H i N

Alexander von
HUMBOLDT im NETZ

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HiN                                                     I, 1 (2000)
 
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Ulrike Leitner: Humboldt's works on Mexico

 

4. Voyage aux régions équinoxiales du nouveau continent fait en 1799, 1800, 1801, 1802, 1803 et 1804, par Alexandre de Humboldt et Aimé Bonpland

 

It was already in his diaries that Humboldt developed a concept for his future publications. This concept changed several times over the 30 years of publication: Parties in one or more volumes present the scientific results of the journey in the different disciplines of natural history (such as geology, geography, botany etc.) under the main title Voyage aux régions équinoxiales, and are illustrated by important French and German artists.

Written by Humboldt mainly during his stay in Paris beginning in 1807, the work consists of 29 volumes in the French folio/quarto edition (34 volumes including the Synopsis plantarum by K. S. Kunth, see table 1). At the same time, a lower priced French edition in octavo as well as a German edition were in the planning. But Humboldt later changed these plans: The Géographie des plantes, intended to form the first partie in combination with the description of the journey Relation historique, was moved to partie 5, originally intended for the geological partie which then was never written. The Relation historique was however published so late, that the atlases - at first meant to accompany the Relation historique - were equipped with an explanatory text which in the case of the Examen critique (Partie 1.2), intended as an independent publication, was never completed and discontinued in 1839 (just like the Relation historique in 1831). Numerous reprints, excerpts and separate prints added to the bibliographical confusion. One of these separate prints - a chapter of the Relation historique - became the well-known Essai politique sur l'île de Cuba. Its connection with the original work became obscured because of how it was received, especially in the Spanish-speaking world. The disastrous publishing situation in Europe made things even worse. Humboldt later states that he "went from one French bookseller's bankruptcy to the next" in Paris. The precious design did indeed cause financial distress not only to his publishers, but also to Humboldt himself, who sacrificed his fortune to finance the expensive copperplate engravings. Due to the high price, hardly any customer was able to afford the work, priced at 13 033 Francs, 6 480 of which was only for the main botanical work Nova genera! Unique in this huge venture was the conceptional separation between the narrative description of the journey (a genre widely corresponding to the trends of the time, e. g. to Georg Forster, essentially Humboldt’s teacher as an explorer) and the scientific parts. The latter mirror the historic process of the genesis of disciplines out of the overall history of nature at that time.


Table 1. Voyage aux régions équinoxiales du nouveau continent fait en 1799, 1800, 1801, 1802, 1803 et 1804, par Alexandre de Humboldt et Aimé Bonpland

Partie 1.
Section 1. Relation historique
quarto edition: 3 vols. 1814-1831
octavo edition: 13 vols. 1816-1831
separata: Essai politique sur l’île de Cuba. 2 vols. 1826
Tableau statistique de l’île de Cuba. 1 vol. 1831

Section 2. Vues des Cordillères et monumens des peuples indigènes de l’Amérique
folio edition: 1 vol. 1810-1813
octavo edition: 2 vols. 1816

Section 3. Atlas géographique et physique des régions équinoxiales du Nouveau Continent
folio edition: 1 (2?) vols. 1814-1838
octavo edition (separatum of the text): Examen critique de l’histoire de la géographie du Nouveau Continent. 5 vols. 1836-1839

Partie 2. Recueil d’observations de zoologie et d’anatomie comparée faites dans l’océan atlantiques, dans l’intérieur du Nouveau Continent et dans la mer du sud
quarto edition: 2 vols. 1811-1833

Partie 3. Essai politique sur la royaume de la Nouvelle-Espagne [...] avec un atlas physique et géographique, fondé sur des observations astronomiques, des mesures trigonométriques et nivellemens barométriques
quarto edition: 3 vols. 1808-1811
1st octavo edition: 5 vols. 1-5. 1811
2nd octavo edition: 4 vols. 1-4. 1825-1827

Partie 4. Recueil d'observations astronomiques, d'opérations trigonométriques et de mesures barométriques
quarto edition 2 vols. 1080-1810
extract in octavo: Conspectus longitudinum et latitudinum geographicarum 1808-1811
separatum: Nivellement barométrique 1808

Partie 5. Essai sur la géographie des plantes accompagné d'un tableau physique des régions equinoxiales
quarto edition: 1 vol. 1805-1807

Partie 6. Botanique
6.1. Plantes équinoxiales folio edition 2 vols. 1805-1817
6.2. Monographie des Mélastomacées folio edition 2 vols. 1806-1823
6.3. Nova genera et species plantarum
folio edition: 7 vols. 1815-1825
quarto edition: 7 vols. 1815-1825
separatum: De distributione geographica plantarum 1817
6.4. Mimoses et autres plantes légumineuses folio edition 1 vol. 1819-1824
6.5. Révision des Graminées folio edition 3 vols. 1829-1834
6.6. K. S. Kunth: Synopsis plantarum octavo edition 4 vols. 1822-1826

 

Mexico-related parts within the Voyage aux régions équinoxiales are the Essai politique sur le royaume de la Nouvelle Espagne (Partie 3) including the atlas, Vues des Cordilleres (Partie 1.2) and Recueil d'Observations astronomique (Partie 4). I will come to the work mentioned first in more detail later. The Vues des Cordilleres, the "pittoresque atlas", should be of interest to "unscientific people"(17), as well.Placing images and descriptions of human artwork next to those of nature and landscapes, more than other volumes, the monumental work also displays the aesthetic gains of Humboldt's journey. After the American journey Humboldt became very much interested in the physiognomic questions of nature which becomes obvious in his depiction of nature, especially the mountain shapes. Here one is able to see not only Humboldt's desire to depict the intensity of his nature experience by means of realistic landscape paintings, but also - by way of observing nature - the influence of Goethe. This becomes clear in Humboldt's comment when sending Goethe the first fascicle of the Vues des Cordillères: "Nature and art are tightly associated in my work. May you not be entirely dissatisfied with this edition, may you in these views recognize yourself, the influence of your writings upon me, the influence of your powerful presence!"(18)

The Recueil d'Observations astronomiques contains a more detailed description of the journey. It lists the data of all measured and calculated geographic localities. Humboldt wrote in his introduction: "I've made it my duty to note all observations without preselection in my diary." The publication’s main part is made up of Oltmann's calculations based on the data which Humboldt had given him to organize and calculate. Humboldt names 200 astronomic localizations of places and 500 height measurements. Oltmann probably wrote in German, which was then translated for the French edition by Humboldt. In addition to this jointly produced text, the work contains a number of extensive contributions added by each individual scholar under his own name. One could therefore say that the German and the French editions, published separately between 1808-1811, are in a sense interwoven in terms of how they evolved.

 

Notes:

(17) Letter from A. v. Humboldt to J. F. v. Cotta, June 9, 1805, Deutsches Literaturarchiv, Schiller-Nationalmuseum, Cotta-Archiv (Stiftung der Stuttgarter Zeitung) Marbach/Neckar.

(18) "Natur und Kunst sind in meinem Werke eng verschwistert. Möchten Sie mit der Bearbeitung nicht ganz unzufrieden sein, möchten Sie in einzelnen Ansichten sich selbst, Einfluß Ihrer Schriften auf mich, Einfluß Ihrer herrschenden Nähe erkennen!" Letter from A. v. Humboldt to J. W. v. Goethe, Jan 1, 1810, Goethe-u.-Schiller-Archiv, Marbach.

 

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