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GRUNER, GOTTLIEB SIGMUND (1717-1778)

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Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 641 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GRUNER, GOTTLIEB SIGMUND (1717-1778) , the author of the first connected See also:attempt to describe in detail the snowy mountains of See also:Switzerland. His See also:father, Johann See also:Rudolf Gruner (168o-1761), was pastor of Trachselwald, in the Bernese Emmenthal (1705), and later (1725) of See also:Burgdorf, and a See also:great See also:collector of See also:information See also:relating to See also:historical and scientific matters; his great See also:Thesaurus topographico-historicus lotius ditionis Bernensis (4 vols. See also:folio, 1729–1730) still remains in MS., but in 1732 he published a small See also:work entitled Deliciae urbis Bernae, while he possessed an extensive See also:cabinet of natural See also:history See also:objects. Naturally such tastes had a great See also:influence on the mind of his son, who was See also:born at Trachselwald, and educated by his father and at 'the Latin school at Burgdorf, not going to Berne much before 1736, when he published a dissertation on the use of See also:fire by the See also:heathen. In 1739 he qualified as a See also:notary, in 1741 became the archivist of See also:Hesse-Homburg, and in 1743 accompanied See also:Prince See also:Christian of See also:Anhalt-Schaumburg to See also:Silesia and the university of See also:Halle. He returned to his native See also:land before 1749, when he obtained a See also:post at Thorberg, being transferred in 1764 to See also:Landshut and Fraubrunnen. It was in 176o that he published in 3 vols. at Berne his See also:chief work, See also:Die Eisgebirge See also:des Schweizerlandes (See also:bad See also:French See also:translation by M. de Keralio, See also:Paris, 1770). The first two volumes are filled by a detailed description of the snowy Swiss mountains, based not so much on See also:personal experience as on older See also:works, and a very large number of communications received by Gruner from numerous See also:friends; the third See also:volume deals with glaciers in See also:general, and their various properties. Though in many respects imperfect, Gruner's See also:book sums up all that was known on the subject in his See also:day, and forms the starting-point for later writers. The illustrations are very curious and interesting. In 1778 he republished (nominally in See also:London, really at Berne) much of the information contained in his larger work, but thrown into the See also:form of letters, supposed to be written in 1776 from various spots, under the See also:title of Reisen dutch die merkwurdigsten Gegenden Helvetiens (2 vols.). (W. A.

B.

End of Article: GRUNER, GOTTLIEB SIGMUND (1717-1778)

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