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Alan Pritchard Guest
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Posted: Sat Oct 25th, 2008 07:30 pm |
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I haven't seen this book mentioned in alchemical circles, although it is mentioned on Bridgetothestars.net
Polymathestatos: a festschrift in honour of Joscelyn Godwin edited by Athanasius Kircher.
The first word comes from Libris Grammaticis, by M. Terentius Varro.
Interesting to speculate what papers might appear in it.
I suspect that many of the other books on the list may also be very subtle in-jokes.
Alan
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adammclean Member
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Posted: Sun Oct 26th, 2008 08:43 pm |
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Lyra's Oxford is a fantasy novel by Phillip Pullman which features an alchemist.
Joscelyn Godwin has written two books on Kircher, the Thames and Hudson A Renaissance man and the quest for lost knowledge, 1979 and the Athanasius Kircher and the Occult, 1988.
Joscelyn Godwin was brought up and educated in Oxford.
He edited a festschrift in honour of his friend Antoine Faivre in 2001.
It seems whoever referred to "Polymathestatos: a festschrift in honour of Joscelyn Godwin edited by Athanasius Kircher" has conflated these three facts.
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Leigh Penman Member
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Posted: Wed Oct 29th, 2008 12:09 pm |
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Joscelyn Godwin also recently wrote an article "Esotericism without Religion: Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials" which features in the collection 'Esotericism, Art & Imagination (Michigan State University Press, 0-87013-819-7
978-0-87013-819-5 ).
This might be where Godwin came to Pullmann's attention, or they might be friends, which is indeed the origin of the joke.
Otherwise, Godwin also has a new, full length book on Kircher that should be appearing soon, if it hasn't already.
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Alan Pritchard Guest
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Posted: Fri Oct 31st, 2008 11:08 am |
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I haven't time to look at all the books in that list, but I am sure they will be analysed in detail in a PhD in the future:
Pullman's full name is Philip Nicholas Outram Pullman
Beaumont Street is where the publisher is based.
Marisa Coulter is a character in The Dark Materials
The name Karel Powers has been used to write some fanfiction on the 'net.
Giovanni Battista Kremer: conflation of Piranesi's forenames & Cremer the alchemist??
In the course of checking out some of the names, whilst writing this, I came across an article by Pullman himself
The making and faking of Lyra's Oxford
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/lion_and_the_unicorn/v029/29.1pullman.html
(3 page .pdf available at http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/lion_and_the_unicorn/v029/29.1pullman.pdf)
I'll stop there. This is probably getting a bit OT
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