Baier Johann Jacob

(b. Jena Germany, 14 June 1677; d. Altdorf, Bavaria, 11 July 1735)

medicine, geology, paleontology.

Baier was the son of Johann Wilhelm Baier, professor of Protestant theology at the University of jena, and Anna Katharine Musaeus After private tutoring he matriculated in 1693 at University of Jena, where he dutifully studied Philosophy, classical languages, mathematics, medicine, and natural science. During 1699 and 1700 he traveled in northern Germany and in the Baltic Sea provinces to Riga and Dorpat, enriching his knowledge by conversations with other Scholars and by examining collections and Visting libraries. In 1700 he finished his studies and war awarded the degrees of M.A., Ph.D., and M.D. After awarded educational trip, to visit mining facilities in the Hartz Mountains and university towns in northern Germany, he settled in 1701 as a practicing physician in Nuremberg.

In 1703, during the War of the Spanish Succession, Baier was director of a field hospital for the soldiers of the Nuremberg contingent. The following year the was awarded a professorship at the medical faculty of the University of Altdorf in Nuremberg which he held until his death. He was twice elected rector of the University in 1708 he became a member of the Leopoldina (Academy of Natural Scientists) and in 1730 was chosen its president.

Baier’s scientific fame today does not rest on his medical investigations, but on his studies of minerals and fossils. At that time the natural sciences could be pursued only within theframework of medicine: oryctography, comprising geology and palentology, was at the very beginning of its development Baier’s Orctogrphia norica(1708) was a new, systematic presentation based on his own studies. The work contributed much to disproving the idea that fossils were a mere sport of nature. By means of exact descriptions and good illustration for the he laid the foundations for the investigation of Jurassic fauna and of scientific paleontology in general. Instead of theory, he clearly presented what could be observed. He believed that the earth had been created in one act and that the Deluge was the only great change since the Creation. His exact foundation work, however, helped to prepare the ground for the next generation to determine historically the geological structure of mountains and to transform orctography in to geology

BIBLIOGRAPHY

I Original Works. Baier’s most important publications (a complete list comprises about forty titles) are Dissertatio de ambra (Jena, 1698); Dissertatio de necessaria salinae inspectione ad conservandum et restaurandum sanitatem (Halle-Magdeburg, 1698); Dissertatio de capillis (Jena, 1700); Orctographia norica siv rerum fossilium et ad minerale regnum pertinentium in territorio noribergensi eiusque vicinia observatarum succincta descriptio (Nuremberg, 1708); Wahrhaffte and gründliche Beschreibung der Nürnbergischen Universitä;tsstadt Aldorf samt dero fürnehmsten Denkwürdigkeiten kürtzlich entworfen and mit accuraten Kupferstichen gezieret (“Real and True Description of the Nuremberg University Town Aldorf with its most Noble places of Interest Recently Designed and Adorned With Accurate Copper Engravings,” Altdorf, 1714); Horti medici Academia Altorfina historia, curiose conquisita (Altdorf, 1727); Orationum varii argumenti, variis occasionibus in Academia Altorfina publice habitarum fasciculus (Altdorf 1727); Biographiae professorum medicinae, qui in Academia Altorfina unquam vixerunt; (Nuremberg-Altdorf 1728); “Sciagraphia museisui. Accendunt supplementa Oryctographiae noricae,” in Actaphysico-medica Academiae Caesa reae Leopoldina Carolinae Naturae Curiosorum, 2 (1730), Appendix, also published separately (Nuremberg, 1730); Oryctographia norica sive rerum fossilium et and minerale rengum pertinentium in territorio Norimbergensi eiusque vicinia observations succincta descriptio. Cum supplementis a 1730 editis (Nuremberg, 1758); Epistolae ad viros eruditos eorumque responsiones historiam literariam et physicam specialem explananters, Curante filio Ferdinando Jocobo Balero (Frankfurt-Leipzig 1760); and “Oryctographia Norica and supplements,” translated from the Latin by Florian Heller, edited and explicated by Bruno von Freyberg in Erlanger geologische Abhandlungen29 (1958).

II Secondary Literature. Works on Baier are Bruno Von Freyberg, “250 Jahre geologische Forschung in Franken,” in Gelogische Blätter für Nodost-Bayern und angrenzende Gebiete, 8 (1958), 34-43; “Einführung (in Baiers wissenschaftliches Lebenswerk),” in Exlanger geologishe Abhandlungen 29 (1958),7-12; and “Memoria Viri perillustris magnifici excellentissimique domini Joanni Jacobi Baieri,” in Acta Physio-medica Academiae Caesareae Leopoldina Carolinae Naturae Cruisorum4 Appendix Bigraphies (1737), 35-48; and Ernst stromer von Reichenbach, “Johann Jakob Baier, einer der ersten deutschen Palä;ontologen, ein Beispiel der Willkür des Nachruhmes,” in natur und Volk75/76 (1946), 25-31.

B. V. Freyberg