Una rara seicentina messinese: la Specula Melitensis di Atanasio Kircher

Abstract

In 1638, the Jesuit scholar Athanasius Kircher undertook the initiative to publish a short pseudo-scientific essay, entitled Specula Melitensis. We assign the responsibility for its material realization, on a bibliological basis, to the Messina printing workshop of the widow of Giovanni Francesco Bianco, instead of the Neapolitan printer Secondino Roncagliolo, although the latter's name appears on the title-page.