Exhibition from 3 October to 17 November 2024

"Veritati - committed to the truth!" is the motto of the University of Würzburg, symbolised by the Prometheus sculpture towering over the entrance to the "Neue Universität" on Sanderring and bearing the torch of objective knowledge to humanity. The aspirations of science have always been high and its goal of serving the further development of mankind through discoveries and innovation is absolute.

Yet what is accepted as truth was all too often merely what is allowed to be true, what can be imposed on the zeitgeist of a society, what the power structure surrounding truth-seeking individuals permits. Thus, the search for new insights often treads a fine line between truth and lies, curiosity and manipulation, humility and overconfidence, fact and fake.

Our exhibition illustrates the tension between fact and fake through three thematic areas with Franconian connections, which are reflected in the holdings of the University Library and supplemented by external loans. The exhibits exemplify the themes of time, space, and earth history, and are also, as part of the collections of the Würzburg University Library, important testimonies to the history of science of our Alma Julia, as well as indispensable source material for research and teaching.