Background
Johann Bartholomeus Adam Beringer was born in 1667, in Würzburg, Germany, the son of Johann Ludwig Beringer, a professor at the University of Würzbnrg and senior physician and dean of the Faculty of Medicine there from 1669 to 1671.
1896
Würzburg, Bavaria, Germany
University of Würzburg, main building, built in 1896
1896
Würzburg, Bavaria, Germany
University of Würzburg, main building, built in 1896
1896
Würzburg, Bavaria, Germany
University of Würzburg, main building, built in 1896
Spaarne 16, Haarlem, The Netherlands
Some Würzburger Lügensteine displayed at the Teylers Museum
(The lying stones of Dr. Johann Bartholomew Adam Beringer:...)
The lying stones of Dr. Johann Bartholomew Adam Beringer: Being his Lithographiæ Wirceburgensis
https://www.amazon.com/lying-stones-Johann-Bartholomew-Beringer/dp/B0006AYG1S/?tag=2022091-20
1963
Johann Bartholomeus Adam Beringer was born in 1667, in Würzburg, Germany, the son of Johann Ludwig Beringer, a professor at the University of Würzbnrg and senior physician and dean of the Faculty of Medicine there from 1669 to 1671.
There is a signal lack of information regarding Beringer’s life and career. In 1693 Beringer passed the final examination (periculum) for the doctorate in medicine.
On December 14, 1694, Beringer was named professor quartus seu extraordinarius at the University of Würzburg — where he remained, as far as is known, for his entire career. Appointed keeper in 1695, Beringer reordered and enlarged the botanical gardens of the university and the Julian Hospital.
In 1700 he was elevated to the rank of professor ordinarius and dean of the Faculty of Medicine; adviser and chief physician to the prince-bishop of Würzburg, Christoph Franz von Hutten; and chief physician to the Julian Hospital (1700/1701 – 1728). He frequently lectured at the university on reform in education, and succeeded in introducing a program for the education (at public expense) of poor but gifted students from various orphan asylums. In medicine, Beringer was particularly concerned with the malpractices of wandering physicians.
Typical of the curious and learned men of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Beringer was caught up in virtuoso endeavor. Occasionally his natural history lectures turned to the petrifactions found in the Würzburg Muschelkalk, from which e collected fossil shells for his cabinet. It was this interest that led to his involvement in the famous Würzburg Lügensteine hoax. Stones of shell lime carved in a great variety of forms were bidden about Mount Eibelstadt by two of Beringer’s colleagues — J. Ignatz Roderick (an ex-Jesuit and professor of geography, algebra, and analysis at the university) and Johann Georg von Eckhart (privy councillor and librarian to the court and the university) — with the assistance of three young boys. The stones were subsequently uncovered by Beringer and placed in his cabinet. The hoaxers soon realized the enormity of their actions, but in spite of their best efforts to dissuade him, Beringer published a preliminary report on the stones in 1726: Lithographiae Wirceburgensis… Specimen primum…The fraud, however, was soon discovered. Roderick and Eckhart were taken to court by Beringer for the "saving of his honor," and were duly punished.
Despite this partially successful attempt to discredit him, Beringer remained on the staff of the university, where he was occupied with teaching and research until his death on April 11, 1738, in Würzburg, Germany.
(The lying stones of Dr. Johann Bartholomew Adam Beringer:...)
1963In 1725, the hoaxers carved fragments of limestone into the shapes of animals such as lizards, frogs, and spiders on their webs. To some of them, they added inscriptions such as the Hebrew name of God in Latin, Arabic, and Hebrew characters. They planted the stones on Mount Eibelstadt where Beringer frequently went to search for fossils.
The mechanism by which fossils were formed was not known at the time, and so despite the fantastical nature of these fakes Beringer took them seriously and published a book describing them.
Beringer proposed several possible explanations for the supposed fossils, in addition to his own preferred interpretation that while some few of these stones might be dead animals (fossils), most were just "capricious fabrications of God". He also considered the possibility that they were the carvings of prehistoric pagans, but he had to rule this out since pagans had no knowledge of the name of God.
Ultimately Beringer rejected the idea that the stones were man-made. He felt that there were simply too many of the stones for a modern hoaxer to have produced them all. Nor could he imagine why anyone would want to expend so much energy to pull off such an elaborate hoax.
Johann Ludwig Beringer was a professor at the University of Würzbnrg and senior physician and dean of the Faculty of Medicine there from 1669 to 1671.
J. Ignatz Roderick was an ex-Jesuit and professor of geography, algebra, and analysis at the University of Würzburg.
Johann Georg von Eckhart was a German historian and linguist, who also served as a privy councillor and librarian to the court and the University of Würzburg.
