1731 Physica Sacra (Sacred Physics) by Johann Scheuchzer (1672-1733) bear attack, folio copper engraving drawn by a team of engravers under the direction of Johann Andreas Pfeffel (1674-1748). The picture comes from proverbs 17:12 \It is safer to meet a bear robbed of her cubs, than to confront a fool caught in his folly\". To the israelites the Syrian brown bears rage at the loss of her cubs was the strongest type of brute ferocity. 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."