Between Rome and Amsterdam: Barthold Nihusius (1589-1657) and the Origins of Egyptology

The German scholar Barthold Nihusius, a famous convert from Lutheranism to Catholicism, wrote forty letters from Amsterdam, where he worked in Blaeu’s printing office, to Athanasius Kircher in Rome. These reveal how Dutch collections of antiquities and related publications contributed substantially to Kircher’s interest in Egypt. The view that the hieroglyphs expressed the original language in which God had spoken to Adam attracted him in particular. In addition, the exchange resulted in detailed images of Egyptian antiquities. The transfer of knowledge from the Middle East through the Low Countries to the Eternal City appears as an essential route in the rise of Egyptian studies as a new discipline.