The Invention of Nature

Chapter 11: Paris

1

tormented by not being fast: AH to Goethe, 3 January 1810, Goethe Humboldt Letters 1909, p.305; see also AH to Franz Xaver von Zach, 14 May 1806, Bruhns 1873, vol.1, p.360.

2

‘melancholy’ and other excuses: AH to Johann Friedrich von Cotta, 6 June 1807, 13 November 1808, 11 December 1812, AH Cotta Letters 2009, pp.81, 94, 115.

3

‘any botanist in Europe’: AH to Bonpland, 7 September 1810, AH Bonpland Letters 2004, p.57; see also Fiedler and Leitner 2000, p.251.

4

Vues des Cordillères

:

Vues des Cordillères

was published in seven instalments from 1810 to 1813.

5

‘Nature and art’: AH to Goethe, 3 January 1810, Goethe Humboldt Letters 1909, p.304; see also Goethe, 18 January 1810, Goethe Diary 1998–2007, vol.4, pt.1, p.111.

6

Vues

received by courier: Goethe, 18 January 1810, Goethe Diary 1998–2007, vol.4, pt.1, p.111.

7

Goethe and

Vues

: Goethe, 18, 19, 20 and 21 January 1810, Goethe Diary 1998–2007, vol.4, pt.2, pp.111–12.

8

AH queries: For example David Warden to AH, 9 May 1809, AH Letters USA 2004, p.111; AH to Alexander von Rennenkampff, 7 January 1812, Biermann 1987, p.196.

9

‘great worthies of’: Jefferson to AH, 13 June 1817, Terra 1959, p.795.

10

AH’s books to Jefferson: Jefferson to AH, 6 March 1809, 14 April 1811, 6 December 1813; AH to Jefferson, 12 June 1809, 23 September 1810, 20 December 1811; William Gray to Jefferson, 18 May 1811, TJ RS Papers, vol.1, pp.24, 266, vol.3, pp.108, 553, 623, vol.4, pp.353–4, vol.7, p.29; AH to Jefferson, 30 May 1808, Terra 1959, p.789.

11

AH and Joseph Banks: AH to Banks, 15 November 1800; Bonpland to Banks, 20 February 1810; Banks to James Edward Smith, 2 February 1815 (requesting a specimen of the mauritia palm for AH); Banks to Charles Bladgen, 28 February 1815, Banks 2007, vol.5, pp.63ff.; vol.6, pp. 27–8; 164–5; 171; AH to Banks, 23 February 1805, BL Add Ms 8099 ff.391–2; AH to Banks, 10 July 1809, BL Add Ms 8100 ff.43–4.

12

‘three different houses’: Adelbert von Chamisso to Eduard Hitzig, 16 February 1810, Beck 1959, p.37; AH to Marc-Auguste Pictet, March 1808, Bruhns 1873, vol.2, p.6; Caspar Voght, 16 March 1808, Voght 1959–65, vol.3, p.95.

13

AH and Kunth (footnote): AH to Johann Georg von Cotta, 14 April 1850, AH Cotta Letters 2009, p.430; see also Biermann 1990, p.183.

14

so-called ‘garret-hours’: Carl Vogt, January 1845, Beck 1959, p.206.

15

Arago’s scientific mission: ‘An Autobiography of Francis Arago’, Arago 1857 p.12ff.

16

‘malicious tongue’: Arago about AH, Biermann and Schwarz 2001b, no page numbers.

17

‘sulking like a child’: Adolphe Quetelet, 1822, Bruhns 1873, vol.2, p.58.

18

‘Siamese twins’: AH to Arago, 31 December 1841, AH Arago Letters 1907, p.224.

19

‘joy of my life’: AH to Arago, 31 July 1848, ibid., p.290.

20

‘You know his passion’: WH to CH, 1 November 1817, WH CH Letters 1910–16, vol.6, p.30.

21

‘Alexander could have’: WH to CH, 14 January 1809, ibid., vol.3, p.70.

22

WH and his patriotic duty: Geier 2010, p.272.

23

‘stopped being German’: WH to CH, 3 December 1817, WH CH Letters 1910–16, vol.6, p.64; see also WH to CH, 6 December 1813 and 8 November 1817, ibid., vol.4, p.188 and vol.6., pp.43–4.

24

AH no intentions to go to Berlin: WH to CH, 10 July 1810, ibid., vol.3, p.433.

25

‘You are interested in botany’: Napoleon to AH, recounted by Goethe to Friedrich von Müller, Müller Diary, 28 May 1825, Goethe AH WH Letters 1876, p353.

26

‘opinion cannot be bent’: Humboldt Commemorations, 2 June 1859,

Journal of American Geological and Statistical Society

, 1859, vol.1, p.235.

27

AH sent publications to Napoleon: Podach 1959, pp.198, 201–2.

28

‘hates me’: AH after an audience with Napoleon, 1804, Beck 1959–61, vol.2, p.2.

29

scientists as politicians in France: Serres 1995, p.431.

30

Description de l’Egypte

and AH: Krätz 1999a, p.113.

31

Napoleon read AH’s books: Beck 1959–61, vol.2, p.16.

32

secret police, bribed valet, room searched: Daudet 1912, pp.295–365; Krätz 1999a, p.113.

33

undercover report: George Monge’s report, 4 March 1808: Podach 1959, p.200.

34

Napoleon, AH and Chaptal: Podach 1959, p.200ff.

35

breakfast Café Procope: Carl Vogt, January 1845, Beck 1959, p.207.

36

‘chez Monsieur de Humboldt’: Bruhns 1873, vol.2, p.89.

37

‘idol of Paris society’: George Ticknor, April 1817, AH Letters USA 2004, p.516.

38

AH everywhere: Konrad Engelbert Oelsner to Friedrich August von Stägemann, 28 August 1819, Päßler 2009, p.12.

39

‘at home on every’: John Thornton Kirkland, 28 May 1821, Beck 1959, p.69.

40

‘drunken with his love’: Caspar Voght, 16 March 1808, Voght 1959–65, vol.3, p.95.

41

AH met artists and thinkers: Krätz 1999a, pp.116–17; Clark and Lubrich 2012, pp.10–14.

42

‘layer of ice’: Fräulein von R., October–November 1812, Beck 1959, p.42.

43

AH’s gentle voice: Roderick Murchison, May 1859, ibid., p.3.

44

‘will-o’-the-wisp’: Karoline Bauer, My Life on Stage, 1876, Clark and Lubrich 2012, p.199.

45

‘thin, elegant and nimble’: Ibid.

46

‘sluice’ of words: Carl Vogt, January 1845, Beck 1959, p.208.

47

‘tired the ears’: WH to CH, 30 November 1815, WH CH Letters 1910–16, vol.5, p.135.

48

‘overcharged instrument’: Heinrich Laube, Laube 1875 p.334.

49

‘actually thinking out loud’: Wilhelm Foerster, Berlin 1855, Beck 1959, p.268.

50

people worried leaving party: Adolphe Quetelet, 1822, Bruhns 1873, vol.2, p.58.

51

AH like a meteor: Karl August Varnhagen von Ense, 1810, Varnhagen 1987, vol.2, p.139

52

AH and cuneiform script: Karl Gutzkow, Beck 1969, pp.250–51

53

AH free of prejudice: Johann Friedrich Benzenberg, 1815, ibid., p.259.

54

Parisians and war: Horne 2004, p.195.

55

population Paris: Marrinan 2009, p.284.

56

‘the beginning of the’: Talleyrand, in Horne 2004, p.202.

57

allied troops in Paris: Horne 2004, p.202; John Scott, 1814, Scott 1816, p.71.

58

‘pinched at the waist’: Benjamin Robert Haydon, May 1814, Haydon 1950, p.212.

59

‘curse within his teeth’: Ibid.

60

AH’s second fatherland: AH to Jean Marie Gerando, 2 December 1804, Geier 2010, p.248; AH to François Guizot, October 1840, Päßler 2009, p.25.

61

AH wrote to Madison: AH to James Madison, 26 August 1813, Terra 1959, p.798.

62

AH more French than German: WH to CH, 9 September 1814, WH CH Letters, vol.4, p.384.

63

‘fits of melancholy’: AH to CH, 24 August 1813, Bruhns 1873, vol.2, p.52.

64

‘honour’ of his people: AH to Johann Friedrich Benzenberg, 22 November 1815, Podach 1959, p.206.

65

AH used contacts to save Jardin: Podach 1959, pp.201–2; Winfield Scott to James Monroe, 18 November 1815. Monroe forwarded this letter to Jefferson, James Monroe to Jefferson, 22 January 1816, TJ RS Papers, vol.9, p.392.

66

art packed up in Louvre: John Scott, 1815, Scott 1816, p.328ff.

67

Bladgen in Paris: Charles Bladgen Diary, 5 February 1815, Ewing 2007, p.275.

68

Davy in Paris 1813: Ayrton 1831, pp.9–32.

69

Davy at Royal Institution: Holmes 1998, p.71.

70

‘enlarge my stock’: Coleridge in 1802, Holmes 2008, p.288.

71

‘creative source’: Humphry Davy in 1807, ibid., p.276.

72

‘My view of the world’: AH to Goethe, 1 January 1810, Goethe Humboldt Letters 1909, p.305.