Science, Reading, and Renaissance Literature: The Art of Making Knowledge, 1580–1670 (review)
Rome: most importantly, the local Roman context and the global Jesuit missionary project. Eugenio Lo Sardo and Antonella Romano fill in the immediate Roman context, while Martha Baldwin, Harald Siebert, and Angel Mayer-Deutsch depict aspects of Kircher’s efforts to establish patronage relationships throughout Europe. The last four essays follow Kircher’s works into China and New Spain. Here, as elsewhere in this volume, Kircher’s ideal of a Catholic universalism provides the key for understanding his works. In a fascinating chapter, J. Michelle Molina demonstrates how Kircher’s China illustrata, made possible by the Jesuit missionary activities, dictated the narrative structure of hagiographic texts in New Spain. Drawing on portraits and engravings as well as texts, Findlen offers an insightful analysis of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, a nun in New Spain whose works reflect Kircher’s cultural and scientific authority in the New World. Finally, several chapters explore Kircher’s efforts to publish and circulate knowledge. Siebert’s detailed study of censorship reports from the College of Revisors General suggests that Kircher exploited personal relationships and his growing fame to avoid harsh censorship, particularly after his Great Art of Knowing had received stern reproach in 1660. Nick Wilding’s contribution extends his work on Kircher’s cryptography and universal languages, arguing that Kircher adapted his works to address the interests of particular patrons and to create the appearance of a network of readers. Noel Malcolm traces the contours of Kircher’s correspondence network to challenge the easy assumption that he was a typical representative of the Republic of Letters. Beyond what has been mentioned here, there is much to recommend in these essays. The collection succeeds in its expressed goal of charting some of the paths through Kircher’s world. It also raises numerous issues that merit further attention and provides a useful starting point for further research. DARIN HAYTON Museum of the History of Science, Oxford