Details
HEIM, Albert (1849-1937). Untersuchungen ber den Mechanismus der Gebirgsbildung im Anschluss an die geologische Monographie der Tdi-Windgllen-Gruppe. Basel: Benno Schwabe, 1878.
3 volumes bound in 2 (text and atlas). 4o (306 x 225 mm (text); 324 x 265 mm (atlas). Atlas: 3 lithographed plates, 14 chromolithographed (1 folding (minor spotting). Contemporary brown quarter morocco, marbled boards, gilt spines (extremities worn, joints starting on atlas).
FIRST EDITION. "Heim was the first genuine European geological artist; his talent lay in his power to describe accurately the most complex geological structures and to illustrate them with brilliant drawings, cross sections and models" (DSB). His work on the Glarus district of the Alps was inspired by his former tutor at the Zurich Institute of Technology, Arnold Escher von der Linth, "the father of Alpine geology", who had previously interpreted the structure of the Glarus as the result of a double overfold, involving 2 folds, 15 kilometers apart, which had resulted in an inversion of the sedimentary sequence in the area. In reality, the inversion was the result of a single colossal overfold, the middle section of which had eroded away. Heim's work supported his tutor's theory, and Mechanismus der Gebirgsbildung contained "not only the full description of the Glarus double fold which Escher had never given, but also a superbly illustrated treatment of Alpine structures and mountain-building dynamics which almost immediately became the authoritative work on Alpine tectonics" (DSB). Norman 1037. (2)
3 volumes bound in 2 (text and atlas). 4o (306 x 225 mm (text); 324 x 265 mm (atlas). Atlas: 3 lithographed plates, 14 chromolithographed (1 folding (minor spotting). Contemporary brown quarter morocco, marbled boards, gilt spines (extremities worn, joints starting on atlas).
FIRST EDITION. "Heim was the first genuine European geological artist; his talent lay in his power to describe accurately the most complex geological structures and to illustrate them with brilliant drawings, cross sections and models" (DSB). His work on the Glarus district of the Alps was inspired by his former tutor at the Zurich Institute of Technology, Arnold Escher von der Linth, "the father of Alpine geology", who had previously interpreted the structure of the Glarus as the result of a double overfold, involving 2 folds, 15 kilometers apart, which had resulted in an inversion of the sedimentary sequence in the area. In reality, the inversion was the result of a single colossal overfold, the middle section of which had eroded away. Heim's work supported his tutor's theory, and Mechanismus der Gebirgsbildung contained "not only the full description of the Glarus double fold which Escher had never given, but also a superbly illustrated treatment of Alpine structures and mountain-building dynamics which almost immediately became the authoritative work on Alpine tectonics" (DSB). Norman 1037. (2)