H. Abich (Otto Vilhelm Hermann von Abich)

Geologische Beobachtungen Auf Reisen IM Kaukasus IM Jahre 1873 (Geological Observations While Traveling in the Caucasus in 1873 [an Association Copy]

Moskau (Moscow): Universitats-Buchdruckerei (Katkoff & Co.), 1875. Hardcover. First edition; 9" x 6"; pp. [4], 1-122, [2] + a large, fold-out, chromolithographed map by V. Bakhman; full, embossed, brown morocco; gilt title to front board; gilt page edges; rubbed spots with small loss to tips of spine and edges; a minor nick to one of the folds on the map; very good condition. Signed and inscribed by the author to Russian nobleman and politician Count Mikhail Khristoforovich Reitern (Michael von Reutern) [1820 - 1890]. Hermann Abich [1806 - 1886], known as the Father of Caucasian Geology, was born in Berlin in, then, Prussia. He was the grandson of famous German chemist Martin Heinrich Klaproth [1743 – 1817], who discovered uranium (1789), zirconium (1789), and cerium (1803) and the nephew of renowned ethnographer and orientalist Julius Klaproth [1783 - 1835], who instilled in Hermann an interest for the history and natural history of Caucasus. He studied under several great naturalists, including geologists Leopold von Buch [1774 - 1853] and Alexander von Humboldt [1769 - 1859] and geographer Karl Ritter [1779 - 1859]. Inspired by his teachers, Abich left for Italy in 1831 and studied active and extinct volcanos, including Etna, Vesuvius, and others. Between 1835 and 1843, he described their structure, activity, and history in a series of illustrated works, which were published in German, French, and Swedish. In the late 1830s, Abich was invited to become a professor of Mineralogy at Dorpat University in present day Estonia, the only university in Russia, where classes were carried out in German. After the large earthquake of 1840 around the Ararat Volcano in Armenia, the Russian Government sent him on an officially-sanctioned, exploratory trip to study the geological structure and events of the region. For more than 30 years, from 1844 to 1876, Abich travelled extensively and studied the Caucasian geology, writing more that 200 books, articles, and scientific papers, which were published in several languages, including the first fundamental, general and systematic description of the relief and geology of the Caucasus region - his monumental work, so called "Prodromus," published in 1859. Abich's current book described his studies and discoveries during his last years in the field, covering the slopes of the Great Caucasus - the Elbrus and Cazbek volcanoes, Svanetia, Taman, and others, and the Armenian volcanic highland. In 1876, Abich retired and moved to Vienna, where he worked on a final synthesis of his entire life's work in the Caucasus. Only two of its three volumes were published while he was still alive and the last one was released posthumously, by his wife, in 1887. Count Mikhail Khristoforovich Reitern was Minister of Finances, State Secretary, member of the State Council, Chairman of the Council of Ministers, and one of the closest associates of the "Tsar-Liberator" Alexander II. He studied finance and administration in Prussia, the United States, and Germany. Reitern oversaw Russia's finances during the epoch of the Great Reforms. He supervised the railroad development and banking system, which led to the founding of Russia's first central bank, the State Bank, in 1860. While trying to reduce the chronic deficit of the Russian national budget and to restore the convertibility of the paper rubles into gold and silver, Reitern took several risky steps, which ultimately did not pan out well, including the sale of Alaska to the USA in 1867 and the sale of the Nicholas Railroad to a private company in 1868. Ill.: 0. Very good 2.

ZH BooksProfessionelle Verkäufer

Buchzahl: 001892

Katalog: Exploration

Sonstige Stichworte: Geology, Caucasus, Exploration 0

Pimenova, Emiliia

Tainy Tibeta

Leningrad: Brokgauz-Efron, 1929. Hardcover. First edition, 1 of 5000 copies; 5 1/2 x 7 3/4; pp. 160; morocco-backed textured paper over boards; a few small punctures from insects to spine; tips of spine and corners rubbed; spotting mostly to corners of pages from fingers turning them; "St. Tikhon Society" stamp to title page; illustrated with numerous photographs; very good. Cover design by E. Belukhi. Chiefly based on Belgian-French explorer, anarchist, and author Alexandra David -Neel's "Voyage d'une Parisienne à Lhassa" (My Journey to Lhasa), "Secrets of Tibet" was one of very few works in Russian on Tibet at the time. The author, Emiliia Pimenova (1855-1935), was a journalist and a travel literature writer. Inspired by her love for travel and, possibly, what is now rumored to have been repeated attempts by the Bolsheviks to win Lhasa over to the Soviet cause in the 1920s - the author interpreted, retold, and cited one of David-Neel's most widely-known works. The latter made a name for herself for being the one Western woman who, disguised as a pilgrim, managed to visit Lhasa, Nepal in 1924, when it was forbidden to foreigners. OCLC lists 1 copy at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Ill.: 0. 2.

ZH BooksProfessionelle Verkäufer

Buchzahl: 001269

Katalog: Travel and Exploration

Sonstige Stichworte: Boston-Vbf, Travel, Exploration, Asia 0

Shveinfurt, Georg (Schweinfurth, Georg)

Vnutri Afriki. Tri Goda Puteshestvii I Prikliuchenii V Neizsledovannykh Stranakh Tsentralnoi Afriki (the Heart of Africa. Three Years of Travels and Adventures in the Unexplored Regions of Central Africa)

S. l. (St. Petersburg), s. n. 1876. First Edition. First Russian edition (publication information from a 1895 Russian translation of Elisee Reclus' "La terre"); rebound without title page in green cloth and 3/4 dark-green morocco; the first section bound at the end of the book; four raised bands, gilt decorations, and three small paper labels to spine; rubbed spots to corners and tips of spine; period stamp of a Russian Christian mission in Japan to first page; illustrated with numerous one- and two-page woodcuts; very good condition. A rare first Russian edition of ethnologist, botanist, and explorer Georg August Schweinfurth's (1836 - 1925) most important work. Born in Riga, Latvia, Schweifurth was educated in Germany and in 1868 was tasked with travelling to and exploring the interior of East Africa. There he discovered the river Uele in 1870 and the pygmy Akka tribe, and added invaluable data to the knowledge of the flora, fauna, and native inhabitants of the region. Not in OCLC; not in the trade (as of December 2018). Very good .

ZH BooksProfessionelle Verkäufer

Buchzahl: 002338

Katalog: Exploration

Sonstige Stichworte: Travels, Exploration, Africa

Tolmachev, I. P. and Baklund, O. O.

Zamietka O Gornykh Porodakh, Sobrannykh V 1913 Godu Gidrograficheskoi Ekspeditsiei Sievernago Ledovitago Okeana (Notes on the Rock Samples, Collected in 1913, During the Archtic Ocean Hydrographic Expedition) [Stamped by the Author]

S.-Peterburg (St. Petersburg), Tipografiia Imperatorskoi Akademii Nauk, 1914. First Edition. First edition, part of "Izviestiia Imperatorskoi Akademii Nauk - 1914" series; 10 1/2 x 7 1/2; pp. 727-736; light-brown wraps, printed in black; illustrated with a map and 4 photographs; wraps detached, but present; edges of wraps with small chips and cuts; a few light finger-smudges to page margins, else clean and well-preserved; in about good condition. Stamped to front wrap: "OT AVTORA" (From the Author). The Arctic Expedition of 1913, during which the large archipelago Land of Emperor Nicholas II was discovered (later renamed Severnaya Zemlya), marked the end of the Age of Discovery. The brain and driving force behind the expedition was Inokentii Pavlovich Tolmachev (1872 - 1950) - a scientist and polar explorer, who was, during earlier expeditions, the first to explore the Kuznetsk Alatau mountain range in Southern Siberia, the head of the Khatanga River in the Krasnoyarsk region of Siberia, the Chukotka Peninsula (studying the practicality of the Northern Sea Route), the Zhetysu part of modern day Kazakhstan, and others. In several of his travels, he was accompanied by another famed geologist - Oleg Oskarovich Baklund (1878 - 1958). In 1922, under political pressure, Tolmachev accepted an invitation to work in the US and moved to Pittsburgh, where he taught at the U of Pittsburgh and continued writing. His current, short memorandum, presented together with Oleg Baklund, mentioned the equipment and the management of the expedition (the icebreakers Taimyr and Vaigach, the captain of the operation - B. Vilkitskii, etc.), and described each of the islands, penninsulas, and archipelagos studied, with their coordonates, features, and types of rocks, which were collected. Not in OCLC; not in the trade (as of February 2020). Good .

ZH BooksProfessionelle Verkäufer

Buchzahl: 002610

Katalog: Exploration

Sonstige Stichworte: Exploration, Arctic