Athanase Kircher

Plate illustration of the hieroglyphics on all four faces of the Obelisk of Theodosius by Athanasius Kircher.

• Athanasius Kircher (German, 1602-1680).
• Rome: V. Mascardi, 1652-4.
• Obeliscus Costantinop. Auspice Ferd. III Caesare. Obeliscum Hunc Constantinopolitanum olim à Theodosio Augusto in Bizantino Circo Erectum Eminentiss. Principi Antonio Card. Barberino S.R.E. Camerario Consecrat.
• Obscured by the illustrations is a prospect of Constantinople with the obelisk and its pedestal.
• This work is presented unframed.

Illustrations of the hieroglyphics on all four faces of the Obelisk of Theodosius, which has been taken from Karnak to Alexandria by Emperor Constantius II in 357AD and erected in the Hippodrome of Constantinople by Theodosius in 390.

This plate was published in Kircher's Oedipus Aegyptiacus, a three-volume work on Egyptology, in which he falsely claimed to have deciphered hieroglyphics.