Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von (1769-1859) Kosmos Entwurf einer physischen Weltbeschreibung

$4,000 · Offered by Book Collector Inc

Author: Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) Year: 1845-1861 Publisher: I.S. Gotta'scher Verlag Place: Stuttgart und Tübingen Description: 4 volumes and atlas. xvi+493 pages, [1]+[2]+544 pages; [2]+644 pages; [2]+649+[1] pages. (8½” x 5¼") Octavo 19th century half morocco boards, spines lettered in gilt, raised bands. Atlas volume 136 pages with 39 hand-colored lithographs and 3 engraved plates and by Traucott Bromme, figures and index. Oblong quarto (11 ¼” x 13 ½”) Atlas half leather binding with six raised spine binds with gilt lettering to spine over marbled boards. (Norman 1112; PMM 320; Sparrow 106) First Editions. Cosmos: A Sketch of a Physical Description of the Universe is an influential treatise on science and nature written by the German scientist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt. Cosmos began as a lecture series delivered by Humboldt at the University of Berlin, and was published in five volumes between 1845 and 1862 (the fifth was posthumous and completed based on Humboldt's notes). In the first volume of Cosmos, Humboldt paints a general “portrait of nature”, describing the physical nature of outer space and the Earth. In the second volume he describes the history of science. Widely read by academics and laymen alike, it applied the ancient Greek view of the orderliness of the cosmos (the harmony of the universe) to the Earth, suggesting that universal laws applied as well to the apparent chaos of the terrestrial world.

• Binding: Hardcover

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