page_title: Cosmos (Humboldt book)
section_title: Publication
hierarchical_section_title: Cosmos (Humboldt book) / Publication
caption_attribution_description: Farewell Cosmos (detail)
context_page_description: 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. Cosmos began as a lecture series delivered by Humboldt at the University of Berlin, and was published in five volumes between 1845 and 1862. In the first volume of Cosmos, Humboldt paints a general “portrait of nature”, describing the physical nature of outer space and the Earth. In the second volume he describes the history of science.
  Widely read by academics and laymen, Cosmos applied the ancient Greek view of the orderliness of the cosmos to the Earth, suggesting that universal laws applied as well to the apparent chaos of the terrestrial world. Humboldt suggests that when one contemplates the beauty of the cosmos, one can obtain personal inspiration and a beneficial, if subjective, awareness about life.
  Cosmos was influenced by Humboldt's various travels and studies, but mainly by his journey throughout the Americas. As he wrote, “it was the discovery of America that planted the seed of the Cosmos.”
context_section_description: In 1828 after the Berlin lectures, Humboldt began formulating his vision in writing. His factual text, heavily loaded with footnotes and references, was sent in proof sheets to all the various specialists for comments and corrections before publication. In this way, he aimed to ensure that what he wrote was both accurate and up-to-date. He continually looked to his friend and literary advisor Varnhagen von Ense for advice in the matter of his style of writing. In total Cosmos took twenty-five years to write.
   Humboldt felt as if publishing Cosmos was a race against death. The first volume was published in 1845 when he was seventy-six, the second when he was seventy-eight, the third when he was eighty-one, and the fourth when he was eighty-nine. The fifth volume, however, was only half-written when Humboldt died in 1859 and had to be completed from his notes and provided with an index over a thousand pages long.
caption: A portrait of Humboldt greeting death, by Wilhelm von Kaulbach, 1869
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