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Lot 907* - S18 Out of This World - Tuesday, 18. April 2023, 04.00 PM

HUMBOLDT DEDICATION

Handwritten dedication by Alexander von Humboldt
Published 1850/1855 by Alexander Duncker
Paper slightly browned
75 × 60 cm

Provenance:
Formerly in the collection of a family of physicians in Basel, Switzerland. The family emigrated from Germany to Switzerland during World War II.

Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859) was a German polymath, geographer, naturalist, explorer and a proponent of Romantic philosophy and science. His quantitative work on botanical geography laid the foundation for the field of biogeography and for modern geomagnetic and meteorological monitoring. Humboldt was among the first to manifest a scientific concept of nature, a web of life, an ecosystem.

Humboldt was a very famous scientist in the 19th century. He classified hundreds of animal and plant species, and from 1799 to 1804 he travelled through South America with the royal authorisation of King Charles IV of Spain. His wide-ranging interests prompted him to fill 4 000 pages with painted images and precise descriptions of whatever he found interesting during this journey, including mountains, rivers, lakes, astronomical phenomena, animals, plants and climatic zones of the South American continent. His scientific instruments, which filled forty wooden crates, allowed him to study everything that came his way during the five-year trip. His thoughts and studies were published in fifty books and seven hundred articles – a knowledge to be shared with everyone, almost like the modern tool of ‘Wikipedia’.

Humboldt also noticed through his observations the danger of human-induced climate change. He studied the rapid fall of water levels due to the production of coffee, cacao and cotton. In the clear cutting of trees, he recognized the three-fold moderating influence of woodlands on temperature, cooling shade, evaporation and radiation. He was not politically active, but in 1832 he warned of climate changes on earth due to mankind in three ways: artificial irrigation, the clearing of trees and the release of exhaust gases in industrial centres. His ideas were often prophetic, and today Humboldt would probably be considered a global climate activist.


CHF 2 000 / 4 000 | (€ 2 060 / 4 120)

Sold for CHF 2 500 (including buyer’s premium)
All information is subject to change.