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

• Applicant: Dr. Julia Böttcher
• Subject Area: History of Science ; Early Modern History
• Term: since 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 437166332

The aim of the project – the continuation of which is proposed for 12 months – 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. 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 is therefore 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.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants