28-01-2026, 12:38 AM
I have met with three professional researchers who work in historical Jesuit archives in Rome. One of them I met on three different occasions. I have corresponded with one more over a time span of several years.
One of the first things I remember is that they kept saying: why are people always asking about Villa Mondragone? There was never anything there.
Anyway...
if anyone tells them that these volumes of correspondence were tampered with, by an intruder to the place where they were hidden, who unbound the volumes and replaced some of the originals with fakes, this person would not get an anwer, but would get a very funny look indeed.
Just as a reminder: there used to be twelve volumes of these letters, as written in a catalogue of Kircher's Museum, that was printed in 1678. These original volumes were labeled as Tomus 1 to Tomus 12.
Now there are fourteen, with modern shelf marks APUG 555 to APUG 568.
The difference is easily explained: two of the volumes were split into two parts.
How do we know that?
Twelve of the fourteen modern volumes start with an index of the letters they contain.
For example: APUG 555 has its index on page 1r to page 5v and the first letter appears on page 6r. In all, the volume has 279 (double sided) pages.
This index is written in a hand contemporary with the letters.
This could be Kircher himself, but I am unable to say. (It is probably documented somewhere).
For two of these twelve, the index stretches far beyond the letters included in them, and cover letters in two remaining volumes that do not themselves have indices:
The index of APUG 557 covers APUG 557 and 568 (combined: over 800 double-sided pages)
The index of APUG 561 covers APUG 561 and 567 (over 500)
These indices demonstrate that, at the places where the letters from Marci, Barschius, Kinner appear, there really were letters from these people already in Kircher's time.
That, or the fake proposal has to be yet even more unrealistic....
One of the first things I remember is that they kept saying: why are people always asking about Villa Mondragone? There was never anything there.
Anyway...
if anyone tells them that these volumes of correspondence were tampered with, by an intruder to the place where they were hidden, who unbound the volumes and replaced some of the originals with fakes, this person would not get an anwer, but would get a very funny look indeed.
Just as a reminder: there used to be twelve volumes of these letters, as written in a catalogue of Kircher's Museum, that was printed in 1678. These original volumes were labeled as Tomus 1 to Tomus 12.
Now there are fourteen, with modern shelf marks APUG 555 to APUG 568.
The difference is easily explained: two of the volumes were split into two parts.
How do we know that?
Twelve of the fourteen modern volumes start with an index of the letters they contain.
For example: APUG 555 has its index on page 1r to page 5v and the first letter appears on page 6r. In all, the volume has 279 (double sided) pages.
This index is written in a hand contemporary with the letters.
This could be Kircher himself, but I am unable to say. (It is probably documented somewhere).
For two of these twelve, the index stretches far beyond the letters included in them, and cover letters in two remaining volumes that do not themselves have indices:
The index of APUG 557 covers APUG 557 and 568 (combined: over 800 double-sided pages)
The index of APUG 561 covers APUG 561 and 567 (over 500)
These indices demonstrate that, at the places where the letters from Marci, Barschius, Kinner appear, there really were letters from these people already in Kircher's time.
That, or the fake proposal has to be yet even more unrealistic....