JOHN PAUL OLIVA

SUPERIOR GENERAL OF THE SOCIETY OF JESUS The Society of Jesus is the religious order commonly known as the Jesuits, of which Kircher was a prominent member.

Since this work, titled New Phonurgia, or, on the wondrous miracles of sound and the voice to be propagated through machines of every kind, written by Father Athanasius Kircher, a Priest of our Society, has been reviewed by several theologians of the same Society, and they have approved that it may be published, we grant the authority for it to be sent to the press, if it so seems fit to those to whom it pertains. Given at Rome, December 1, 1672.

original: "Imprimatur." This is the official license granted by the Roman Catholic Church, certifying that the work contains nothing contrary to faith or morals.

The Master of the Sacred Apostolic Palace was the Pope’s primary theologian and the chief censor for books published in Rome.