View source for Johann Jakob Scheuchzer

{{Short description|Swiss paleontologist (1672–1733)}}
[[File:Johann Jakob Scheuchzer (1731) (cropped).jpg|thumb|J. J. Scheuchzer in 1731, aged 59]]
'''Johann Jakob Scheuchzer''' (2 August 1672 &ndash; 23 June 1733) was a [[Switzerland|Swiss]] physician and natural scientist born in [[Zürich]]. His most famous work was the ''Physica sacra'' in four volumes, which was a commentary on the Bible and included his view of the world, demonstrating a [[Relationship between religion and science|convergence of science and religion]]. It was richly illustrated with copperplate etchings and came to be called the ''Kupfer-Bibel'' or "Copper Bible".
Scheuchzer supported [[Biblical creation]], but his support for [[Copernican heliocentrism]] forced him to print his works outside Switzerland. He also supported antecedent concepts of [[Neptunism]] and considered fossils as evidence for the [[Biblical deluge]]. A fossil from Ohningen that he identified as a human drowned by the Flood was later identified as a [[Miocene]] salamander which was named after him as ''[[Andrias scheuchzeri]].''
==Life and career==
The son of the namesake senior town [[physician]] (''Archiater'') of Zürich and Barbara Fäsi, daughter of the principal of the Latin school, he received his education in Zürich and, in 1692, went to the [[University of Altdorf]] near [[Nuremberg]], being intended for the medical profession. Early in 1694, he took his degree of doctor in medicine at the [[Utrecht University|University of Utrecht]], and then returned to [[Altdorf bei Nürnberg]] to complete his mathematical studies. He studied astronomy under [[Georg Christoph Eimmart|Georg Eimmart]]. He went back to Zürich in 1696 (following the death of the town physician Johann Jakob Wagner in 1695) and was made junior town physician (''Poliater'') with the promise of the professorship of mathematics which he duly obtained in 1710.{{sfn|Coolidge|1911}} From 1697 he was a secretary at the Collegium der Wohlgesinnten where he gave lectures on philosophy. He also worked as a curator of the Kunstkammer (natural history cabinet) of the city of Zürich. He corresponded widely with other scholars and published in the transactions of the Royal Society where he was elected a Fellow on November 30, 1703 seconded by John Woodward (1665–1728) with whom he shared [[Neptunism|Neptunist]]-like views. He married Susanna Vogel and they had nearly nine children but only a few lived to adulthood. He was promoted to the chair of physics, with the office of senior [[city physician]] ({{Lang|de|Stadtarzt}}), in January 1733, only a few months before his death.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/49936 |title=«Unglaubliche Bergwunder» Johann Jakob Scheuchzer und Graubünden. Ausgewählte Briefe 1699–1707 |publisher=Instituts für Kulturforschung Graubünden |year=2019 |editor=Leoni, Simona Boscani |doi=10.7892/boris.140361 |isbn=978-3-905342-59-8 |language=de |hdl=20.500.12657/49936}}</ref> He died on 23 June 1733 in Zürich.
==Published works==
Scheuchzer wrote extensively to ''Nova literaria Helvetica'', the ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society'' and started his own periodicals, ''Beschreibung der Natur-Geschichten des Schweizerlands'' and ''Historischer und politischer Mercurius''. He also published works (apart from numerous articles) were estimated at thirty-four in number. He corresponded extensively across Europe with nearly 800 correspondents. These included the theologian [[Hortensia von Moos]], and his many students such as Antonio Picenino (and his father Giacomo Picenino) with whom he went on alpine excursions.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Leu |first=Urs B. |date=2015 |title=Swiss Mountains and English Scholars: Johann Jakob Scheuchzer's Relations to the Royal Society |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/article/610805 |journal=Huntington Library Quarterly |volume=78 |issue=2 |pages=329–348 |doi=10.1353/hlq.2015.0018 |s2cid=159885869 |issn=1544-399X}}</ref> His historical writings are mostly still in manuscript. The more important of his published writings relate either to his scientific observations (all branches) or to his journeys, in the course of which he collected materials for these scientific works.{{sfn|Coolidge|1911}}
===Scientific works===
[[File:J.J. Scheuchzer, Physica sacra, tab. XXIII Wellcome L0007426.jpg|thumb|upright|''Physica sacra:''<br />The creation of man – and an individual's development, from fertilization to death]]
In the former category is his self-published ''Beschreibung der Naturgeschichte des Schweitzerlandes'' (3 volumes, Zürich, 1706–1708), the third volume containing an account in German of his journey of 1705; a new edition of this book and, with important omissions, of his 1723 work, was issued, in 2 volumes, in 1746, by [[Johann Georg Sulzer|JG Sulzer]], under the title of ''Naturgeschichte des Schweitzerlandes sammt seinen Reisen über die schweitzerischen Gebirge'', and his ''Helvetiae historia naturalis oder Naturhistorie des Schweitzerlandes'' (published in 3 volumes, at Zürich, 1716–1718, and reissued in the same form in 1752, under the German title just given). The first of the three parts of the last-named work deals with the Swiss mountains (summing up all that was then known about them, and serving as a link between [[Josias Simmler|Simmler]]'s work of 1574 and [[Gottlieb Sigmund Gruner|Gruner]]'s of 1760), the second with the Swiss rivers, lakes and mineral baths, and the third with Swiss meteorology and geology.{{sfn|Coolidge|1911}}
In his ''Physica sacra'' he included arguments for the existence of God, suggesting that an atheist should be shown a pin-hole camera and then shown how the eye is a perfect replica of the same, demonstrating intelligent design. He also followed the contemporary tradition of interpreting fossil ammonites as proof of the Biblical deluge.<ref name=":0" /> He also described fossil plants in his Herbarium diluvianum (1709). He observed the solar eclipse of 1706 and the lunar eclipse of the same year in which he recorded a Perseid meteor shower.<ref>{{Citation |last=Klöti |first=Thomas |title=Scheuchzer, Johann Jakob |date=2007 |url=https://link.springer.com/10.1007/978-0-387-30400-7_1231 |encyclopedia=The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers |pages=1019–1020 |editor-last=Hockey |editor-first=Thomas |access-date=2023-10-15 |place=New York, NY |publisher=Springer New York |language=en |doi=10.1007/978-0-387-30400-7_1231 |isbn=978-0-387-31022-0 |editor2-last=Trimble |editor2-first=Virginia |editor3-last=Williams |editor3-first=Thomas R. |editor4-last=Bracher |editor4-first=Katherine}}</ref>
Scheuchzer's works, as issued in 1746 and in 1752, formed (with [[Aegidius Tschudi|Tschudi]]'s ''Chronicum Helveticum'') one of the chief sources for [[Friedrich Schiller|Schiller]]'s drama ''[[Wilhelm Tell (play)|Wilhelm Tell]]'' (1804). In 1704, Scheuchzer was elected [[Fellow of the Royal Society|FRS]]. He published many scientific notes and papers in the ''Philosophical Transactions'' for 1706–07, 1709 and 1727–28.{{sfn|Coolidge|1911}}
===Travel works===
In the second category are his ''Itinera alpina tria''<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://atena.beic.it/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=13373207&search_terms=DTL49|title=Acta Eruditorum|year=1709|location=Leipzig|pages=77}}</ref> (made in 1702–04), which was published in [[London]] in 1708, and dedicated to the [[Royal Society]], while the plates illustrating it were executed at the expense of various fellows of the society, including the president, Sir [[Isaac Newton]] (whose ''[[imprimatur]]'' appears on the title-page), Sir [[Hans Sloane]], [[Henry Aldrich|Dean Aldrich]], [[Humfrey Wanley]], etc. The text is written in [[Latin]], as is that of the definitive work describing his travels (with which is incorporated the 1708 volume) that appeared in 1723 at [[Leiden]], in four quarto volumes, under the title of ''Itinera per Helvetiae alpinas regiones facta annis 1702–11.''{{sfn|Coolidge|1911}} He also wrote ''Helvetiae stoicheiographia'' (1716–1718) based on his annual alpine travels.
These journeys led Scheuchzer to almost every part of Switzerland, particularly its central and eastern districts. Apropos of his visit (1705) to the [[Rhône Glacier]], he inserts a full account of the other Swiss glaciers, as far as they were then known, while in 1706, after mentioning certain wonders to be seen in the museum at [[Lucerne]], he adds reports by men of good faith who had seen [[western dragon|dragon]]s in Switzerland. He doubts their existence, but illustrates the reports by fanciful representations of dragons, which have led some modern writers to depreciate his merits as a traveller and naturalist, for the belief in dragons was then widely spread.{{sfn|Coolidge|1911}}
In 1712 he published a map of Switzerland in four sheets (scale 1/290,000), of which the east portion (based on his personal observations) is by far the most accurate, though the map as a whole was the best map of Switzerland until the end of the 18th century. At the end of his 1723 book he gives a full list (covering 27 [[quarto]] pages) of his writings from 1694 to 1721.{{sfn|Coolidge|1911}}
Scheuchzer is also known for his paleontological work. He discovered and donated to museums the fossilized fishes from the [[Slate|slates]] of the [[Matt Formation]] in [[Glarus]], which were among the earliest fossil fishes in Europe to be scientifically documented. These fossil fishes became the target of a thriving fossil trade shortly after his publicization of them.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Capasso |first=Luigi |date=2014 |title=The History of the Fossil Fish Private Collecting |url=https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Luigi-Capasso/publication/339377301_The_history_of_fossil_fish_private_collection/links/5e4e71fd92851c7f7f48ce77/The-history-of-fossil-fish-private-collection.pdf |journal=Bollettino del Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Verona |issue=38 |pages=51-89}}</ref> In his ''Lithographia Helvetica'', he described [[fossils]] as "plays of nature" or alternately as leftovers from the biblical [[Deluge (mythology)|Flood]]. Most famously, he claimed that a fossilized skeleton found in a [[Baden]] quarry was the [[homo diluvii testis|remains of a human who had perished in the deluge]]. This claim, which seemed to verify the claims of Christian scripture, was accepted for several decades after Scheuchzer's death, until 1811, when French naturalist [[Georges Cuvier]] re-examined the specimen and showed that it was actually a large prehistoric salamander which was named in his memory as ''[[Andrias scheuchzeri]]''.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=1933 |title=Johann Jacob Scheuchzer, 1672—1733 |journal=Nature |language=en |volume=131 |issue=3321 |pages=902 |doi=10.1038/131902b0 |issn=0028-0836|doi-access=free |bibcode=1933Natur.131R.902. }}</ref>
<gallery>
Scheuchzer bot.jpg|Herbarium deluvianum
Acta Eruditorum - II fossili, 1709 – BEIC 13373207.jpg|Illustration of critique of ''Piscium querelae et vindiciae'' published in [[Acta Eruditorum]], 1709
Scheuchzer, Johann – Agrostographia, 1719 – BEIC 6926608.jpg|''Agrostographia, 1719''
Rainbows from Scheuchzer's Physica Sacra (1731).jpg|The formation of a rainbow (''Physica sacra'' 1 - pl. 66)
File:Scheuchzer - Museum Diluvianum.png|Scheuchzer's frontispiece to "Museum Diluvianum", dedicated to [[Hans Sloane]], 1716
Zürich - Grossmünster - Mure - Scheuchzer IMG 1286.jpg|Zürich, Zwingli-Platz ([[Grossmünster]]) : Former home of Konrad von Mure († 1280) and the house, where Johann Jakob Scheuchzer was born
Zürich - Grossmünster - Mure - Scheuchzer IMG 1285.jpg|Memorial plate
</gallery>
==Honours and awards==
In November 1703, he was elected a [[Fellow of the Royal Society]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://catalogues.royalsociety.org/CalmView/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Persons&id=NA1410&pos=1|title=Search past Fellows; Record: Scheuchzer, Johann Jakob|publisher=The Royal Society|access-date=9 March 2024}}</ref> [[Scheuchzerhorn]] (3462 m) and [[Scheuchzerjoch]] in the [[Bernese Alps]] are named after Johann Jakob Scheuchzer. [[Scheuchzeriaceae]] and [[Scheuchzeria palustris]] are named in his honour.
==References==
{{reflist}}
== Other sources ==
* {{BBKL|s/s1/scheuchzer_j_j|band=21|autor=Claus Bernet|artikel=Scheuchzer, Johann Jakob (Jacob)|spalten=1312–1355}}
*{{EB1911|wstitle=Scheuchzer, Johann Jakob| volume= 24 |last= Coolidge |first= William Augustus Brevoort |author-link= W. A. B. Coolidge| page = 322}}
**See Franz Xaver Hoeherl, ''J.J. Scheuchzer, der Begründer d. phys. Geographie d. Hochgebirges'' (Munich, 1901), a useful pamphlet, conveniently summarizing Scheuchzer's scientific views.
== External links ==
{{commons category}}
* {{Cite book|author=Scheuchzer, Johann|title=Agrostographia|volume=|publisher=Heinrich Bodmer (2.)|location=Zürich|year=1719|language=la|url=https://gutenberg.beic.it/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=6926608}}
* [https://archive.org/details/bibliothecascrip00sche/page/n5 Digitized copy of "Bibliotheca scriptorum historiæ naturali omnium terræ regionum inservientium"] via [[John Carter Brown Library]] on Internet Archive
* Digitized copy of "Physica sacra" from [[John Carter Brown Library]] [https://archive.org/details/physicasacra00sche/page/n5 Volume 1 (1731)] [https://archive.org/details/physicasacra00sche_0/page/n3 Volume 2 (1732)] [https://archive.org/details/physicasacra00sche_1/page/n3 Volume 3 (1733)] [https://archive.org/details/physicasacra00sche_2/page/n2 Volume 4 (1735)]
* ''[http://amshistorica.unibo.it/diglib.php?inv=5 Herbarium diluvianum]'', 1723. {{in lang|la}}
* [http://lhldigital.lindahall.org/cdm/ref/collection/earththeory/id/10242 ''Herbarium diluvianum''] (1709) - full digital facsimile from the [[Linda Hall Library]].
* [http://lhldigital.lindahall.org/cdm/ref/collection/earththeory/id/16065 ''Specimen lithographiae Helveticae...''] (1702) - full digital facsimile from the [[Linda Hall Library]].
* [http://lhldigital.lindahall.org/cdm/ref/collection/earththeory/id/16091 ''Homo diluvii testis''] (1726) - full digital facsimile from the [[Linda Hall Library]].
* [http://lhldigital.lindahall.org/cdm/ref/collection/earththeory/id/16150 ''Piscium querelae et vindiciae''] (1708) - full digital facsimile from the [[Linda Hall Library]].
* [http://www.finerareprints.com/johann-jakob-scheuchzer ''Physica Sacra''] (1731) - Examples of engravings.
* Critical edition of part of Scheuchzer's correspondence, Project hallerNet.org, University of Bern [https://hallernet.org/edition/scheuchzer-korrespondenz]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scheuchzer, Johann Jakob}}
[[Category:1672 births]]
[[Category:1733 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Zurich]]
[[Category:Swiss paleontologists]]
[[Category:Utrecht University alumni]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society]]