Cyprian Kinner (died 1649)EMLO 14 Jul 1645: Kinner, Cyprian d.1649 (Brieg, Opole Voivodeship, Poland) to Komenský, Jan Amos, 1592–1670 (Elbing, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, (Royal Prussia) Poland). 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. He has also been called a pioneer of faceted classification.Hans G. Schulte-Albert, Cyprian Kinner and the Idea of a Faceted Classification Publication Date: 19-10-2009 .

Life Kinner was a pupil of Melchior Lauban in Brieg who also taught Samuel Hartlib and Abraham von Franckenberg,EMLO letter. 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. Kinner became physician in ordinary at the court of the Duchy of Brieg.Martin Mulsow, Who was the Author of the Clavis apocalyptica of 1651? Millenarianism and Prophecy between Silesian Mysticism and the Hartlib Circle (PDF).

Kinner's career as physician and jurist was interrupted by the invasion of Silesia by troops of the Habsburg Empire. 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. In 1634 to 1635 he worked with Johann Heinrich Bisterfeld and Johann Heinrich Alsted.

From about 1644 to 1647, Kinner worked with Comenius, but the relationship was troubled. 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.Maurice Walter Keatinge (editor), The Great didactic of John Amos Comenius: Now for the First Time Englished ... (1896) pp. 59–60; archive.org. 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.John T. Young, Faith, Medical Alchemy and Natural Philosophy: Johann Moriaen, Reformed Intelligencer, and the Hartlib Circle, Chapter Four: Panaceas of the Soul: Comenius and the Dream of Universal Knowledge (2007).

Kinner spent further time in Poland. There he knew the astronomer Maria Kunicka, and in Elbing in 1647 he associated with von Franckenburg and the Danzig astronomer Johan Hevelius. 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.Benjamin DeMott, The Sources and Development of John Wilkins' Philosophical Language, The Journal of English and Germanic Philology, Vol. 57, No. 1 (Jan., 1958), pp. 1–13. Published by: University of Illinois Press Article Stable URL:

Works 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.Paolo Rossi, Logic and the Art of Memory (2000 translation), pp. 168–9. He worked on botanical names alone as a pilot for a larger language project.

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; Petty set to work on a botanical scheme, not long after hearing of Kinner's ideas via Hartlib. Kinner had the idea of composite signs, rather than letter combinations.

The Summary Delineation,A continuation of Mr. John-Amos-Comenius school-endeavours, or, A summary delineation of Dr. Cyprian Kinner, Silesian, his thoughts concerning education, or, The way and method of teaching, exposed to the ingenuous and free censure of all piously-learned men ... : together with an advice how these thoughts may be successfully put in practice / translated out of the original Latine, transmitted to Sam. Hartlib, and by him published; cf. translated for Hartlib from Kinner's Diatyposis, 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.

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