Abstract

Physics textbooks from ca 1800 are on the one hand self reflective texts that consider the then emerging discipline ‚physics’︁, and serve on the other hand as the bread and butter for the day to day work of teachers and students of physics. The two parts of this paper explore this twofold nature. First, those textbooks written and used by professors in Jena, Halle and Göttingen are used in order to identify a typical textbook. This relies on a close examination of the respective introductory chapter and the one on electricity. The result is used in the second part to provide the background for the reconstruction of the use of physics textbooks in Jena. It is shown when and, as far as possible, why each particular textbook was chosen, withdrawn, neglected, changed or written in the course of physics teaching from 1780 to 1820. Some conclusions are drawn with regard to Jena's position in physics at that time.