1731 Physica Sacra (Sacred Physics) by Johann Scheuzner (1672-1733) loading the Ark, folio copper engraving drawn by a team of engravers under the direction of Johann Andreas Pfeffel (1674-1748). The goal of Scheuzner's work was to use the best contemporary science to illuminate the biblical account of human history in a sequence of 745 plates. At the time there was little doubt that science (physica) supported the literal truth of the Biblical chronology of creation and history. Scheuchzer uses fossil insects and a crinoid as elements of the frame since he beleived these were fossil remnants of the Deluge. The crinoid is identified in the text as an ear of barley.