Marie-Noelle Bourguet, Le monde dans un carnet. Alexander von Humboldt en Italie (1805)

Bourguet’s excellent book gradually reveals a series of clues that provide us with insight into the meaning and role of a small (and apparently insignificant) yellow notebook on the brief trip to Italy in 1805. Le monde dans une carnet fills in a gap, a historiographical void: even though there are an enormous number of works on Humboldt, little has been written about Italy’s trip, which seems to have almost gone unnoticed, perhaps partly as a result of the fact that notebook was for so long practically inaccessible to researchers.