| Campus Gotha, Forschungszentrum Gotha, SPF Wissen. Räume. Medien., Forschung

New Publication on the castle as lecture hall

In the 1770s and 1780s, a larger circle of middle-class and aristocratic amateur scientists around Duke Ernst II, under the guidance of the ducal archivist Ludwig Christian Lichtenberg, dealt with the latest findings in physics and chemistry. An anthology based on a Gotha conference in 2017 and edited by Professor Julia Schmidt-Funke (formerly Gotha, now Leipzig), Dr Gunhild Berg (Halle) and Professor Martin Mulsow (Gotha Research Centre) now sheds light on the activities of the Gotha circle of enthusiasts, their contacts in the European scholarly world, with technicians and instrument manufacturers, as well as the fate of the equipment collection.

Under Ernst II, the Thuringian royal seat of Gotha became a centre of enlightened science in the late 18th century. In the 1770s and 1780s, a large circle of middle-class and aristocratic amateur scientists around the princely patron studied the latest findings in physics and chemistry. They were guided by the ducal archivist Ludwig Christian Lichtenberg, the elder brother of the Göttingen physics professor Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, who had the latest knowledge and the necessary experimental apparatus at his disposal. In lectures, talks, essays, teaching and research experiments, the Gothaers discussed discoveries and theories in the natural sciences, about God and nature.

The authors of this volume describe the background against which the activities of the Gotha circle of enthusiasts unfolded, what was researched, taught and published about, what contacts existed in the European scholarly world, with technicians and instrument manufacturers, and what fate befell the valuable collection of instruments. With its insight into the production of knowledge in the city of Gotha, which is based on the rich Gotha tradition, the volume makes an important contribution to the history of knowledge of the Enlightenment.

Julia Annette Schmidt-Funke, Gunhild Berg und Martin Mulsow (Ed.)
Das Schloss als Hörsaal
Ludwig Christian Lichtenbergs „Vorlesung über die Naturlehre“ und die residenzstädtische Wissensproduktion um 1800
(Series: Gothaer Forschungen zur Frühen Neuzeit, Volume 19)

Franz Steiner Verlag, 2021
ISBN: 978-3-515-12664-9
425 pages
70 EUR