ABSTRACT
Around 1678, news of the imminent demise of one of the seventeenth century’s most fascinating, daring, prolific, and frustrating intellects leaked out of the Roman College, the principal educational institution of the Society of Jesus. Antonio Baldigiani (16471711), one of the younger professors of mathematics, scribbled an urgent message in the margin of a letter to let friends in Florence know that the man they had read and ridiculed, revered and despised, was now a shadow of his former self:
Poor old Father Kircher is sinking fast. He’s been deaf for more than a year, and has lost his sight and most of his memory. He rarely leaves his room except to go to the pharmacy or to the porter’s room. In short, we already consider him lost since he cannot survive many more years.1
