Musaeum Kircherianum in the history of museum work during the Baroque epoch

Abstract

The museum, named after its founder A.Kircher, is not sufficiently appreciated by museum historians in this country, limited only to brief characteristics of this cultural phenomenon of the Baroque era. The exposition of the museum was a complete author’s model of the Universe, a world of metaphors and symbols generated by the mystical worldview of A.Kircher. A world far from physical reality, despite the fact that its creator knew and took into account the main scientific discoveries of that time. The evaluation of this museum should not be based on A.Kircher’s contribution to natural sciences and humanities, but by the way the interior was decorated, how artfully the exhibits were selected and presented, how masterfully the visual and sound effects were thought out. In addition, historians do not sufficiently connect the museum with the extensive written heritage of A.Kircher, who previously outlined his model of the world order in a series of illustrated folios, which together formed a virtual museum, transformed by the author into the Musaeum Kircherianum, replacing book illustrations with an objective row. The sources of the proposed reconstruction of the museum are cosmological, scientific, linguistic and historical works of A.Kircher, notes of travelers, and museum catalogues of 1678–1878.

Keywords:

A.Kircher, L.Bernini, Baroque, Jesuits, Musaeum Kircherianum, obelisks, collections, magnetism, theatre of metaphors