Joscelyn Godwin: Athanasius Kircher: A Renaissance Man and the Quest for Lost Knowledge (1979)
Filed under book | Tags: · 1600s, archaeology, history of science, history of technology, kabbalah, linguistics, magnetism, music, mysticism, optics, religion, science, technology
Athanasius Kircher (1602-80) stands out as one of the last all-encompassing minds, living in the age of Descartes and Newton, but expounding his knowledge in the light of a unified, spiritual world-view. For this true Renaissance man, the whole cosmos was a glorious theophany waiting to be explored.
Kircher was a Jesuit and an archeologist, a phenomenal linguist and an avid collector of scientific instruments and geographical exploration. He probed the secrets of the subterranean world, deciphered archaic languages, experimented with alchemy and music-therapy, optics and magnetism.
Egyptian mystery wisdom, Greek, Cabbalistic and Christian philosophy met on common ground in Kircher’s work; his sumptuous, encyclopaedic volumes were revered throughout Europe. His gigantic oeuvre is approached here through striking engravings – most of them reprinted for the first time – together with annotations and an introduction to Kircher’s life and work.
Publisher Thames & Hudson, 1979
Art and Imagination series
ISBN 0500810222, 9780500810224
96 pages
PDF (121 MB, no OCR)
Comment (0)Guy Debord: “Cette mauvaise réputation…” (1993) [French]
Filed under book | Tags: · critique
La critique des critiques. Ce plaidoyer pro domo est destiné à ‘rétablir la vérité complète sur beaucoup de circonstances peu connues’ de la conduite de l’auteur, circonstances qui ‘sont pourtant aussi très rarement citées’. Guy Debord recopie, ‘redresse’ et commente les ‘propos des médiatiques’, durant les années 1988 à 1992. On peut, avec J. Savigneau, souligner l’absence totale d’humour et qualifier de ‘décourageante’ la lecture de ce florilège de critiques peu crédibles.
Publisher Gallimard, 1993
ISBN 2070407004
111 pages
Kurt Schwitters: Auguste Bolte (1923–) [DE, PT]
Filed under fiction | Tags: · dada
Publisher Der Sturm, Berlin, 1923
46 pages
via Kunsthaus Zurich
Auguste Bolte (German, 1923, 71 MB, added on 2020-9-5)
Augusta Pia: um xarope de fígado de bacalhau (Portuguese, trans. Judite Berkemeier, 1989)