Unterhaltungen über den Menschen. Erster Theil. Über die Kultur und äußerliche Bildung desselben.
Leipzig: Johann Gottlob Immanuel Breitkopf, Sohn und Compagnie, 1796. Second Edition (Zweite Auflage). Volume I only. 12mo, [10], 418 pages, period quarter leather over paper covered boards. Text in German. Now housed in an archival box. An interesting late-eighteenth-century German work on anthropology, ethnography, natural history, and the physical and cultural diversity of humankind, written by Christian Ernst Wünsch (1744–1828), a German educator, mathematician, and author of works on natural philosophy. Originally associated with Wünsch's broader series of cosmological discussions, Unterhaltungen über den Menschen examines humanity from both a physical and cultural perspective, reflecting Enlightenment-era efforts to understand and classify the natural world and the peoples inhabiting it.
The present volume, entitled Über die Kultur und äußerliche Bildung desselben (On the Culture and External Formation of Man), explores the physical characteristics, customs, manners, cultural practices, and varieties of human societies. Drawing upon the scientific observations, geographical discoveries, and travel literature available during the eighteenth century, Wünsch considers the differences and similarities among peoples and the influence of environment, education, and civilization upon human development. The work provides an interesting example of the development of European anthropological and ethnographic thought during the Enlightenment, including the period's now-outdated theories concerning human physical differences and cultural classification.
Published in Leipzig in 1796, this is the second edition of the first part of the work. A second volume, devoted principally to human anatomy and physiology, appeared in 1798. This copy lacks all fourteen of the fold-out engravings. Some rubbing and wear, discoloration and soiling, else in good condition. Item #725
Price: $200.00