- Imago Mundi
- ``Picture of the World.'' --- or perhaps ``description.'' Not ``image'' in the sense of ``recent scandals have hurt the President's image among voters.''
- Margarita Philosophica
- ``Philosophical Pearl'' --- though at the time ``philosophia'' included all secular learning, so ``Treasures of Learning'' might be a better rendering.
- Humboldt
- Friedrich Wilhelm Karl Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (1769--1869), usually
called Alexander von Humboldt, a Prussian naturalist who travelled for years
through Central and South America, mapping and surveying, observing the local
flora and fauna, recording the native customs, morals and antiquities. On his
return to Europe he published his researches in several acclaimed volumes, and
settled down to a life of fashionable intellect in Paris. There he published
his Kosmos, a massive work which combined virtually all the
scientific knowledge of the time with an impressively elevated literary style.
It was, one might say, the A Brief History of Time or
Chaos of the mid-nineteenth century. Despite incredible
accomplishments and a vast reputation, his money eventually ran out and he was
reduced to being a senior official in the Prussian government. As Dr. White himself says in Chapter 3,
On the 10th of May, 1859, Alexander von Humboldt was buried. His
labours had been among the glories of the century, and his funeral
was one of the most imposing that Berlin had ever seen. Among
those who honoured themselves by their presence was the prince
regent, afterward the Emperor William I; but of the clergy it was
observed that none were present save the officiating clergyman and
a few regarded as unorthodox.