181c. Wilhelm Schlegel to Karl August Böttiger in Weimar: Jena, 10 April 1797 [*]
Jena, 10 April 1797 [1]
. . . Today at midday I am leaving for Dresden with my wife. How often, once I am there, will I wish I could examine the antiquities and casts in the company of a connoisseur of antiquity such as yourself! [2] . . . Many thanks for the issue of Merkur you sent. [3] My wife sends her kindest regards to you. Perhaps I will see you sometime in Weimar soon after my return from Dresden.
Yours,
A. W. Schlegel
Notes
[*] Source: Körner (1930), 1:629. Back.
[1] This letter dates Caroline and Wilhelm’s departure from Jena for Dresden. They returned from Dresden on 20 May 1797. On 14 May 1797, from Pillnitz outside Dresden (Körner [1930], 1:60), Wilhelm remarked to Wilhelm Gottlieb Becker that
our return [to Leipzig] has been delayed by chance circumstances, and we have enjoyed several more very nice days here than we were anticipating. In the meantime, we are awaiting our coachman from one hour to the next. Should I not return to Dresden, or not stay over there, let me commend myself warmly to both you and your family, as does my wife. Let me thank you once more for your cordial reception and all the delightful hours you provided for us; stay very well.
Concerning a possible visit to the family of Johann Friedrich August Tischbein in Dessau on the return trip to Jena, see supplementary appendix 181c.1.
Here the locales at issue in their journey (Post Karte Durch ganz Deutschland, ed. J. Walch [Augsburg 1795]):
[2] The Japanese Palais in Dresden (originally so-named because of its eastern-influenced roof) was restructured during the years 1782–86 into a museum usui public patens (museum for public usage), and it was here that the antiquities were exhibited during the period when the Jena Romantics visited Dresden. From 1786 the building also housed the royal library from which later the Saxon State Library emerged.
Here a rendering of the building from 1839 (frontispiece to Constantin Karl Falkenstein, Beschreibung der Königlichen öffentlichen Bibliothek zu Dresden [Dresden 1839]):
Böttiger later published a piece on the Dresden antiquities collection, “Vortrag über die Dresdener Antikengalerie. Dresden 1814 (Mit späteren Zusätzen und Excursen des Verfassers),” C. A. Böttiger’s Kleine Schriften archäologischen und antiquarischen Inhalts, ed. Julius Sillig, vol. 2 (Dresden 1837; here 2nd ed. Leipzig 1850), 25–52.
Concerning the antiquities collection in Dresden at this time, including the collection of casts to which Wilhelm also alludes, see the supplementary appendix Dresden Antiquities Collection. Back.
[3] In response to Caroline’s request in her postscript to Wilhelm’s letter to Böttiger on 23 March 1797 (letter 181a). Back.
Translation © 2012 Doug Stott