Genesis 7:17-20 (Diluvii fatalis Progressus)

Antique copperplate engraving from the Physica Sacra showing the development of continents, islands and oceans after the Great Flood.

The Physica Sacra was a monumental 4 volume work of natural theology that took over 10 years to complete during the Age of Enlightenment. Called the “Copper Bible” for the enormous amount of metal required to engrave the 762 plates used in total, each image depicts a particular Bible verse or story and corresponding scientific explanation. This page depicts the world as it progressed through the stages of the Biblical flood of Noah, discussed in Genesis 7:17-20. Islands such as Saint Thomas, Sumatra and the Maldives are roughly depicted in addition to the Indian and Pacific Oceans and African and American continents. The title is Latin for “the deadly floodwaters progress.”

Johann Jakob Scheuchzer was a Swiss scholar and naturalist born in Zurich in 1672. Although trained as a physician, he had one of the most extensive fossil collections in Europe during the 18th century and believed they were a result of the Biblical flood of Noah. The Physica Sacra was a work designed to reconcile facets of natural science with, in his mind, biblical facts available in the Old Testament. The intersection of science and theology was a critical component of the Age of Reason and Scheuchzer’s work helped to lay the foundation for later scientists like von Humboldt and Darwin.