Athanasius Kircher und das Theater des Wissens

Abstract

Given the importance of theatre for the instruction, education and confessional indoctrination of the Jesuits this paper focuses on the variety of the term theatre. It does not take as a base a static definition but rather analyses the diversity of spatial, performative and metonymic signification of theatrum. Looking at the collection and the printed works of Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680), who worked since 1635 at the Jesuit’s College in Rome and who was one of the most scintillate scholars of the century, this paper underlines the signification and importance of the term theatre for an understanding of knowledge in the early modern period.