“Copts and Scholars: Athanasius Kircher in Peiresc’s Republic of Letters”

It is customary to date the beginning of Coptic studies in Europe to publication of Athansius Kircher’s Coptic or Egyptian Forerunner (Prodromus Coptus sive Aegyptiacus) in 1636.1 This is untrue in two ways. First, Kircher was preceded by Peiresc-indeed, he was set on to this subject by the Provençal antiquary-who began his inquiries in 1628. Second, as the title of his book indicates, he was never interested in Coptic for its own sake.2 As famous as Kircher has become, and as forgotten as Peiresc, it bears remembering that at the time the relationship was reversed. Only in the decades after the latter’s death in 1637 did the pupil’s fame seem to burnish the teacher’s.3