Claudio Greppi
Traces of Humboldt. Observe, describe, measure
Asterios, 254 pages, 29 euros
The knowledge of the planet we inhabit has progressed dramatically over the centuries ranging from the time of the “great discoveries”, between four and five hundred, up to the “age of empires” at the end of the nineteenth century. Not only great theories have contributed to the expansion of this knowledge, but also practical knowledge, accidents and experiences. This book is dedicated to all this which, through the writings and the figure of Alexander von Humboldt, illuminates the concrete and empirical side of the history of geographical thought.
It was above all cartographers and pilots who made it possible to overcome the approximations that characterized the cosmography of the Renaissance (which, for example, underestimated the size of the Earth). The artist-travelers who from the end of the eighteenth century began to paint landscapes that have become an important part of travel relationships contributed to the reflection on the way in which plant and animal organisms appear distributed in space. Humboldt dedicated his attention to these two aspects of the geographical practice that had preceded him, whose intense editorial activity is followed here and in particular the invention of those beautiful comparative tables capable of representing the relationships between the elements of the landscape (rocks , climatic bands, plants) allowing readers to enjoy the beauty of nature and understand its meaning.
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