Author: PHILIPPI, Rudolph Amandus.
Title: Reise durch die Wuste Atacama auf Befehl der chilenischen Regierung im Sommer 1853-54 unternommen.
Description: Halle, Eduard Anton, 1860. Folio. Original printed boards (sl. rubbed). With folding map and 27 lithographed plates (including a diagram, 15 natural history plates of which 7 hand-coloured, and 11 tinted views (1 folding, foxed as usual). X,192; 62 pp. First German edition. - First, and still the best, scientific description of Atacama, Chile. R.A. Philippi (1808-1904), a German-Chilean naturalist, visited the Atacama Desert in 1853-1854, travelled extensively in Chili between 1850 and 1883, and occupied the Chair of Natural History at Santiago. His son, Friedrich Philippi, carried on his work in the Atacama in 1885. His book offers a travel account, followed by descriptive sections, including a Flora Atacamensis listing the more than 400 species he had found in the area, many of them not described before. With fine plates depicting views and natural history subjects (fossils, birds, rodents, lizards, shells and plantes). Philippi brought to Santiago the first reliable map of the region and a wealth of scientific information. He is now regarded as one of the founding fathers of scientific research in Chile (Howgego IV, p.723). 'Philippi gehört zu den bedeutendsten Naturforschern, die im 19. Jahrhundert in Chili tätig waren. Verdienstvolle Arbeit leistete er auf den Gebieten von Botanik und Zoologie. Im Verlauf seiner landeskundlichen Expeditionen fertigte er künstlerische Studien von hohem dokumentarischen Wert an' (Deutsche Künstler in Lateinamerika, p.119).- Rare. Sabin 62452; Palau 224736; Henze IV, p.98.

Keywords: America Chili Jubileum cat.