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Cyprian Kinner (died 1649) [1] was a Silesian educator and linguist. He has been described as the bridge between the projects of 17th-century Europe concerned with a universal language, and those concerned with a philosophical language. [2] He has also been called a pioneer of faceted classification. [3]
Kinner was a pupil of Melchior Lauban in Brieg who also taught Samuel Hartlib and Abraham von Franckenberg, [4] who both were to be important in Kinner's life; Lauban had previously been a professor of philology in Danzig, and was an admirer of Bartholomäus Keckermann. [5] Kinner became physician in ordinary at the court of the Duchy of Brieg. [6]
Kinner's career as physician and jurist was interrupted by the invasion of Silesia by troops of the Habsburg Empire. [7] Around 1630 he was supported by the Dutch church in London. In 1631 he turned down an invitation from the Racovian Academy, instead going to the Imperial court in Prague at the request of Michael Sendivogius. [8] In 1634 to 1635 he worked with Johann Heinrich Bisterfeld and Johann Heinrich Alsted. [2] [9]
From about 1644 to 1647, Kinner worked with Comenius, but the relationship was troubled. [2] In the period 1645-6 the patronage of Louis de Geer, who said the salary was too high, looked uncertain; then Kinner was held up in Schleswig-Holstein. [10] In the end he succeeded Georg Ritschel as assistant to Comenius, but suffered in the same way, being told that finances precluded keeping him on. [11] [12]
Kinner spent further time in Poland. There he knew the astronomer Maria Kunicka, [13] and in Elbing in 1647 he associated with von Franckenburg and the Danzig astronomer Johan Hevelius. [14] Right at the end of his life, in 1649, he visited England, where William Petty was set by Hartlib to translate one of his books into English. He died suddenly in May 1649. [2] [15]
Paolo Rossi considers that Kinner was the first to make a detailed formulation of the idea of a constructed language. Further, his motivations included mnemonics and botanical classification: and the relationship generally between scientific classifications and memory. [16] He worked on botanical names alone as a pilot for a larger language project. [17]
Kinner has been suggested as an influence on John Wilkins and An Essay towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language . The connection depends on ideas unpublished at the time, though communicated to Hartlib in letters; [18] Petty set to work on a botanical scheme, not long after hearing of Kinner's ideas via Hartlib. [19] Kinner had the idea of composite signs, rather than letter combinations. [20]
The Summary Delineation, [21] translated for Hartlib from Kinner's Diatyposis, [22] was a lacklustre piece of Comenian educational theory. Kinner found a role in school education for animals, and has been called also a follower of Eilhardus Lubinus. [23]
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John Wilkins, was an Anglican clergyman, natural philosopher, and author, and was one of the founders of the Royal Society. He was Bishop of Chester from 1668 until his death.
John Amos Comenius was a Moravian philosopher, pedagogue and theologian who is considered the father of modern education. He served as the last bishop of the Unity of the Brethren before becoming a religious refugee and one of the earliest champions of universal education, a concept eventually set forth in his book Didactica Magna. As an educator and theologian, he led schools and advised governments across Protestant Europe through the middle of the seventeenth century.
An Essay Towards a Real Character, and a Philosophical Language is the best-remembered of the numerous works of John Wilkins, in which he expounds a new universal language, meant primarily to facilitate international communication among scholars, but envisioned for use by diplomats, travelers, and merchants as well. Unlike many universal language schemes of the period, it was meant merely as an auxiliary to—not a replacement of—existing natural languages.
Samuel Hartlib or Hartlieb was a Royal Prussian born, English educational and agricultural reformer of German-Polish origin who settled, married and died in England. He was a son of George Hartlib, a Pole, and Elizabeth Langthon, a daughter of a rich English merchant. Hartlib was a noted promoter and writer in fields that included science, medicine, agriculture, politics and education. He was a contemporary of Robert Boyle, whom he knew well, and a neighbour of Samuel Pepys in Axe Yard, London, in the early 1660s. He studied briefly at the University of Cambridge upon arriving in England.
George Dalgarno was a Scottish intellectual interested in linguistic problems. Originally from Aberdeen, he later worked as a schoolteacher in Oxford in collaboration with John Wilkins, although the two parted company intellectually in 1659.
Henry Oldenburg, was a German theologian, diplomat, and natural philosopher, known as one of the creators of modern scientific peer review. He was one of the foremost intelligencers of 17th-century Europe, with a network of correspondents to rival those of Fabri de Peiresc, Marin Mersenne, and Ismaël Boulliau. At the foundation of the Royal Society in London, he took on the task of foreign correspondence, as the first Secretary.
Invisible College is the term used for a small community of interacting scholars who often met face-to-face, exchanged ideas and encouraged each other. One group that has been described as a precursor group to the Royal Society of London consisted of a number of natural philosophers around Robert Boyle, such as Christopher Wren. It has been suggested that other members included prominent figures later closely concerned with the Royal Society; but several groups preceded the formation of the Royal Society, and who the other members of this one were is still debated by scholars.
Francis Lodwick FRS was a pioneer of a priori languages.
John Dury was a Scottish Calvinist minister and an intellectual of the English Civil War period. He made efforts to re-unite the Calvinist and Lutheran wings of Protestantism, hoping to succeed when he moved to Kassel in 1661, but he did not accomplish this. He was also a preacher, pamphleteer, and writer.
Theodore Haak was a German Calvinist scholar, resident in England in later life. Haak's communications abilities and interests in the new science provided the backdrop for convening the "1645 Group", a precursor of the Royal Society.
Robert Wood or Woods (1622?–1685) was an English mathematician.
The Hartlib Circle was the correspondence network set up in Western and Central Europe by Samuel Hartlib, an intelligencer based in London, and his associates, in the period 1630 to 1660. Hartlib worked closely with John Dury, an itinerant figure who worked to bring Protestants together.
Johannes Rulicius (1602–1666) was a German Protestant minister.
John Hall (1627–1656), also known as John Hall of Durham, was an English poet, essayist and pamphleteer of the Commonwealth period. After a short period of adulation at university, he became a writer in the Parliamentary cause and Hartlib Circle member.
Thomas Henshaw (1618–1700) was an English lawyer, courtier, diplomat and scientific writer. While not a published alchemist, he was a significant figure in English alchemical work from the 1650s onwards; he is known to have used the pen-name "Halophilus".
Thomas Pigot (1657–1686) was an English cleric, academic and Fellow of the Royal Society. He is known for work in acoustics, and as a committee member for the Society's universal language project.
The Oxford Philosophical Club refers to a group of natural philosophers, mathematicians, physicians, virtuosi and dilettanti gathering around John Wilkins FRS (1614–1672) at Oxford in the period 1649 to 1660. It is documented in particular by John Aubrey: he refers to it as an "experimental philosophical club" run weekly by Wilkins, who successfully bridged the political divide of the times. There is surviving evidence that the Club was formally constituted, and undertook some projects in Oxford libraries. Its historical importance is that members formed one of the major groups that came together in the early 1660s to form the Royal Society of London.
Johann Stephan Rittangel was a German controversial writer and Christian Hebraist.
Georg Ritschel was a Bohemian Protestant minister and educator. He associated with the Hartlib Circle, and was considered by Richard Popkin to belong to his "Third Force".
Robert Child (1613–1654) was an English physician, agriculturalist and alchemist. A recent view is that his approach to agriculture belongs to the early ideas on political economy.
