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Gespiegelte Fassung der elektronischen Zeitschrift auf dem Publikationsserver der Universität Potsdam, Stand: 18. August 2009 |
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H i
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Alexander von
HUMBOLDT im NETZ
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HiN
I,
1 (2000)
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1. Introduction"Right now he [Alexander von Humboldt] is extraordinarily busy with a work that will sell excellently, because it is absolutely new and consuming him at the moment: the statistics on Mexico; an altogether splendid work. We are almost neighbors and I have therefore seen most of it. It has in its own way most unique features...", wrote Johannes von Müller from Berlin on June 21, 1807 to their publisher Johann Friedrich von Cotta in Stuttgart.(1) The Essai politique sur le royaume de la Nouvelle-Espagne did indeed find an especially attentive readership
in Europe. This was partially due to the growing interest in economic problems, but also because of its inherent criticism of Spanish colonial politics.In this paper I want to address the origin of Humboldt's Mexico-related writings and their place in his entire work. I also wish to briefly compare their contents. (It is a well-known fact that Humboldt held the comparative method in high regard.) (2) Additionally, extensive research undertaken by the former East German Alexander-von-Humboldt Research Center has also been included. This research dates back to the founding years of the research center at the time of the centennial of his death in 1959. Furthermore, I'd like to use this opportunity to present the Research Center’s publication series "Beiträge zur Alexander von Humboldt-Forschungsstelle", in particular the edition which includes the correspondences and diaries, as well as what is available to us of Humboldt’s handwritten estate.
Notes:
(1) "Mit ungewöhnlichem Fleiß arbeitet er [Alexander von Humboldt] an einem Werk, das reißend abgehen wird, weil es ganz neu ist und sein größtes Interesse gerade in gegenwärtigem Augenblick hat, an der Statistik von Mexico; es ist eine ganz vortreffliche Arbeit.Wir wohnen fast nebeneinander, und ich habe daher das meiste gesehen; es hat in seiner Art ganz einzige Sachen..." Maria Fehling (ed.), Briefe an Cotta. Das Zeitalter Goethes und Napoleons 1794-1815, Stuttgart/Berlin, 1925, p. 160.
(2) The explanations are based on the bibliography of Humboldt’s monographs: Horst Fiedler (+) / Ulrike Leitner, Alexander von Humboldts Schriften - Bibliographie der selbständig erschienenen Werke, Berlin, Akademie Verlag, 2000. (Beiträge zur Alexander von Humboldt-Forschung 20)