Sarmiento, F.O., Gunya, A., 2024. Mountain Lexicon. A Corpus of Montology and Innovation. Cham, Switzerland: Springer Nature Switzerland AG, 249 pp

With the advent of Wikipedia, the age of the old lexicons and encyclopedias seems to have come to an end.This makes the initiative of Fausto O. Sarmiento and Alexey Gunya to edit a mountain encyclopedia more surprising.However, a first glance at the table of contents shows that this is not a classical lexicon but, as the subtitle suggests, a corpus.The central concepts of montology are discussed in relatively short articles.This is done from a contemporary perspective for all researchers and students of montology, as Jack Ives called the former mountain science.In his foreword, Yuri Badenkov outlines the reasons for a new view of the world's mountains, which is necessitated by global developments in the 21st century.These include population growth, increasing urbanization, climate change, the polarization of rich and poor regions and the resulting migration movements, digitalization and geopolitical conflicts.It could be added that competition for the resources in which mountain regions are rich is also one of these factors.The result is a multitude of influences on the world's mountains in view of decolonial scholarship.These will be discussed in more detail in the following articles.The editors begin with a clarification of key terms, which are clearly listed and defined in a table of all terms with the suffix 'scape'.This allows the dimensions of 'mountainscape' to be treated in all their complexity.The first main section deals with mountain epistemologies.It begins with a description of the history of mountain studies, assigns a central role to the 1992 Earth Summit with Chapter 13 of Agenda 21 for the new view of mountains, and shows how montology has changed since then.It is defined as "a holistic, integrative and transdisciplinary science of mountains, encompassing physical, social, theoretical and empirical disciplines, as well as the humanities and arts" (p.26).R. Gonzlez Vallejo discusses the re-identification of mountains and sheds light on the perception of mountains and the naming of places as identity markers.The latter is illustrated by a table of name changes of prominent mountains.Decolonization is an impressive trend in mountain studies.It is discussed by M. Sartori, J. Prakofjewa and A. Moreira-Muoz using the Andes as an example.W. Dunbar and M. Yanagiya see the Japanese concept of 'satoyama', i.e. a complex view of rural areas in mountains and their foothills, as a forward-looking one.By discussing the epistemology of mountain landscape, V.S. Kremsa succeeds in gaining a clearer view of mountainscape.Part II deals with mountain ontologies.The challenge of universality and diversity is discussed by B. Debarbieux.He shows how the paradigm developed by A. v. Humboldt has changed in the Anthropocene also under the influence of non-western perceptions.C.P. Aguirre-Merino and E.A. Chango-Agama deepen this view with the example of the Puruwa in the Ecuadorian Andes.E. Bernbaum looks at the spiritual significance of mountains, e.g. as sacred mountains.C. Stadel presents the changing identities of human mountain landscapes in space and time and summarizes the intrinsic and extrinsic factors influencing mountain landscapes in a clear table.Part III deals with onomastics and place-naming.The naming of mountain ranges is described by F.O. Sarmiento and E. Bernbaum from an onomastic, etymological, etiological and semiotic point of view.They lament the lack of female mountain names and attribute this to European colonization.They give examples