Cosmos
Sketch of a Physical Description of the Universe

Investigating the relationship between the 'general and the special' in nature, Humboldt's Cosmos constitutes an original contribution to modern science.

Alexander von Humboldt (Author), Edward Sabine (Edited by)

9781108013642, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 10 June 2010

514 pages
21.6 x 2.9 x 14 cm, 0.65 kg

Polymath Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859), a self-described 'scientific traveller', was one of the most respected scientists of his time. Humboldt's wanderlust led him across Europe and to South America, Mexico, the U.S. and Russia, and his voyages and observations resulted in the discovery of many species previously unknown to Europeans. Originating as lectures delivered in Berlin and Paris (1827–1828), his two-volume Cosmos: Sketch of a Physical Description of the Universe (1845–1860) represented the culmination of his lifelong interest in understanding the physical world. As Humboldt writes, 'I ever desired to discern physical phenomena in their widest mutual connection, and to comprehend Nature as a whole, animated and moved by inward forces'. Volume 2 (1848) reviews poetic descriptions of nature as well as landscape painting from antiquity through to modernity, before using the same time-span to examine a 'History of the Physical Contemplation of the Universe'.

Incitements to the study of nature
1. Poetic descriptions of nature
2. Landscape painting
3. Culture of characteristic exotic plants
4. History of the physical contemplation of the universe
Notes
Index.

Subject Areas: Cosmology & the universe [PGK]