Geologische Beobachtungen auf Reisen im Kaukasus im Jahre 1873 (Geological Observations While Traveling in the Caucasus in 1873 [An Association Copy]

Moskau (Moscow): Universitats-Buchdruckerei (Katkoff & Co.), 1875. Hardcover. Very good. First edition; 9" x 6"; pp. [4], 1-122, [2] + a large, fold-out, chromolithographed map by V. Bakhman; full, embossed, brown morocco; gilt title to front board; gilt page edges; rubbed spots with small loss to tips of spine and edges; a minor nick to one of the folds on the map; very good condition. Signed and inscribed by the author to Russian nobleman and politician Count Mikhail Khristoforovich Reitern (Michael von Reutern) [1820 - 1890].Hermann Abich [1806 - 1886], known as the Father of Caucasian Geology, was born in Berlin in, then, Prussia. He was the grandson of famous German chemist Martin Heinrich Klaproth [1743 – 1817], who discovered uranium (1789), zirconium (1789), and cerium (1803) and the nephew of renowned ethnographer and orientalist Julius Klaproth [1783 - 1835], who instilled in Hermann an interest for the history and natural history of Caucasus. He studied under several great naturalists, including geologists Leopold von Buch [1774 - 1853] and Alexander von Humboldt [1769 - 1859] and geographer Karl Ritter [1779 - 1859]. Inspired by his teachers, Abich left for Italy in 1831 and studied active and extinct volcanos, including Etna, Vesuvius, and others. Between 1835 and 1843, he described their structure, activity, and history in a series of illustrated works, which were published in German, French, and Swedish.In the late 1830s, Abich was invited to become a professor of Mineralogy at Dorpat University in present day Estonia, the only university in Russia, where classes were carried out in German. After the large earthquake of 1840 around the Ararat Volcano in Armenia, the Russian Government sent him on an officially-sanctioned, exploratory trip to study the geological structure and events of the region. For more than 30 years, from 1844 to 1876, Abich travelled extensively and studied the Caucasian geology, writing more that 200 books, articles, and scientific papers, which were published in several languages, including the first fundamental, general and systematic description of the relief and geology of the Caucasus region - his monumental work, so called "Prodromus," published in 1859. Abich's current book described his studies and discoveries during his last years in the field, covering the slopes of the Great Caucasus - the Elbrus and Cazbek volcanoes, Svanetia, Taman, and others, and the Armenian volcanic highland. In 1876, Abich retired and moved to Vienna, where he worked on a final synthesis of his entire life's work in the Caucasus. Only two of its three volumes were published while he was still alive and the last one was released posthumously, by his wife, in 1887.Count Mikhail Khristoforovich Reitern was Minister of Finances, State Secretary, member of the State Council, Chairman of the Council of Ministers, and one of the closest associates of the "Tsar-Liberator" Alexander II. He studied finance and administration in Prussia, the United States, and Germany. Reitern oversaw Russia's finances during the epoch of the Great Reforms. He supervised the railroad development and banking system, which led to the founding of Russia's first central bank, the State Bank, in 1860. While trying to reduce the chronic deficit of the Russian national budget and to restore the convertibility of the paper rubles into gold and silver, Reitern took several risky steps, which ultimately did not pan out well, including the sale of Alaska to the USA in 1867 and the sale of the Nicholas Railroad to a private company in 1868.