451973X
• ISBN 13: 9781554519736
• Binding: Paperback
• Illustrator: Bikadoroff
• Number of pages: 60