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Searching... Hardwood Creek Library (Forest Lake) | J 921 KIRCHER | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
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.
Reviews (3)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 4-7-What do volcanoes, cat pianos, and censorship have in common? Seventeenth-century scientist, Athanasius Kircher. Although not widely known today, Kircher's life provides an entertaining prehistory to modern science. Peters reveals that Kircher was not so much "the Man Who Knew Everything" but an insatiably curious person in a changing world. The religious violence of the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) provides a backdrop to Kircher's rise from German peasant boy to travelling Jesuit priest; Catholicism enabled and threatened Kircher's research. The biography is interspersed with witty cartouches, time lines, and sections describing experiments and the validity of Kircher's theories. Kircher's methodology was balanced between the Renaissance man's omnivorous inquiry and the modern scientist's narrow specialization: he might have warded off the plague by wearing a dead toad, but he also gained geological observations by lowering himself into the smoking mouth of Mount Vesuvius in a basket. Short blocks of text are balanced by Bikadoroff's illustrations, which blend engravings from Kircher's texts with colorful line drawings. A brief afterword notes Kircher's recent rise in popularity, tacitly asking what learners and educators can gain by moving beyond STEM-dominated lessons. VERDICT Engaging and funny, this biography uses history to think critically about how knowledge is found. A winning addition to nonfiction collections.-Katherine Magyarody, Texas A&M University, College Station © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
An introduction to an undeservedly obscure polymath of the scientific revolution.Justly (if anachronistically, as the term wasn't coined until the 19th century) dubbing Kircher (1602-1680) in his time "the most famous scientist in all of Europe," Peters devotes most of this profile just to laying out the immense range of his interests and exploits. Along with writings on music, geology, mathematics, travel, and more, he built microscopes and other devices, demonstrated a megaphone with a 5-mile range, and had himself winched down into a live volcano. Being also a showman ("closer to P.T. Barnum than to Einstein"), he also created in Rome a popular museum of "bizarre and fantastical objects" including magnetic clocks and mermaid bones, ancient obelisks, statues that could talk or vomit, and many other marvels. Reading this book is like a walk through that museum, and if certain passages of the hair-fine text, being printed on low-contrast color blocks, require some squinting, Bikadoroff's portraits of Kircher and other historical figures (all white) over antique landscapes and images add proper notes of wonder as well as period flavor. Many of Kircher's works and notions were fanciful or, like that talking statue, outright hoaxes, but others have turned out to be valuable contributions; both get equal play, both throughout and in a final section dubbed "Hits and Misses." A colorful figure in the history of science whose "misses" are as entertaining and instructive as his "hits." (timeline, map, lists of sources and further reading) (Biography. 10-13) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Peters takes on the unbelievable life of literal Renaissance man Athanasius Kircher in this illustrated biography. Born in 1602 in Germany, Kircher displayed a reckless curiosity from a young age, a quality that defined his career as a Jesuit priest and passionate collector of knowledge. His inquisitive nature drove him to investigate all manner of topics music, linguistics, and secret codes, to name a few but it was his pioneering work in geology that established his scientific reputation. Kircher's daring was two-fold, encompassing risky exploits, such as being lowered into an active volcano in a basket, and the development of scientific theories that might contradict the Church's teachings an offense punishable by death. Peters does an excellent job of calling attention to the changing face of science over history, highlighting how Kircher often folded myths and magic into his theories a common practice at the time. Readers will be enthralled by his inventions (a cat piano!) and the concluding Hits and Misses section, which collects and honestly evaluates some of Kircher's theories.--Smith, Julia Copyright 2017 Booklist
Excerpts
Excerpts
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? Excerpted from Volcano Cowboy: Athanasius Kircher, Wild Man of Science by Marilee Peters All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
