Proceedings of the Athanasius Kircher Society » Kirby’s Wonderful and Scientific Museum

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November 9th, 2006

Kirby’s Wonderful and Scientific Museum

Excellent news! Google Print has scanned Kirby’s Wonderful and Scientific Museum: or Magazine of Remarkable Characters; Including all the Curiosities of Nature and Art from the Remotest Period to the Present Time, Drawn from Every Authentic Source. The six-volume early 19th-century encyclopedia of things wondrous, curious, and esoteric is (along with William Granger’s competing six-volume compendium, which has not yet been scanned) one of the Athanasius Kircher Society’s greatest inspirations.

The image above is of Matthew Buchinger (page 1 of volume 2), a man born in 1674 without appendages of any kind. Even without the benefit of hands or feet, Buchinger managed to become proficient at the bagpipe, dulcimer, and trumpet. He was also a skilled magician and accomplished artist. From volume 2:

Among the most remarkable of his drawings is his own portrait; and as an embellishment in the delineation of his wig, he most curiously contrived, that its curls should exhibit in several fairly written lines, the 27th, 121st, 128th, 130th, 140th, 149th, and 150th Psalms, concluding with the Lord’s Prater. As another singularity in his domestic affairs, it is remarkable that he was married four times, and had eleven children… His whole stature was no more than 29 inches in height; the portrait accompanying this description of his person, was copied from that drawn by himself.

All six books are filled with anecdotes just as wonderful. On the pages following Buchinger’s biography, there is a story of a man who ascended 20,000 feet in a balloon, “two remarkable instances of sagacity in dogs,” and a woman who was pregnant for two and a half years. The six-volume collection is an absolute gem, and full of surprises. Won’t someone please reprint it?

For more on Matthew Buchinger, check out Ricky Jay’s Learned Pigs and Fireproof Women.

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