Musaeum Celeberrimum (Romani Collegii)

A decorative initial letter 'Q' contains a floral/geometric pattern.Just as the unstable vicissitude of human affairs promises us nothing firm, solid, or constant, so too does it, in its own way, gradually reduce all things to nothingness shortly after their birth, subjecting them to the deceptive wheels of Fortune. History teaches us and daily experience clearly demonstrates that this happens not only in the states of political administration, but also in the accumulation of vast wealth, the insolent pride of buildings, and the magnitude of martial power. Considering these things attentively, and weighing carefully that this small collection of his Museum—sought out from everywhere with no small study and labor—might suffer a similar turn of fortune, Kircher was accustomed to ruminate again and again upon that saying: "And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?" A reference to Luke 12:20. For the experience of a few years made him more cautious regarding the five most noble and celebrated Museums of the Roman City, namely those of Qualdi, Angelomi, Menedrus, Stephanonus, and Joannes Baptista Romanus of the Order of Saint Augustine. For these repositories of precious things, which their owners had grown with such care, solicitude, and expense, both for the use of foreigners and learned men and for the ornament of the eternal city, were soon taken away by the common fate. Their heirs, having no regard for the antiquities and rarest items with which they were furnished, and being more greedy for profit and money, auctioned the entire collection in public places, selling these or those items selectively according to the whims of the buyers.

And so that the same might not happen to our Author, and so that the things he had gathered with such great study and labor for the glory of the divine name and the benefit of the republic of letters would not suddenly perish together with his death due to the changing of times, he followed the maxim (that which you wish to be preserved, provide for it maturely). He ordered that all things in the said Museum—which over the course of 40 years had been worthy of observation, or which concerned the secrets of natural things, or the erudition of artificial machines and antiquities—be described in order and committed to the press. This was so that knowledge of the contents might be made clear to future generations through this present catalog. But since he was at that time distracted by countless other literary occupations, both in composing and printing books, and could not apply his hand to it, he did not disdain to offer the task of execution to me, as I was conscious of all the things contained in the Museum. I, indeed, have yielded to these requests, moved not only by the Author but also by the pressing prayers of foreigners who, while visiting the Museum, requested more than once that a certain description of its contents be written. Therefore, I begin to unfold the workshop of Art and Nature, the mathematical treasury of disciplines, and the epitome of practical philosophy, the Kircherian Museum, with that faith and candor of sincerity which befits a German man. Farewell, benevolent reader, and may you enjoy my labor in the meantime.