Details
JOHANN GEORG GMELIN (1709-1755)
Reise durch Siberien, von dem Jahr 1733. bis 1743. Göttingen: Widow of Abram Vandenhoeck, 1751-1752. 4 volumes, 8° (197 x 124mm). 4 engraved folding maps by A. Reinhardt, J. Haas, Johann Eberhard Alber et al. and 19 engraved folding plates, 15 attached to the fore-edges of text leaves. Woodcut and/or type-ornament head- and tailpieces and woodcut initials, letterpress tables in the text. (Some variable light spotting and browning, bifolia 4+2.5 and 3.4 bound in reverse order, one map bound upside-down, unobtrusive marginal worming on II/2S.) Contemporary half vellum over marbled boards, numbered in manuscript on the spines (lightly rubbed and marked, corners lightly bumped, small chips and cracks on spines), modern cloth slipcase. Provenance: [?]F.R. Dafinger [or Tafinger] (inscriptions on pastedowns and engraved bookplates with Dafinger arms) -- Dr Johann Heinrich Ferdinand von Autenrieth (1772-1835, ownership inscriptions) -- Carl Robert Romanovich, Baron von der Osten-Sacken (1828-1906, ownership inscription, biographical manuscript note on Gmelin and similar note on Autenreith on front free endpaper of vol. I)
FIRST EDITION. THE AUTENREITH-OSTEN-SACKEN COPY: 'THE RESULTS OF GMELIN'S EXPEDITION REPRESENT THE MOST IMPORTANT EARLY CONTRIBUTION TO THE NATURAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF THE VAST SIBERIAN MAINLAND' (DSB V, p. 429). A professor of chemistry and natural history and an academician at the St Petersburg Academy of Sciences, Gmelin joined the imperial scientific expedition to eastern Siberia in 1733 as the natural historian, travelling by land with the historian Gerhard Friedrich Müller and the astronomer Louis Delisle de la Croyère to survey all aspects of the area and eventually rendez-vous with Bering's seaborne expedition to Kamchatka. However, this plan was abandoned in late 1736, following various difficulties including a fire which destroyed Gmelin's instruments, notes, and specimens; the party continued to explore by land, ranging broadly across the previously-unsurveyed territories, before returning to St Petersburg in February 1743, some nine-and-a-half years after their departure (since when they had travelled c. 24,000 miles). This copy of Gmelin's account has a distinguished scientific provenance and was formerly in the libraries of Dr Johann von Autenreith and Carl Robert von der Osten-Sacken. Autenreith studied medicine at Stuttgart, and (after a brief period practising in Pennsylvania) was appointed professor of anatomy, physiology, surgery, and obstetrics at the University of Tübingen in 1797, becoming Chancellor of the university in 1819. Carl Robert von der Osten-Sacken was born and educated in St Petersburg, and entered the diplomatic service in 1849. In 1856 he was appointed secretary to Russian legation in Washington, DC and in 1862 became consul-general of Russia in New York City, a position he held until 1871, when he resigned in order to concentrate more fully on his scientific work in both America and Europe, settling in Heidelberg in 1877. Von der Osten-Sacken is principally known for his authoritative publications on the diptera of North and Central America, but also interested himself in the fauna of the Arctic regions: the Natural History Museum Library, London holds some of his notes on the diptera of the Arctic, written in c. 1876 (MSS OSTEN A 1:1). Brunet II, col. 1628; Cox I, p.351; Howes G-212 (incorrect collation); Lada-Mocarski 5. (4)
Reise durch Siberien, von dem Jahr 1733. bis 1743. Göttingen: Widow of Abram Vandenhoeck, 1751-1752. 4 volumes, 8° (197 x 124mm). 4 engraved folding maps by A. Reinhardt, J. Haas, Johann Eberhard Alber et al. and 19 engraved folding plates, 15 attached to the fore-edges of text leaves. Woodcut and/or type-ornament head- and tailpieces and woodcut initials, letterpress tables in the text. (Some variable light spotting and browning, bifolia 4+2.5 and 3.4 bound in reverse order, one map bound upside-down, unobtrusive marginal worming on II/2S.) Contemporary half vellum over marbled boards, numbered in manuscript on the spines (lightly rubbed and marked, corners lightly bumped, small chips and cracks on spines), modern cloth slipcase. Provenance: [?]F.R. Dafinger [or Tafinger] (inscriptions on pastedowns and engraved bookplates with Dafinger arms) -- Dr Johann Heinrich Ferdinand von Autenrieth (1772-1835, ownership inscriptions) -- Carl Robert Romanovich, Baron von der Osten-Sacken (1828-1906, ownership inscription, biographical manuscript note on Gmelin and similar note on Autenreith on front free endpaper of vol. I)
FIRST EDITION. THE AUTENREITH-OSTEN-SACKEN COPY: 'THE RESULTS OF GMELIN'S EXPEDITION REPRESENT THE MOST IMPORTANT EARLY CONTRIBUTION TO THE NATURAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF THE VAST SIBERIAN MAINLAND' (DSB V, p. 429). A professor of chemistry and natural history and an academician at the St Petersburg Academy of Sciences, Gmelin joined the imperial scientific expedition to eastern Siberia in 1733 as the natural historian, travelling by land with the historian Gerhard Friedrich Müller and the astronomer Louis Delisle de la Croyère to survey all aspects of the area and eventually rendez-vous with Bering's seaborne expedition to Kamchatka. However, this plan was abandoned in late 1736, following various difficulties including a fire which destroyed Gmelin's instruments, notes, and specimens; the party continued to explore by land, ranging broadly across the previously-unsurveyed territories, before returning to St Petersburg in February 1743, some nine-and-a-half years after their departure (since when they had travelled c. 24,000 miles). This copy of Gmelin's account has a distinguished scientific provenance and was formerly in the libraries of Dr Johann von Autenreith and Carl Robert von der Osten-Sacken. Autenreith studied medicine at Stuttgart, and (after a brief period practising in Pennsylvania) was appointed professor of anatomy, physiology, surgery, and obstetrics at the University of Tübingen in 1797, becoming Chancellor of the university in 1819. Carl Robert von der Osten-Sacken was born and educated in St Petersburg, and entered the diplomatic service in 1849. In 1856 he was appointed secretary to Russian legation in Washington, DC and in 1862 became consul-general of Russia in New York City, a position he held until 1871, when he resigned in order to concentrate more fully on his scientific work in both America and Europe, settling in Heidelberg in 1877. Von der Osten-Sacken is principally known for his authoritative publications on the diptera of North and Central America, but also interested himself in the fauna of the Arctic regions: the Natural History Museum Library, London holds some of his notes on the diptera of the Arctic, written in c. 1876 (MSS OSTEN A 1:1). Brunet II, col. 1628; Cox I, p.351; Howes G-212 (incorrect collation); Lada-Mocarski 5. (4)
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