The Invention of Nature

Writing didn’t stop him from travelling, as long as it was in Europe and near the centres of scientific learning. If he had to, Humboldt could work anywhere – even in the back of a coach, balancing his notebooks on his knees and filling the pages with his almost indecipherable handwriting. He wanted to visit Wilhelm in Rome, and see the Alps and Vesuvius. In March 1805, seven months after his arrival in France and only a few weeks after Caroline had finally left Paris for Rome, Humboldt and his new friend, the chemist Gay-Lussac, also set out for Italy. Humboldt now spent much of his time with the twenty-six-year-old unmarried Gay-Lussac, who seemed to have replaced Carlos Montúfar as Humboldt’s closest friend when Montúfar had moved on to Madrid earlier that year.³

Humboldt and Gay-Lussac travelled first to Lyon and from there to Chambéry, a small town in south-eastern France from where they could see the Alps rising on the horizon. As the warm air breathed life over the French countryside, leaves unfurled and clothed the trees in the fresh green of a new season. Birds were building their nests and the roads were lined with the bright blossoms of spring flowers. The travellers were equipped with the best instruments and regularly stopped to take meteorological measurements which Humboldt wanted to compare with those from Latin America. From Chambéry they continued south-east and crossed the Alps into Italy. Humboldt adored being back in the mountains.

On the last day of April they arrived in Rome and stayed with Wilhelm and Caroline. Since the couple had moved to Rome two and a half years previously, their house had become a meeting place for artists and thinkers. Every Wednesday and Sunday Caroline and William hosted a lunch, as well as welcoming a large number of guests in the evenings. Sculptors, archaeologists and scientists from all over Europe arrived – no matter whether they were famous thinkers, aristocratic travellers or struggling artists. Here Humboldt found an eager audience for his tales from the rainforest and the Andes, but also artists who turned even his roughest sketches into glorious paintings for his publications. Humboldt had arranged to meet Leopold von Buch, an old friend from his time at the mining academy in Freiberg, who was now one of the most respected geologists in Europe. They had plans to investigate Vesuvius and the Alps together.

Humboldt found more acquaintances in Rome. In July Simón Bolívar arrived from France. During the previous winter, as the cold days had enveloped Paris in a grey blanket, Bolívar had sunk into a dark mood. Simón Rodríguez, his old teacher from Caracas who was in Paris too, had suggested an excursion. In April they had driven by stagecoach to Lyon and then had begun to walk. They marched along fields and through forests, enjoying the rural surroundings. They talked, sang and read. Slowly Bolívar cleansed his body and mind of the dissipations of the previous months. All his life Bolívar had adored being outside, and now once again felt invigorated by the fresh air, exercise and nature. When he saw the Alps rising against the horizon, Bolívar had been reminded of the wild landscapes of his youth, the mountains against which Caracas nestled. His thoughts were now deeply engaged with his country. In May he crossed the Savoy Alps and walked all the way to Rome.

In Rome Bolívar and Humboldt talked again about South America and revolutions. Though Humboldt hoped that the Spanish colonies would free themselves, at no moment during their time together in Paris and then in Rome did he see Bolívar as their potential leader. When Bolívar argued rapturously about the liberation of his people, Humboldt saw only a young man with a brilliant imagination – ‘a dreamer’, as he said, and a man who was still too immature. Humboldt was not convinced, but as a mutual friend later recounted, it was Humboldt’s ‘great wisdom and accomplished prudence’ that helped Bolívar at a time when he was still young and wild. Humboldt’s friend, Leopold von Buch – a man famed for his geological knowledge, but also for his unsocial and brusque behaviour – was irritated by the political hijacking of what he had believed would be a gathering of scientific minds. Buch swiftly dismissed Bolívar as a ‘fabulist’ full of incendiary ideas. And so Buch was relieved to leave Rome for Naples and Vesuvius on 16 July – together with Humboldt and Gay-Lussac but without Bolívar.