Details
SAUSSURE, Horace-Bénedict de (1740-1799). Voyages dans les Alpes, précédés d'un essai sur l'histoire naturelle des environs de Geneve. Neuchâtel: Samuel Fauche, 1779-96. 4 volumes, 4° (263 x 210mm). Half titles, 22 engraved plates, most folding, 2 folding maps and 2 folding tables, explanation of plates errata leaf at end of vol. III, advertisement errata leaf at end of vol. IV (worming to vols. II & III affecting plates, damp-staining to vol. I, some browning and marginal paper flaws and holes). Contemporary red morocco gilt (rubbed and scuffed, base of spine to vol. III torn). Provenance: Melchet Court, Romsey (library stamp) -- Alexander Baring (bookplate).
FIRST EDITION OF THIS 'FOUNDING WORK OF GEOLOGY AND ONE OF THE FIRST WILDERNESS TRAVEL BOOKS' (Macfarlane). Saussure, an experimental petrologist who popularised the term 'geology', made extensive traverses of the Alps performing experiments on the fusion of granites and porphyries. He studied the inhabitants of the mountains and their conditions of life, writing also of the pleasure of mountaineering and Alpine exploration. His travels unlocked a previously shunned and dangerous terrain and gave birth to a new generation of moutaineers for whom scientific enquiry provided a reason and excuse for travelling in the mountains. Brunet V, 150; Graesse VI, 277; Macfarlane, p.48. (4)
FIRST EDITION OF THIS 'FOUNDING WORK OF GEOLOGY AND ONE OF THE FIRST WILDERNESS TRAVEL BOOKS' (Macfarlane). Saussure, an experimental petrologist who popularised the term 'geology', made extensive traverses of the Alps performing experiments on the fusion of granites and porphyries. He studied the inhabitants of the mountains and their conditions of life, writing also of the pleasure of mountaineering and Alpine exploration. His travels unlocked a previously shunned and dangerous terrain and gave birth to a new generation of moutaineers for whom scientific enquiry provided a reason and excuse for travelling in the mountains. Brunet V, 150; Graesse VI, 277; Macfarlane, p.48. (4)
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