An event of the Academy Project“Alexander von Humboldt on Journeys - Science from the Movement”at the Center“Prussia - Berlin”of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (BBAW) has been held on Alexander von Humboldt Day, Sept. 16 2022. Prof. Dr. Ottmar Ette, Director of HCTS, announced its opening. Dr. Ren Haiyan, Deputy Director of HCTS, was also invited to participate in this event.

Alexander von Humboldt Day 2022 once again focused on Humboldt’s travels and showed the entire spectrum of the hybrid edition: digital and print. First of all, Tobias Kraft presented the new edition of Edition Humboldt Digital, which appeared in May, and introduced the functions and offerings of the digital edition.

Editor Cettina Rapisarda then presented the diary of Humboldt’s trip to Italy from Paris in March 1805. The notes of the journey, undertaken with Joseph Louis Gay Lussac, Leopold von Buch, and Franz August O'Etzel, showed the versatility of Humboldt's science: In the museums and art collections of Rome, he compared the evidence of indigenous cultures with that of European antiquity. In addition to volcanological studies on Mount Vesuvius, he conducted chemical studies on the composition of seawater and the atmosphere as well as on the influence of various rocks on the earth’s magnetism. Via Naples and Rome, Humboldt travels back to Berlin in mid September, where he arrived on November 16, 1805, after an absence of more than nine years.

Finally, Carmen Götz presented the first volume of the series“Tagebücher der Amerikanischen Reise”(Diaries of the American Journey), which she edited. The volume“From Spain to Cumaná (1799/1800)”from the Edition Humboldt Print offers for the first time the complete edition of volume 1 of the American diaries in a comprehensively annotated reading edition and provides fascinating insights into Humboldt’s first stage of his journey. The lecture showed how this edition evolved from a reconstruction of diary writing practices.

Find out more: 

https://www.bbaw.de/veranstaltungen/veranstaltung-zwischen-aufbruch-und-rueckkehr-alexander-von-humboldt-in-amerika-und-italien