ABSTRACT
Alexander von Humboldt has been widely recognized for his universalist approach to natural knowledge, his internationalist attitude in promoting science and scientists, and his cosmopolitan humanitarianism towards cultures and peoples. Humboldt's most outstanding scientific research arguably was in climatology, meteorology, and plant geography, and in studies of the distribution of heat across the globe, for the visual representation of which he devised the isotherm. Humboldt's scientific travels were not in first instance journeys of discovery of unknown territories. They were primarily journeys of observation, for the purpose of which he took along a series of state-of-the-art measuring instruments, including chronometers, telescopes, sextants, instruments for measuring magnetism, atmospheric composition, and rainfall, and a variety of less complex gadgets. The most famous collection of Humboldtian distribution maps was the Physikalischer Atlas [Physical atlas] produced by the cartographer Heinrich Berghaus to accompany Humboldt's Kosmos.
