page_title: Cosmos (Humboldt book)
section_title: Background and influences
hierarchical_section_title: Cosmos (Humboldt book) / Background and influences
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: Since the early years of the nineteenth century, Humboldt had been a world-famous figure, second in renown only to Napoleon. As the son of an aristocratic family in Prussia, he received the best education available at the time in Europe, studying under famous thinkers at the universities of Frankfurt and Göttingen. By the time he wrote Cosmos, Humboldt was an esteemed explorer, cosmographer, biologist, diplomat, engineer, and citizen of the world. While considered a geographer, he is accredited with contributing to most of the sciences of the natural world environment found today.
caption: A portrait of Humboldt by Friedrich Georg Weitsch, 1806
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