Bibliography of Natural History Travel Narratives

Erscheinungsjahr 2017
ISBN: 978-90-5011-596-4
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, 482 Seiten, Format (B × H): 211 mm x 284 mm, Gewicht: 2064 g

Anne Troelstra’s fine bibliography is an outstanding and ground-breaking work. He has provided the academic world with a long-needed bibliographical record of human endeavour in the field of the natural sciences.

The travel narratives listed here encompass all aspects of the natural world in every part of the globe, but are especially concerned with its fauna, flora and fossil remains. Such eyewitness accounts have always fascinated their readers, but they were never written solely for entertainment: fragmentary though they often are, these narratives of travel and exploration are of immense importance for our scientific understanding of life on earth, providing us with a window on an ever changing, and often vanishing, natural world. Without such records of the past we could not track, document or understand the significance of changes that are so important for the study of zoogeography.

With this book Troelstra gives us a superb overview of natural history travel narratives. The well over four thousand detailed entries, ranging over four centuries and all major western European languages, are drawn from a wide range of sources and include both printed books and periodical contributions. While no subject bibliography by a single author can attain absolute completeness, Troelstra’s work is comprehensive to a truly remarkable degree.

The entries are arranged alphabetically by author and chronologically, by the year of first publication, under the author’s name. A brief biography, with the scope and range of their work, is given for each author; every title is set in context, the contents – including illustrations – are described and all known editions and translations are cited. In addition, there is a geographical index that cross refers between authors and the regions visited, and a full list of the bibliographical and biographical sources used in compiling the bibliography.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Troelstra, Anne S.

Fachgebiete

• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Allgemeines Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften, Formalen Wissenschaften & Technik
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Wissenschafts- und Universitätsgeschichte
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Allgemeines Enzyklopädien, Nachschlagewerke, Wörterbücher
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Allgemeines Geschichte der Human- und Sozialwissenschaften
• Naturwissenschaften Biowissenschaften Biowissenschaften
• Sozialwissenschaften Sport | Tourismus | Freizeit Tourismus & Reise Expeditions- & Reiseliteratur

Über Autor(innen)

Anne S. Troelstra held a chair in pure mathematics and foundations of mathematics at the University of Amsterdam from 1970 to 2000, and has published more than 80 mathematical papers and mathematical monographs. He is a member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences and a corresponding member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. In 1996 he received the F.L. Bauer Prize of the Technical University of Munich for his contributions to theoretical computer science.
Following his retirement he turned into a distinguished, albeit non-professional, scholar of the history and social significance of Natural History, devoting much of his time to the study of natural history travel narratives. He already published two books on the subject (in Dutch): Tijgers op de Ararat (Tigers on Mount Ararat) in 2003, Kolibries in de oren (Hummingbirds in the ears) in 2009, as well as an anthology of Dutch natural history travel narratives, Van Spitsbergen naar Suriname, in 2007.