Alexander von Humboldt
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Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt was a German polymath, geographer, naturalist, explorer, and proponent of Romantic philosophy and science. He was the younger brother of the Prussian
Portrait by Joseph Karl Stieler (1843)
Schloss Tegel, Berlin, where Alexander and his brother Wilhelm lived for several years
Schiller, Wilhelm, and Alexander von Humboldt with Goethe in Jena
Portrait of Alexander von Humboldt by Friedrich Georg Weitsch, 1806
Cosmos (Humboldt book)
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Cosmos: A Sketch of a Physical Description of the Universe is an influential treatise on science and nature written by the German scientist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt. It began as a lecture s
Alexander von Humboldt
…in several volumes over 21 years. Humboldt resurrected the use of the word cosmos from the ancient Greek and assigned it to his multivolume treatise, Kosmos, in which he sought to unify diverse branches of scientific knowledge and culture. This important work also motivated a holistic perception of the…
Volumes 1-4 of "Cosmos," from 1849-1852
Title page to volume 1 of "Cosmos" (1849)