New Publication on the castle as lecture hall

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.