AGASSIZ, Jean Louis Rodolphe (1807-1873). Études sur Les Glaciers. Neuchatel,1840. FIRST EDITION.
2 volumes (not uniformly bound), comprising: text, 8vo (247 x 156 mm); atlas, folio (446 x 295 mm). Atlas: 18 lithographed plates, each with original tissue guards (14 with engraved outline key). (Some occasional pale spotting, plates generally clean.) Text: contemporary red half morocco, marbled boards; Atlas: quarter brown morocco, marbled boards, original lithographic wrapper printed on yellow paper bound in (joints and extremities lightly rubbed). FIRST EDITION of this classic work on the study of glacial phenomena, proving for the first time that glaciers move. Agassiz was already a doctor and a naturalist when he began his studies of glaciers. This work would provide new perspective on the formation of glaciers, their movement and effects, and become the most influential work of its kind, earning Agassiz the title of "Founder of Glacial Geology." Following his studies in Switzerland, northern England, Scotland and Ireland "he stated his conviction that the earth had once suffered a great fall in temperature resulting in the formation of an enormous ice-sheet covering the greater part of Europe as far south as the Mediterranean and the Atlas mountains, North Asia and North America. He named this geological period the Ice Age, following a suggestion of German colleague Schimper... Thus Agassiz's observations were the beginning of modern glacial geology" (PMM). Horblit 1; Dibner, Heralds of Science 98; Perret 19; Norman 17; PMM 309.
