1731 Physica Sacra (Sacred Physics) by Johann Scheuchzer (1672-1733) \Hairy Esau\" folio copper engraving drawn by a team of engravers under the direction of Johann Andreas Pfeffel (1674-1748). The goal of Scheuchzer's work was to use the best contemporary science to illuminate the biblical account of human history in a sequence of 745 plates. Here he compares and contrasts Esau's hairiness with that of an ape (probably an orangutan, the south east asian ape that was the first to be described in Europe). At the time there was little doubt that science (physica) supported the literal truth of the Biblical chronology of creation and history. The prospect of hairy homo sylvestre \"wild men\" had also fascinated natural historians including Gaspar Schott, Topsell and Gessner."