Antique Print-PORTRAIT-JOHANN JACOB SCHEUCHZER-Laub nach Heidegger-c.1731

Medium: Mezzotint engraving on hand laid (verge) paper.

Sheet size: 24 x 37,5 cm. Image size: 21 x 32.2 cm.

Condition: very good, given age. Light foxing. General age-related toning and/or occasional minor defects from handling. Please study scan carefully.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Johann Jakob Scheuchzer (1672-1733) was a physician by training, with a strong interest in natural history and paleontology. Born in Switzerland, the son of a physician, he studied at University in Germany & later returned to Zurich to take a professorship in Mathematics. Like many scientists of the day, he considered the Old Testament a factual account of the history of the earth. In his extensive travels he amassed one of the largest fossil collections of the 18th century. He hypothesized that all plants had perished in the flood described in the bible, & discovered what he believed to be the fossil of a human flood victim. In his masterpiece, Physica Sacra, he details his theory at length, using references to the 1611 King James Bible. The book was a sensation & was published simultaneously in Latin, German & French, each issue with exactly the same plates. His theories were not disproved until the work of Cuvier.