⚠The text on this page consists almost entirely of mirror-image bleed-through from the title page printed on the recto side. Only the central library stamp is oriented correctly for this verso side.

ATHANASIUS KIRCHER

OF THE SOCIETY OF JESUS The Jesuits

NEW

PHONURGIA

original: "Phonurgia Nova." Kircher coined this term from the Greek roots for "sound" (phone) and "work" or "production" (urgos), essentially meaning "The New Science of Sound-Making."

ROYAL LIBRARY OF MUNICH.

A Mechano-Physical Marriage

OF ART & NATURE

WITH PHONOSOPHIA AS BRIDESMAID

original: "Paranympha Phonosophia." Phonosophia is Kircher's personification of the wisdom or science of sound.

Composed;

in which

THE ENTIRE DOCTRINE OF SOUNDS, AND THE WISDOM OF SOUND, is explained through physical-prodigious forces, Causes, and a manifold exhibition of new experiments; a compendium of Acoustic Instruments and Machines to be adapted to the prototype of Nature—both for propagating sounds, and for the voice carried to remote and hidden places of homes through the secret vents of windings Refers to Kircher's "speaking tubes" or acoustic conduits built into walls; and finally, of the new Musical Phonarithms A system for automatic musical composition using mathematical tables, by which anyone, even those unskilled in Music, can with no effort be led most successfully to the composition of any songs in any musical arrangement.

arranged through a new PhonologyIn this 17th-century context, the systematic study and classification of sounds.

A mirror-image of a technical illustration. It depicts an architectural courtyard or plaza with a central fountain. Converging lines (representing sound waves or lines of sight) are drawn from various windows and portals toward specific points, illustrating acoustic reflections and transmission within a built environment.

KEMPTEN A city in Bavaria; Latin: Campidona,

By Rudolph Dreherr, YEAR 1673.