Die Urwelt in Ihren Verschiedenen Bildungsperioden [English title: The Primeval World in Various Developmental Periods]

Leipzig: T.O. Weigel, 1858. Oblong folio. (16 5/8 x 21 1/4 inches). (6) 16p., 16 tinted lithographed plates illustrating epochs of landscape formation from primeval periods through human emergence, each with explanatory text leaves in German. Original half brown morocco over 19th-century marble paper boards

Temporal development of Earth's surface through deep time, illustrated by some of the earliest printed visualizations of prehistoric science: tropical landscapes, primeval swamp forests, evolutionary storms, ancient botany and geology, and representations of reptilian and mammalian life culminating with the appearance of humanity on the final plate. A stunning tableau of our planet through the millennia lithographed by Leopold Rottman after paintings by Josef Kuwasseg. The very rare second edition with two additional plates. Only a single auction record traced (Henkels, 1895).

Originally published in 1851 in Vienna, the work was "the most ambitious project of its kind yet undertaken." (Rudnick) Considered a landmark in the popularization and visual representation of paleontology," (Gliboff) and one of the first attempts to visualize the modern conception of biological evolution, eight years before Darwin published The Origin of the Species. Each print image is set within a decorative border, and the geological period, as then posited, is printed as the title in the lower margin in German and in French. The original watercolors on which the prints are based were a collaboration of two Austrians: Josef Kuwasseg, a landscape painter in the Romantic vein, and Franz Unger, a university professor, botanist and paleontologist, who commissioned Kuwasseg to illustrate his theory of the development of life based on his studies of the fossil record. Unger initially resisted the suggestions of his students and colleagues to collaborate with an artist to visualize his ideas, lest the interpretation become too fanciful and unscientific. He was skeptical when a fellow botanist suggested Josef Kuwasseg, who although an accomplished and successful landscape painter, was not a natural history artist. Kuwasseg's initial sketches won Unger over, and the two worked together to visualize his conception of the various eras represented in geological strata, with a special emphasis on plant life, given Unger's background as a botanist. The images also include the emergence of reptiles (sea and land), birds, amphibians, mammals and, in the last illustration, human beings. The original watercolors currently are in the collection of the Landesmuseum Joanneum in Graz, Austria, and were exhibited there in 2006. Kuwassegs paintings were first lithographed in 1851 for Die Urwelt in Ihren Verschiedenen Bildungsperioden, with 14 prints in a folio atlas, along with an explanatory booklet in German and French. Unger praised Kuwasseg for patiently working through "frequent trials" to finally attain "such a perfect comprehension of the conceptions I had formed of these remote periods, that the undefined visions of my fancy were, by his genius, developed into clear and vigorous images." Die Urwelt was enthusiastically received by Unger's scientific colleagues in Vienna and abroad. A magic-lantern show of its images attracted large audiences throughout Europe in 1852 and 1859 as well as at the World's Fair in London in 1861. Franz Unger is an important figure in pre-Darwinian theories about evolution. He had an inquisitive mind and a wide range of research interests, as well as an individualistic streak that questioned conventional wisdom. During the 1830s and '40s, he published innovative works on cell biology, plant pathology, geographical distribution of plants, and fossils. He also aspired to find a unifying explanation of the history and nature of life. As he gradually integrated his knowledge of these various disciplines, he evolved an understanding of the origins of present-day species and rejected theories that then held sway such as "spontaneous generation." In 1851, he made the bold assertion that new plant species developed from old ones and that all plants had developed from a single ancestor, most likely a single cell. In addition to publishing these ideas in a scholarly text on botany, he also published a popular illustrated version as Die Urwelt (as offered here), which explicated his view of plant development as that of successive interdependent assemblages of flora in which some individual species had faded away and others had continued into later eras. Josef Kuwasseg was an Austrian artist from a family of artists. Josef worked primarily in watercolors and lithography and was best known for his landscapes idealized and actual, topographical paintings and architecturals.

Bénézit, E., Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs. France: Librairie Gründ, 1966. Vol. 5, p. 333 (Kuwasseg); Vol. 7, pp. 378-379 (Rottmann); "Die Urwelt. Fossile Reste und ihre gemalte Interpretation." 2006. Landesmuseum Joanneum; Gliboff, Sander. "Evolution, Revolution, and Reform in Vienna: Franz Unger's Ideas on Descent and Their Post-1848 Reception." Journal of the History of Biology 31: 179-209, 1998; "Joseph Kuwasseg 1799-1859." Leykam Buchverlag; Rudnick, Martin J.S. Scenes from Deep Time. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995, pp. 98-99.