Erfahrungen vom Innern der Gebirge, nach Beobachtungen gesammlet.

Trebra (Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich von)

Erfahrungen vom Innern der Gebirge, nach Beobachtungen gesammlet.

Description: FIRST EDITION, 9 (8 folding) large hand-coloured geological plates (one heightened with ground mica), and 5 hand-coloured engravings in the text (the first on the title-page), with the often lacking slip-mount plate II (to plate III) and the extension plate Vb (attached to plate Va and folded in), title-page a trifle foxed, pp. [vi], x, 244, [2], folio, original boards, a little rubbed and stained, and worn at extremities, but solid, small MS ex-libris on title

Publication Details: Dessau & Leipzig: auf Kosten der Verlagskasse für Gelehrte und Künstler, 1785

Notes: A very good copy of probably the most beautiful German geological books of the 18th century. A classic. It is the first geognostic description of the Harz Mountains and contains also important observations concerning the genesis of ore bodies. It is known that Goethe collaborated at the production of this 'handsome and well illustrated folio' (Adams). Trebra accompanied him on his well-known wanderings through the Harz Mountains as a friend and geological adviser, and the five beautiful text-engravings were designed during this tour by Georg Melchior Kraus, painter and engraver from Weimar (se...moreA very good copy of probably the most beautiful German geological books of the 18th century. A classic. It is the first geognostic description of the Harz Mountains and contains also important observations concerning the genesis of ore bodies. It is known that Goethe collaborated at the production of this 'handsome and well illustrated folio' (Adams). Trebra accompanied him on his well-known wanderings through the Harz Mountains as a friend and geological adviser, and the five beautiful text-engravings were designed during this tour by Georg Melchior Kraus, painter and engraver from Weimar (see G. Schmid, Goethe und die Naturwissenschaften). "It contains Trebra's observations and theories on the rich mineralization of the Harz Mountains in Germany, anticipating modern theories of ore body formation through metamorphism and mineral replacement. It is finely illustrated on the plates and vignettes that incorporate on one plate ground mica to give realistic 'sparkles' to the rendering of a mineralized vein of ore." (C. Schuh's Bibliography of Mineralogy, in Mineralogical Record database).  HIDE

Bibliography: (Adams, Birth and development of the Geological Sciences, p.315-18; Zittel, History of Geology, p. 56; Hoover 796; Ferchl 541; Schmid, Goethe, p.414)