The Kircherian Museum was a public collection of antiquities and artifacts, a cabinet of curiosities, founded in 1651 by the Jesuit father Athanasius Kircher in the Roman College.

Father Athanasius Kircher (1602–1680), professor of mathematics, physics, and oriental languages, took care of the collection and transformed it into a museum of antiquity, technology, art, science, and archeology.

Famous and admired by the most enlightened minds of his time and by his students at the Roman College for his scientific knowledge and philosophical eclecticism, Kircher added natural history objects collected during his expeditions to Sicily (1630) and Malta (1636), musical instruments, and even machines of his own invention.

Over time the museum regained its former glory and thanks to the aid received and the many donations, it became the seat of many important collections on fields of knowledge from experimental philosophy to esotericism to technology.

Fathers Orazio Borgondio [it] (1725-1741), Contuccio Contucci [it] (1741-1761) and Antonio Maria Ambrogi [it] (1761-1772) succeeded Bonanni as curators; during this period the Marquis Alessandro Gregorio Capponi and King August of Poland added their donations to the museum.

Marchi attempted a reorganization of the collection and produced a monograph on the ancient coins preserved there, the Aes grave del Museo Kircheriano.