Hortensia Gugelberg from Moos

Hortensia Gugelberg
von Moos as a young woman around 1680

Salenegg Castle near Maienfeld

Hortensia Gugelberg von Moos (* 1659 in Maienfeld ; † July 2, 1715 ibid) was a Swiss doctor, publicist, researcher and writer from the canton of Graubünden .

Life

Hortensia Gugelberg was the eldest child of Mayor Gubert von Salis and his wife Ursula von Salis. She grew up in Salenegg Castle in Maienfeld and was taught reading, writing and mathematics by a private tutor. Later she continued her education in self-study. Her maternal grandmother, Hortensia (1607–1675), herself a doctor and scholar, supported her inquisitive granddaughter. In 1682 she married her cousin Rudolf Gugelberg von Moos . Her children died young and around 1692 her husband died as a lieutenant in a battle in the French service.

Hortensia Gugelberg continued her education in natural history subjects and corresponded with scholars such as Johann Heinrich Heidegger and Johann Jakob Scheuchzer . She became a successful naturopath, and patients came from far and wide to seek treatment from her. She is also said to have been one of the first women to perform an autopsy - on a deceased servant. Her house in Maienfeld was not only a contact point for those looking for help, but also a meeting place for educated people and she lively corresponded with scientists from various universities and faculties. The Calvinist often spoke out on religious issues and demanded that women and men have the same right to freedom and equality in the kingdom of the Spirit, as well as the right to preach the gospel. When she extended these demands to the whole of public life, opposition arose; Critics called her a "clever snake".

Her first publication appeared around 1694 under the title Faith-Computation , in which she decidedly against the duty imposed on women to abstain from thinking. Her second work was published in 1696 under the pseudonym "noble lady". In these conversational discussions she presented her great knowledge in medical and philosophical questions and advocated the right to intellectual development of scholars. In doing so, she laid the foundation for women's right to education and freedom of action in society. Their noble origins and the power of the von Salis family protected them from hostility and character assassination.

Hortensia Gugelberg von Moos died in Maienfeld at the age of 56.

• 

  Title page of the «Conversations Talks», 1696

• 

  Letter to the Zurich theologian Johann Heinrich Heidegger

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Terra Grischuna 6/2009
2. ↑ ^{a b} Antonius Lux (ed.): Great women of world history. A thousand biographies in words and pictures. Sebastian Lux Verlag , Munich 1963, p. 200.
3. ^ Renate Strohmeyer: Lexicon of natural scientists
4. ↑ Terra Grischuna 5/2013.

literature

• J. Jürgen Seidel: Gugelberg von Moos, Hortensia. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• J. Jürgen Seidel:  SALIS, Hortensia from. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 8, Bautz, Herzberg 1994, ISBN 3-88309-053-0 , Sp. 1230-1231.
• Salis, Hortensia from: Faith-Arithmetic; Conversational conversations; Gebät. Ed. And with a foreword by Maya Widmer. Haupt, Bern 2003, ISBN 3-258-06632-9 ( Swiss texts, new series. 19).