SCHEUCHZER: PHYSICA SACRA FOSSILS TAB LV - FISH & SHELLS print 1731 -1735

This striking, rare and beautifully executed copperplate engraving by Johann August Corvinus, with very fine later handcolouring of fish and shells, is from Scheuchzer’s monumental and lavishly illustrated work "Physica Sacra” (Sacred Physics). Published in Latin, German and French between 1731 – 1735.

Johann Jakob Scheuchzer {1672 -1733), a Swiss doctor and natural scientist prepared and shaped the "Physica Sacra” as an explanation and commentary on the Bible.

“A lifelong scholar, Scheuchzer’s pursuits of knowledge were wide ranging and diverse, from science to medicine to paleontology.  Like many scientists of the late 17th century and early 18th century, Scheuchzer held to the belief that the Old Testament was a factual account of the history of the earth…In a period before public museums, Scheuchzer presented a seductive view of an imaginary world, viewed through the lush frames depicting secondary symbols, plants, animals, heads and other objects, providing the viewer rich material for an inspired vision of the interaction between the natural world and the divine powers.” 

University of Massachusetts Science, Religion, Art exhibition – Dartmouth 2007/8

Scheuchzer personally supervised the hundreds of illustrations which were largely based on his own natural history cabinet and other famous European collections.