Specula Melitensis Encyclica

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Title page of “Specula Melitensis Encyclica”

Specula Melitensis Encyclica (“The Maltese Observatory” or “The Circular Maltese Mirror”)[1] was a 1638 work by the Jesuit scholar Athanasius Kircher. It was printed in Naples by Secundino Roncagliolo[2] and dedicated to Giovanni Paolo Lascaris, Grand Master of the Knights of Malta.[3]

The work described an instrument that Kircher had built while on a trip to Malta as the confessor of Friedrich of Hesse-Darmstadt. This instrument, which he called the Specula Melitensis, was a mechanical calculator that included a planisphere and a means of counting both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. It also charted horoscopes, and condensed all important medical, botanical, alchemical, hermetic knowledge into a single cube known as the “cabalistic mirror.”[4][5] Altogether this instrument had 125 distinct uses.[1]

Unusually for works by Kircher, this book acknowledged a collaborator, the Maltese historian and prior of St John's, Salvatore Imbroll, who seems to have completed the project with material begun by Kircher.[6]

The calculator described in the work was later than machines devised by John Napier and Wilhelm Schickard, but earlier than that of Blaise Pascal.

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References[]

  1. ^ a b Buttigieg, Emanuel (September 2012). "Knights, Jesuits, Carnival, and the Inquisition in Seventeenth-Century Malta". The Historical Journal. 55 (3): 572. doi:10.1017/S0018246X12000180. JSTOR 23263265. S2CID 162678333.
  2. ^ Harold B. Lee Library (2003). Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680), Jesuit Scholar: An Exhibition of His Works in the Harold B. Lee Library Collections at Brigham Young University. Martino Publishing. p. xxxiii. ISBN 978-1-57898-432-9.
  3. ^ Kircher, Athanasius. "Specula Melitensis encyclica". archive.org. Retrieved 12 April 2020.
  4. ^ Findlen, Paula. "Kircher, Athanasius". encyclopaedia.com. Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 12 April 2020.
  5. ^ Barthélemy Mercier de Saint-Léger (1785). Notice raisonnée des ouvrages de Gaspar Schott: contenant des Observations curieuses sur la Physique Expérimentale, l'Histoire Naturelle & les Arts. Lagrange. p. 55. Retrieved 12 April 2020.
  6. ^ Freller, Thomas. "Olaf Hein Die Drucker und Verleger der Werke des Polyhistors Athanasius Kircher S.J" (PDF). melitensiawth.com. Melita Historica : A Scientific Review of Maltese History. Retrieved 12 April 2020.
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