München, Friedrich Hohe, 1857. Small 8vo (12.3 x 9.3 cm). viii, 240 pp. Original ruled half cloth over pebbled boards. Gilt title on the spine.

A peculiar pocket-sized compendium on geographical-geological topics as diverse as human migration, volcanology, and the solar system. Each with a double-sized hand-coloured plate. The fourth plate is a map of the Earth, and its highest mountains. It also includes timelines and short biographies of historical rulers, philosophers, scientist, etc., and tables with the principle properties of planets, moons and planetoids, weights and measures, demographic data and much more. The author and publisher is the German painter Friedrich Hohe (1802-1870) “Born in Bayreuth, Bavaria, in 1802, his first painting teacher was his father, who was himself a painter. In 1820 he entered the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Munich (also known as the Munich Academy). Thereafter, from 1823 till near the end of his life, he devoted himself to lithography. In 1826 Hohe visited Italy with landscape painter Carl Rottmann. Two years later, he undertook publication of the Leuchtenberg Gallery (1831), and subsequently collaborated with Hanfstängl in the production of the Dresden Gallery (1864-1869). Late in life, Hohe attempted landscape painting but was not very successful in it." (Wikipedia). Boards slightly rubbed Inscription, in an old hand, on the front pastedown, otherwise very good, clean. Rare. Benezit 4, p. 732.