Early Years Born Emanuel Swedberg in Stockholm, Sweden, on January 29, 1688, he was the second son of Jesper Swedberg, a pastor in Sweden’s Lutheran state church. At the age of eleven Emanuel entered the University of Uppsala, where his father was a professor. Although Jesper left the university to become bishop of Skara a few years later, Emanuel remained at Uppsala, completing his studies in 1709. As was customary for wealthy young Swedish men of his time, he then journeyed abroad to expand on what he had learned. His first stop was England—a worldwide center of learning and a major maritime power—where he studied the observational techniques of royal astronomer John Flamsteed (1646–1719) and traveled in the same intellectual circles as luminaries like Sir Isaac Newton (1643–1727) and Edmund Halley (1656–1742). Emanuel also studied geology, botany, zoology, and the mechanical sciences under a number of scholars, inventors, and mechanics, later continuing those studies in Amsterdam and Paris.

When he returned to Sweden more than five years later, he worked as an assistant to Swedish inventor Christopher Polhem (1661–1751). As a result of the association, Emanuel was introduced to Sweden’s King Charles XII (1682–1718), who was impressed with Emanuel’s intellect and arranged for him to be given a position at the Board of Mines. The appointment was significant and prestigious because at that time the mines were a vital part of Sweden’s economy. The position suited Emanuel, not only because of family connections to the mining industry, but because it gave him ample opportunities for scientific research. After Charles XII’s death in 1718, his sister Ulrika Eleonora (1688–1741) ascended to the throne. In 1719, she ennobled the Swedberg family, changing their name to Swedenborg, the name by which Emanuel is known today.

Scientific Research During this early period, most of Swedenborg’s intellectual energy was funneled into scientific and technical work. In the years immediately following his return to Sweden, he published a scientific journal titled Daedalus Hyperboreus. Although the journal was intended to highlight Polhem’s accomplishments, it also included a number of Swedenborg’s own ideas and inventions, including plans for a flying machine. The journal was followed by books on chemistry and physics, as well as the first book in Swedish on algebra.

Swedenborg’s first major publication was Opera Philosophica et Mineralia (Philosophical and Metallurgical Works), a three-volume set printed in 1734. Philosophical and Metallurgical Works was written in Latin and published abroad for circulation to an international audience. While the second and third volumes—one on iron and the other on copper and brass—attracted attention for their technical information on metallurgy, it was the first volume, titled Principia Rerum Naturalium (Basic Principles of Nature), that laid the philosophical groundwork for Swedenborg’s later investigations into the nature of the soul.

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