Versuch über die Metamorphose der Pflanzen. Übersetzt von Friedrich Soret, nebst geschichtlichen Nachträgen. - Essai sur la métamorphose des plantes.

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8 . (2) ll., 239 pp, (1) p. First edition of the expanded and definite text, first French edition. Later half calf, original wrappers preserved and bound in. Spine gilt and spine label. The following work first published in 1790 without additions undoubtedly counts as one of Goethe's most important scientific works. Again and again, as here, he is interested in proving the organic nature of all natural phenomena and development as a process. Thus, Goethe opposed the ideas of the well-regarded Linné and his relatively static ideas on botanical classification based on Determination and proposed, that it was the plants (bestowed with a particular tenacity, a fortunate mobility ., in so many different environments . to adapt and then to shape and to reshape." Neufforge described the (Metamorphosen" so: (Besides Goethe's anatomical works, it is the work that allows the deepest insight into his ideas regarding the manner and future of Nature and places him as one of the precursors of Darwin." (S. 511). In the first of the (Nachträge und Zusätze" the author himself describes how he came to be a botanist and expresses clearly how influential the journey to Italy from 1786 was for him and with regard to his idea of an (original plant". The second part of the additions is an unmistakable testimonial to the reserved reception that Goethe's work had received. Partly for this reason he sought an alternative way to formulate his thoughts, and wrote the Elegy (Metamorphose der Pflanzen", which was first published in the Schiller Musenalmanach of 1799 ((Dich verwirret, Geliebte ."). Some damp-staining, the binding is very decorative. Goed. IV 3, 577,3; Hagen 214; Kippenberg I, 814; not with Borst, Brieger und Wilp.-G. Seller Inventory # 635

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