Phonurgia Nova

While it is possible to hear and return voices of those who are absent,

A reference to Kircher's "speaking tubes" or acoustic devices that allow voices to travel long distances, making the "absent" seem present. Indeed, first at the given signal, England was heard to grow famous,

The trumpet is thus called England; original: "Anglia sic dicta est tuba." The poet likely puns on the name "Anglia" (England) and perhaps a specific acoustic instrument or "English trumpet" discussed in Kircher's works. thus she joyfully confesses

And while the applause for your honor stands out nowhere more clearly,

A rare bird, and for a long time the mistress of fate, your Musurgia Kircher’s 1650 work on the theory and history of music, Musurgia Universalis.

Like a Swan, she salutes the gods with a fading voice

For you are fertile, like the Phoenix A mythical bird that burns to death and is reborn from its own ashes, used here to represent the transition from Kircher's music theory to his sound theory., who through death alone

By the prophecy of the voice, Phonurgia Kircher's Phonurgia Nova (1673), the work this poem praises, which focuses on the physics of sound and acoustics. rises as your equal,

In that former work, alas, the trumpet was once hidden and too silent,

Here, until the miracles of such a great voice are revealed,

Therefore, let both voice and glory seek this center for themselves,

And now, let the Moon curve the horns of her Diana The Roman goddess of the hunt and the moon; the "horns" refer both to the crescent moon and the curved hunting horns used to drive beasts.;

Let the forest-dwellers, the Satyrs and Fauns Mythical spirits of the wilderness associated with music and dance., weave their dances;