Milestones of Science Books

HUMBOLDT, Alexander von.

Kosmos. Entwurf einer physischen Weltbeschreibung.

Stuttgart und Tübingen: Cotta, Krais & Hoffmann, 1845.

1st Edition. Hardcover. 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾" tall. Very Good. Item #003839

Kosmos. Entwurf einer physischen Weltbeschreibung. Volume 1 to 5. Stuttgart und Tübingen: Cotta, 1845-1862. 8vo (210 x 129 mm). Atlas zu Alexander von Humboldt's Kosmos. Stuttgart: Krais & Hoffmann, [1851]. Oblong folio (283 x 337 mm). Text volumes: xvi, 493 [1]; [2], 544; [2], 644, [2]; [2], 649 [1]; [2], 1297 [1] pp. Vol. III with folding letterpress table facing p. 570 and final errata leaf. Atlas volume: [6], 136 pp. With 42 numbered plates, including 39 hand-colored lithographs (nos. 1-34, 38-42), 3 steel-engravings (nos. 35-37) and few text illustration. Text volumes uniformly bound in contemporary half calf over percaline boards, spines lettered and ruled in gilt and with raised bands, corners reinforced with brass caps, yellow endpapers (minor wear of extremities with partial chipping of cloth over board edges, corners bumped and scuffed). The text generally quite clean and bright with some minor occasional foxing as usual; title of vol. II creased. The atlas bound in contemporary percaline cloth, upper board lettered in gilt (minor wear to extremities, joints partially split). The atlas bright and clean throughout with only minor pale spotting to first 3 leaves. Provenance: Friedrich Riedl von Riedenstein (ink stamp to first flyleaves); occasional bookseller's stickers to pastedowns. Very good set, collated and complete. ----

PMM 320; Norman 1112; Sparrow 106. First edition of the work that, in Humboldt's words, was intended "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" (PMM).
"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). - Visit our website to see more images!

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