Natura sacra

The early Enlightenment scholar Johann Jakob Scheuchzer

Today, thanks to recent research, Scheuchzer is acknowledged as a precursor of modern science. He was also part of a European culture that was increasingly opening up to new and complex scientific questions. He corresponded with many other learned figures, including Johann I Bernoulli, Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz.

In Switzerland itself, however, Scheuchzer was shunned by theologians in particular, mainly on account of his novel ideas and interpretations of physics and astronomy. Works such as “Physica sacra oder Geheiligte Natur-Wissenschaft” especially, in which he espoused the Copernican world-view, led to him falling out of favour.

A lavishly illustrated publication accompanying the exhibition explores Scheuchzer and his works of natural science, documenting the results of recent research through his correspondence with a wide range of other figures. The principal objective of the publication and exhibition is to recognise his numerous findings, and to present Scheuchzer and his observations of nature in a comprehensible and entertaining way to a wide audience.