I have provided references to English translations of Humboldt’s works following reference to the French and (or) German original. As noted above, however, translators were often liberal with their translations. Thus, although I reference English translations, the translations of passages provided here are my largely my own. Accordingly, exact replicas of the English renditions provided here may not be found in the translations referred to (this is especially the case with Otté’s Cosmos [CO] which remains the most easily accessible version of the work). Furthermore, in cases where a passage only appears in the German edition, I have only referred to the German.

Humboldt Primary Literature and Abbreviations

Original German

• [AN] 1808, Ansichten der Natur mit wissenschaftlichen Erläuterungen, Tübingen: Cotta. (Scholar)
• [AML] Aus meinem Leben, edited by Kurt-R. Biermann, Leipzig: Urania Verlag, 1987.
• [BVE] Briefe von Alexander von Humboldt an Varnhagen von Ense, edited by Ludmilla Assing, Leipzig: Brockhaus, 1870.
• [JB] Die Jugendbriefe Alexander von Humboldts. 1787–1799, edited by Ilse Jahn and Fritz Lange, Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1973. (Scholar)
• [Kosmos] 1845–1862, Kosmos: eine physische Wetlbeschreibung, 5 volumes, Stüttgart: Johann Georg Cotta. (Scholar)
• [VMN] 1797–8, Versuche über die gereizte Muskel- und Nervenfaser nebst Vermuthungen über den chemischen Process des Lebens in der Thier- und Pflanzenwelt, 2 volumes, Posen: Decker und Compagnie/Berlin: Heinrich August Rottman. (Scholar)
• 1790, Beobachtungen über einige Basalte am Rhein [Observations of some Basalt at the Rhine], Braunschweig: Schulbuchhandlung.
• 1795, “Die Lebenskraft oder der Rhodische Genius: eine Erzählung” [Life Force or the Rhodian Genius: A Tale], Die Horen. Eine Monatsschrift (Tübingen), 1: 90–96. (Scholar)
• 1830, Über die Haupt-Ursachen der Temperatur-Verschiedenheit auf dem Erdkörper, Berlin: Preussische Akademie der Wissenschaften.

Original French

• [Nouvelle-Espagne] 1811, Essai Politique sur le royaume de la Nouvelle-Espagne, 2 volumes, Paris: Schoell. (Scholar)
• [L’ile de Cuba] 1826, Essai Politique sur l’ile de Cuba, 2 volumes, Paris: Gide Fils. (Scholar)
• [Relation historique] 1814, Relation historique du voyage aux regions équinoxiales du Nouveau Continent, 3 volumes. Part of Voyage. (Scholar)
• [Voyage] 1814–1831, Voyage aux régions équinoxiales du Nouveau Continent par Al. de Humboldt et A. Bonpland, with Aimé Bonpland, 7 volumes, Paris: F. Schoell. (Scholar)
• 1810–1813, Vues des Cordillères, et monumens des peuples indigènes de l’Amérique, Paris: F. Schoell. (Scholar)

New German Edition

• [DA] Darmstädter Ausgabe, edited with commentary by Hanno Beck, 7 volumes, Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1989–.
  • Bd. 1: Schriften zur Geographie der Pflanzen (Scholar)
  • Bd. 2: Die Forschungsreise in den Tropen Amerika, 3 books
  • Bd. 3: Cuba-Werk,
  • Bd. 4: Mexico-Werk
  • Bd. 5: Ansichten der natur
  • Bd. 6: Schriften zur Physikalischen Geographie
  • Bd. 7: Kosmos, Entwurf einer physischen Weltbeschreibung, 2 books

English Translations

• [CO 1] Cosmos, Volume 1, edited and translated by E. C. Otté, London: Bohn, 1849. Reprinted 1858–59, New York: Harper & Brothers. Reprint of the latter with introduction by Nicolaas A. Rupke, Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997]. (Scholar)
• [CO 2] Cosmos, Volume 2, edited and translated by E. C. Otté, London: Bohn, 1850. New printing with introduction by Michael Dettelbach, Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997]. (Scholar)
• [CO 3] Cosmos, Volume 3, edited and translated by E. C. Otté, London: Bohn, 1851.
• [KNS] Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain, Volume 1: A Critical Edition, edited with an Introduction by Vera M. Kutzinski and Ottmar Ette, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2019.
• [VN] Views of Nature, edited by Stephen T. Jackson and Laura Dassow Walls; translated by Mark W. Person, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2014.
• [EGP] Essay on the Geography of Plants, with Aimé Bonpland, edited with an introduction by Stephen T. Jackson, translated (from French) by Sylvie Romanowski, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009.
• [PN] Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equionoctial Regions of America, During the Years 1799–1804, with Aimé Bonpland, edited and translated by Helen Maria Williams, 7 volumes, London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1814–1829. (Scholar)

Other Primary Literature and Abbreviations

• [MA] Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, Sämtliche Werke nach Epochen seines Schaffens (Münchner Ausgabe), edited by K. Richter et al., Munich: Carl Hanser, 1985–1998.
• [NA] Schiller, Friedrich, Schillers Werke. Nationalausgabe, edited by Julius Petersen et al. 43 volumes, Weimar: Hermann Böhlaus Nachfolger, 1943–.

Secondary literature

• Appel, John Wilton, 1994, “Francisco José de Caldas: A Scientist at Work in Nueva Granada”, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, 84(5): 1–154. doi:10.2307/1006650 (Scholar)
• Baron, Frank, 2005, “From Alexander von Humboldt to Frederic Edwin Church: Voyages of Scientific Exploration and Artistic Creativity”, HiN — Alexander von Humboldt Im Netz Internationale Zeitschrift Für Humboldt-Studien, 6(10): 7–20. doi:10.18443/56 (Scholar)
• Beck, Hanno, 1959, Alexander von Humboldt, Volume 1: Von der Bildungsreise zur Forschungsreise, 1769–1804, Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner. (Scholar)
• –––, 1989, “Kommentar”, on Alexander von Humboldt, Ideen zu einer Physiognomik der Gewächse, in DA 1: 287–328. (Scholar)
• Bertaux, Pierre, 1985, “Vorwort”, in Alexander von Humboldt. Leben und Werk, ed. Hanno Beck, Frankfurt am Main: Weisbecker. (Scholar)
• Bies, Michael, 2012, Im Grunde ein Bild: Die Darstellung der Forschung bei Kant, Goethe und Alexander von Humboldt, Göttingen: Wallstein. (Scholar)
• Böhme, Hartmut, 2001, “Ästhetische Wissenschaft: Aporien der Forschung im Werk Alexander von Humboldts”, in Ette et al. 2001: 17–32. (Scholar)
• –––, 2016, “Alexander von Humboldts Entwurf einer neuen Wissenschaft”, in his Natur und Figur: Goethe im Kontext, Munich: Fink, 495–512. (Scholar)
• Bond, Dean W, 2014, “Hegel’s Geographical Thought”, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 32(1): 179–198. doi:10.1068/d19112 (Scholar)
• Brewster, David (ed.), 1832, The Edinburgh Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Volume 15, Philadelphia: Joseph and Edward Parker. (Scholar)
• Bunkse, Edmunds V., 1981, “Humboldt and an Aesthetic Tradition in Geography”, Geographical Review, 71(2): 127–146. doi:10.2307/214183 (Scholar)
• Cañizares-Esguerra, Jorge, 2006, “How Derivative was Humboldt?” in his Nature, Empire, and Nation: Explorations of the History of Science in the Iberian World, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 96–111. (Scholar)
• Cannon, Susan Faye, 1978, Science in Culture: The Early Victorian Period, New York: Science History Publications. (Scholar)
• Dettelbach, Michael, 1997, “Introduction to the 1997 Edition”, in Humboldt CO 2: xxvi–xxvii (Scholar)
• –––, 2001, “Alexander von Humboldt: Between Enlightenment and Romanticism”, Northeastern Naturalist, 8(sp1): 9–20. doi:10.1656/1092-6194(2001)8[9:avhbea]2.0.co;2 (Scholar)
• Edinburgh Review, 1815, “Review: Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent during the Years 1799–1804. By Alexander de Humboldt and Aimé Bonpland. Written in French by Alexander de Humboldt, and translated into English by Helen Maria Williams. London, 1814”, 25: 86–111 (Article IV). (Scholar)
• Ette, Ottmar, 2001, “Eine ‘Gemütsverfassung moralische Unruhe’—Humboldtian Writing: Alexander von Humboldt und das Schreiben in der Moderne”, in Ette et al. 2001: 33–42. (Scholar)
• –––, 2009, Alexander von Humboldt und die Globalisierung. Das Mobile des Wissens, Frankfurt am Main: Insel. (Scholar)
• ––– (ed.), 2018, Alexander von Humboldt-Handbuch. Leben-Werk-Wirkung, Stuttgart: Metzler. (Scholar)
• Ette, Ottmar, Ute Hermanns, Bernd M. Scherer, and Christian Suckow (eds.), 2001, Alexander von Humboldt: Aufbruch in die Moderne, (Beiträge zur Alexander-von-Humboldt-Forschung 21), Berlin: Akademie Verlag. (Scholar)
• Foner, Philip S., 1983, “Alexander Von Humboldt on Slavery in America”, Science & Society, 47(3): 330–342. (Scholar)
• Fuhrmans, Horst (ed.), 1975, F. W. J. Schelling. Briefe und Dokumente, Volume 3, 1803–1809, Bonn: Bouvier. (Scholar)
• Graczyk, Annette, 2004, Das literarische Tableau zwischen Kunst und Wissenschaft, Munich: Wilhelm Fink. (Scholar)
• Grove, Richard, 1990, “Colonial Conservation, Ecological Hegemony and Popular Resistance: Towards a Global Synthesis”, in Imperialism and the Natural Word, edited by John MacKenzie, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 15–50. (Scholar)
• –––, 1995, Green Imperialism: Colonial Expansion, Tropical Island Edens and the Origins of Environmentalism, 1600–1860, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (Scholar)
• Haeckel, Ernst, 1866, Generelle Morphologie der Organismen (Volume 2), Berlin: Georg Reimer. (Scholar)
• Harvey, Eleanor Jones, 2020, Alexander von Humboldt and the Unites States: Art, Nature and Culture, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. (Scholar)
• Hey’l, Bettina, 2007, Das Ganze der Natur und die Differenzierung des Wissens. Alexander von Humboldt als Schriftsteller, Berlin: de Gruyter. doi:10.1515/9783110958157 (Scholar)
• Kehlmann, Daniel, 2005, Die Vermessung der Welt, Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt. (Scholar)
• Lindstrom, Matthew (ed.), 2011, Encyclopedia of the U.S. Government and the Environment: History, Policy, and Politics, Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. (Scholar)
• Martin, Alison, 2018, Nature Translated: Alexander von Humboldt’s Works in Nineteenth-Century Britain, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. (Scholar)
• Meyer-Abich, Adolf, 1970, Die Vollendung der Morphologie Goethes durch Alexander von Humboldt. Ein Beitrag zur Naturwissenschaft der Goethezeit, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht. (Scholar)
• Millán, Elizabeth, 2011, “The Quest for the Seeds of Eternal Growth: Goethe and Humboldt’s Presentation of Nature”, Goethe Yearbook, 18: 97–114. doi:10.1353/gyr.2011.0477 (Scholar)
• Müller, Ferdinand von, 1859, “Zur Humboldt-Feier in Melbourne: Rede von Herrn Dr. Ferd. Muller”. Melbourner Deutsche Zeitung, 30 September: 20–21 and 21 October: 42–43. (Scholar)
• Nassar, Dalia, 2022, Romantic Empiricism: Nature, Art, and Ecology from Herder to Humboldt, New York: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/oso/9780190095437.001.0001 (Scholar)
• Nicholson, Malcom, 1990, “Alexander von Humboldt and the Geography of Vegetation”, in Romanticism and the Sciences, Andres Cunningham and Nicholas Jardine (eds), Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press, 169–185. (Scholar)
• Ortega y Medina, Juan A., 1960, Humboldt desde México, Mexico City: Universidad Autónoma de México. (Scholar)
• Pausas, Juli G. and William J. Bond, 2019, “Humboldt and the Reinvention of Nature”, Journal of Ecology, 107(3): 1031–1037. doi:10.1111/1365-2745.13109 (Scholar)
• Pinsdorf, Christina, 2020, “Romantischer Empirismus im Anthropozän A. v. Humboldts und F. W. J. Schellings Ideen für die Environmental Humanities”, HiN — Alexander von Humboldt im Netz. Internationale Zeitschrift für Humboldt-Studien, 21(40): 59–97. doi:10.18443/288 (Scholar)
• Pratt, Mary Louise, 1992, Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing and Transculturation, New York: Routledge. (Scholar)
• Puig-Samper, Miguel Ángel, 1999, “Humboldt, un prusiano en la Corte del Rey Carlos IV”, Revista de Indias, 59(216): 329–355. doi:10.3989/revindias.1999.i216.725 (Scholar)
• Reill, Peter Hanns, 2002, Vitalizing Nature in the Enlightenment, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. (Scholar)
• Richards, Robert, 2002, The Romantic Conception of Life: Science and Philosophy in the Age of Goethe, Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (Scholar)
• Romanowski, Sylvie, 2009, “Humboldt’s Pictorial Science: An Analysis of the Tableau physique des Andes et pays voisins”, in EGP: 157–198. (Scholar)
• Rupke, Nicolaas, 1999, “A Geography of Enlightenment: The Critical Reception of Alexander von Humboldt’s Mexico Work”, in Geography and Enlightenment, David N. Livingstone and Charles W. J. Withers (eds), Chicago, IL, University of Chicago Press, 319–339.. (Scholar)
• –––, 2008, Alexander von Humboldt: A Metabiography, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. (Scholar)
• Sachs, Aaron, 2004, The Humboldt Current: Nineteenth-Century Exploration and the Roots of American Environmentalism, New York: Viking. (Scholar)
• Schweninger, Lee, 2016, “A Return to Nature ‘Order: Indigenous Peoples and the Politics of Alexander von Humboldt’ Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain”, ELOHI. Peuples indigènes et environnement, 9: 87–102. doi:10.4000/elohi.1061 (Scholar)
• Schaumann, Caroline, 2011, “Humboldt’s Dirty Nature”, Colloquia Germanica, 44(2): 133–147. (Scholar)
• Serje, Margarita, 2005, “The National Imagination in New Granada”, in Alexander von Humboldt: From the Americas to the Cosmos, Coordinated by R. Erickson, M. A. Font, and B. Schwarts, New York: Bildner. (Scholar)
• Sloan, Phillip R., 2009, “The Making of a Philosophical Naturalist”, in The Cambridge Companion to Darwin, Jonathan Hodge and Gregory Radick (eds.), second edition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 21–43. doi:10.1017/ccol9780521884754.002 (Scholar)
• Steigerwald, Joan, 2000, “The Cultural Enframing of Nature: Environmental Histories during the Early German Romantic Period”, Environment and History, 6(4): 451–496. doi:10.3197/096734000129342370 (Scholar)
• Tang, Chenxi, 2008, The Geographic Imagination of Modernity: Geography, Literature and Philosophy in German Romanticism, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. (Scholar)
• Thrasher, Sidney (trans.), 1856, The Island of Cuba, by Alexander Humboldt, New York: Derby and Jackson. (Scholar)
• Troll, Carl, 1959, Die tropischen Gebirge: Ihre dreidimensionale klimatische und pflanzengeographische Zonierung, (Bonner Geographische Abhandlungen, 25), Bonn: Ferd. Immlers Verlag. (Scholar)
• Wallace, Alfred Russell, 1905, My Life: a Record of Events and Opinions, 2 volumes, London: Chapman and Hall. (Scholar)
• Walls, Laura Dassow, 1995, Seeing New Worlds: Henry David Thoreau and Nineteenth-century Natural Science, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. (Scholar)
• Walls, Laura Dassow, 2009, The Passage to Cosmos: Alexander von Humboldt and the Shaping of America, Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (Scholar)
• Werner, Petra, 2000, “Übereinstimmung oder Gegensatz? Zum widersprüchlichen Verhältnis zwischen A. v. Humboldt und F. W. J. Schellin”, in Berliner Manuskripte zur Alexander-von-Humboldt-Forschung 15, Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften (ed.), Berlin: Alexander von-Humboldt-Forschungsstelle. (Scholar)
• Worster, Donald, 1977, Nature’ Economy: A History of Ecological Ideas, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (Scholar)
• Wulf, Andrea, 2015, The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt’s New World, New York: Knopf. (Scholar)