Presentation copy to Victor Fontanier, incribed by the author

HUMBOLDT, Alexander von.

Cosmos, essai d'une description physique du monde. Traduit par H. Faye. First two (of four) volumes.

Paris: Gide et Compagnie /Gide et J. Baudry, éditeurs, 1846.

1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Item #003099

8vo (205 x 127 mm). viii, iv, VIII, 582 pp.; xiv, [2], 636 pp., including half title to both volumes. Contemporary half sheep over marbled boards, spine lettered and decorated in gilt, marbled edges, origial endpapers (boards and extremities little rubbed, corners scuffed, endpapers in vol. I darkened). Text with scattered minor foxing as usual, otherwise quite crisp and clean. Provenance: Victor Fontanier (1796-1857), French diplomat and naturalist, inscribed in the author hands on first free endpaper of vol. I "à Mr Fontanier / hommage affectueux / de l'autheur" ----

FIRST EDITION of the French translation of the first two parts (out of 4) of the famous work to which Humboldt dedicated his last years (from 1834 to 1858) and which he designates as 'the work of [his] life'. Humboldt's scientific achivements cover an enormous field. He laid the foundation of modern physical geography, meteorology and geography of plants. "It was Kosmos - 'The Cosmos, Outline of a Description of the Physical World' - based on lectures delivered at the Berlin Singakademie in 1828-9, which Humboldt really considered as his life work [...] In his own words it was meant 'to represent in one work the whole material world, everything we know today of the phenomena in the celestial spaces and of life on earth, from the nebulae to the geography of mosses on granite rocks . . . it is meant to describe a chapter in the intellectual development of mankind ... The first [German] edition of volume I was sold out within two months; it was immediately translated into most European languages; and by 1852, eighty thousand copies had been sold." (PMM 320). It lasted 6 years to publish all 4 parts of the French edition; the last volume appeared in 1852. - Visit our website for additional images and information.

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