German Scientists, their Observationes, and Institutional Ties to the New World in the Seventeenth Century

Near the beginning of the seventeenth century, German surgeon Jacob Lachmund from the town of Hildesheim, who would be described as a well-known Wundarzt years after his death, wrote down his experiences and observations of new diseases and remedies during his travels to Brazil and Guinea. According to his travel notes, Lachmund served as a physician in an official capacity for Dutch soldiers. Two of Lachmund’s account were published posthumously by his son, also a physician, in the Miscellanea Curiosa of 1673/1674.

Lachmund is an example of a German surgeon who was able to physically travel to the Americas, and points to German global networks as early as 1624. While emphasis is usually on the Spaniards and Portuguese who brought the Aristotelian Sciences to Mexico, Peru, and Brazil, the reception of new materia medica also expanded to German scientists. One did not need to physically travel to the Americas to observe new plants and remedies. Many early members of the Leopoldina were able to directly observe new plants in gardens throughout Germany as well as receive new information from correspondences with colleagues.

The project “German Scientists, their Observationes, and Institutional Ties to the New World in the Seventeenth Century” focuses on the prevalent knowledge networks between the institutions of Mexico, Peru, and Brazil and German scientists in the seventeenth century. It investigates how German scientists made, understood, and received reports of observations of new diseases and medicines from their own travels and other travelers in the New World.

Projektleitung