Briefe über Alexander von Humboldts Kosmos. Ein Commentar zu diesem Werke für gebildete Laien. Erster - Dritter Theil. [Complete].

Leipzig, Weigel, 1850-1851. Three parts in three. 8vo (22.5 x 13.8 cm). 1326 pp. [I: x, 357; II: iv, 482; III: v, 468]; three very large, multi-folded maps [I: 0; II: 0; III: 3], of which two (of the hemispheres) with additional original hand-colouring, and the other (of the Moon) plain; one double-sized table, 21 lithographed plates, of which one originally hand-coloured and four (much) larger, folded [I: 5; II: 10; III: 6]. Uniform contemporary navy quarter calf over ditto pebbled boards. Spines with gilt floral ornaments and title. Speckled edges. = This work is by many considered as an indispensible addition to Kosmos, the magnum opus of the great explorer and polymath Friedrich Heinrich Alexander Freiherr von Humboldt (1769-1859). An attractive, uniform set, being the near-simultanously published second edition of Vol. 1, and first edition of volumes 2 and 3. Written by the famous German palaeontologist and geologist Carl Bernhard von Cotta (1808-1879), and the German philosopher Julius Schaller (1810-1868). The fine maps show the Northern and Southern Hemisphere (both coloured), and the moon. A fourth part, and a supplement, were published much later. On the front pastedowns a small bookplate of the Swiss publisher and book dealer Eugen Strien (d. 1910). Plates in volume II bound out of sequence - as always. Boards with very slight age-wear; printed surface toned, plates in the first two volumes rather foxed, but mostly in the margins; otherwise an excellent, clean set.