Where Tigers Are at Home by Jean-Marie Blas de Robles

been found in a sarcophagus, at the feet of a mummy. Peiresc had great hopes of Kircher’s ability to translate the pages and wrote inviting him to stay with him in Aix, at the same time sending him, as a gift, several rare books and a copy of the
Table of Isis
, also called the
Bembine Table
. As a postscript he asked him to bring with him the famous manuscript of Barachias Abenephuis, which Athanasius had been fortunate enough to acquire.
    Kircher was flattered by this keen interest & one day in September 1633 we travelled to Aix, with said manuscript in our luggage as well as various specimens of the Hebrew, Chaldaean, Arabic and Samaritan languages.
    Peiresc welcomed us with a charm & delight such as is rarely seen. He was proud to meet my master & did everything he could to make himself agreeable to him. Kircher, for his part, was very impressed by the collections his host revealed to him little by little, making the most of its effects & enjoying our sincere admiration. His house was crammed full with all kinds of dried or stuffed animals, but equally with a multitude of Egyptian artifacts & books. There for the first time we saw a phoenicopterus, an aspic, a horned viper, a lotus & any number of dried & mummified cats. In his garden he showed us several pink laurels, which he had grown from a shoot given him by Cardinal Barberini, as well as a pond with graceful papyrusall around from which he made paper in the manner of the Egyptians. We also admired a kind of little rabbit, the size of a mouse, which walked on its hind legs & used it front paws, which were shorter, like monkeys to hold the food it was given, & an angora cat Father Gilles de Loche had brought back from Cairo for him as well as various manuscripts obtained at great expense from the Coptic monasteries of Wadi el-Natrun.
    Peiresc, now completely won over by Athanasius, finally revealed his two human mummies of which one, notable for its size and state of conservation, was the corpse of a prince, as was proved by its richness of ornamentation. It was at the feet of this mummy that the little book in Egyptian hieroglyphs had been found that Peiresc had mentioned in his letter to Athanasius. The book was made up of pages of old papyrus written in hieroglyphic characters like those on the obelisks. There were bulls & other animals & even human figures together with other smaller characters, like those in the
Bembine Table
, but no Greek letters.
    Kircher’s eyes were sparkling with excitement. He had never held a genuine example of this mysterious writing in his hands & could not stop himself immediately starting to study it. Peiresc asked him as a special favor to think out loud & Kircher obliged without batting an eyelid. Thus it was that once more I had the opportunity to observe my revered master’s singular genius & his wealth of knowledge.
    It was at this juncture that we heard the news of the condemnation of Galileo Galilei by the Holy Office. Peiresc, who was a close friend of the astronomer & had sure information from his contacts in Rome, asked Kircher to come & see him in Aix to discuss the matter. We went at once, though my master remained so silent and seemed so morose that it was impossible for me to tell what he thought about it.
    Peiresc was aghast at all this; he was foaming with rage & railing against the horrendous ignorance of the inquisitors. In the argument that followed, Athanasius employed all his rhetorical skill to defend the verdict of the Holy Office & to advocate blind obedience to its authority, especially during that grievous period of schism & religious discord.
    However, given Pereisc’s manifest disappointment & the proofs cited in support of the movement of the Earth, Kircher eventually admitted that he regarded the opinion of Galileo & Copernicus as true, as, moreover, did Galileo’s accusers, Fathers Malapertuis, Clavius & Scheiner, though they had been put under pressure & compelled to write in support of