Athanasius Kircher, 1602-1680
R.P. Athanasii Kircherie e. Societate Jesu Iter Exstaticum Coeleste... 1660
In this work Kircher uses the narrative device of a fantastic voyage through space to discuss his theories of the solar system.
In Physico-Medicum.. Pestis (1740), written after examining the blood and urine of plague victims under a primitive microscope, Kircher hazarded a guess that a living organism (contagium animatum) might play a role in plague infection, but he stopped short of propounding an actual germ theory of disease.