HUMBOLDT, Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von (1769-1859). Kosmos. Entwurf einer physischen Weltbeschreibung, Stuttgart and Tübingen, J.G. Gotta, 1845-62 [atlas: Stuttgart: Krais & Hoffmann, 1861], 5 volumes in 6 and atlas volume, 8° and 4°, FIRST EDITION, 39 hand-coloured lithographs and 3 engraved plates by Traucott Bromme, vol. III with folding letterpress table (title to vol. I soiled, several other titles browned, library markings to titles and preliminary pages), text volumes in mixed library bindings, atlas volume in original cloth (worn) [Norman 1112; PMM 320; Sparrow 106] -- Karl BRUHNS (1830-1881). Alexander von Humboldt, eine wissenschaftliche Biographie, Leipzig: F.A. Brockhaus, 1872, 3 volumes in one, 8°, 2 engraved frontispieces (library stamps), orange buckram. [Brunet III, 375] (8)

Details
HUMBOLDT, Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von (1769-1859). Kosmos. Entwurf einer physischen Weltbeschreibung, Stuttgart and Tübingen, J.G. Gotta, 1845-62 [atlas: Stuttgart: Krais & Hoffmann, 1861], 5 volumes in 6 and atlas volume, 8° and 4°, FIRST EDITION, 39 hand-coloured lithographs and 3 engraved plates by Traucott Bromme, vol. III with folding letterpress table (title to vol. I soiled, several other titles browned, library markings to titles and preliminary pages), text volumes in mixed library bindings, atlas volume in original cloth (worn) [Norman 1112; PMM 320; Sparrow 106] -- Karl BRUHNS (1830-1881). Alexander von Humboldt, eine wissenschaftliche Biographie, Leipzig: F.A. Brockhaus, 1872, 3 volumes in one, 8°, 2 engraved frontispieces (library stamps), orange buckram. [Brunet III, 375] (8)

Lot Essay

"Humboldt's survey of contemporary knowledge of the physical world and the cosmos -- the last such scientific survey undertaken by a single individual -- occupied him for the last three decades of his life. The first two volumes, in which Humboldt described the entire material world from the galaxies to the minutiae of the various mosses, proved enormously popular. The later three volumes, containing Humboldt's special research findings, were less successful, but the fifth volume, completed after Humboldt's death, cites over 9,000 sources to which he felt indebted, and is thus a valuable reference for the history of science" (Norman).

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