Spectacles of Light in the Work of Athanasius Kircher, S.J.  

July 14 – July 28, 2019

Opening Reception & Walk Through
July 14th, 12-2 pm at Manresa Gallery
inside St. Ignatius Church &
next to the USF campus
Refreshments will be served

Manresa Gallery is pleased to announce a new exhibition, Spectacles of Learning: The Passage of Light in the Work of Athanasius Kircher, S.J.  Fr. Kircher of the Society of Jesus (1602-1680) was a teacher of Mathematics at the Jesuit Roman College, but his interests were wide-ranging.  His celebrated Museum at the College attested to this, as he capitalized on objects brought back by Jesuit missionaries from various places around the globe. Fittingly, a 2004 biography on Kircher was titled, The Last Man Who Knew Everything. 

Kircher was a man devoted to the search for knowledge.  He wrote beautifully illustrated books on the many subjects that interested him, including hieroglyphics, magnetics and astronomy.  He also put his scientific knowledge into practice and was an accomplished inventor.  His creations include sound devices, a magnetic clock and the first megaphone.

Kircher’s intellectual pursuits ultimately were motivated by the idea that the visible alluded to that which could not be seen, that divine authority influenced the secular and the profane.   He searched for a universal truth that connected theology and science. Spectacles of Learning: The Passage of Light in the Work of Athanasius Kircher, S.J. focuses on Kircher’s use of symbols as a means of illuminating potential networks of understanding.  Through the show, we follow Kircher, as he creates a path through enigma, to what remains mysterious yet somehow knowable in theology and science.