Dr. Julia Böttcher

Focus of Research

History of Science of the Early Modern Period: History of Observation, Expeditions, Patterns of Scholarly Action during the  "Old Reich", Natural Philosophy and Politik

Post-Doc-Projekt:

Networking politics: Status Interests and Study of Nature in the Early Leopoldina (1652-1769)

The aim of the project is to explore the pattern of action of learned physicians in the Holy Roman Empire. To this end, the project focuses on members of the Academia Naturae Curiosorum, the later Leopoldina, who acted in various spheres of collective character (town, academy, court, university, Reich). Thus, the formation of a new elite, offering their skills at the interaction between politics and the study of nature, can be analyzed. The role of the town physician hitherto neglected by historians would therefore be studied systematically for the first time. The Leopoldina, formerly taken for a faulty academy and thus disregarded, would need to be re-considered as a collective of learned physicians successfully using the conditions in the Holy Roman Empire to defend their interests.