195e. Caroline to Friedrich Jacobs in Gotha: Jena, 20 February 1798 [*]
Jena, 20 February 1798
Would you be so kind, my dear Herr Professor, to take on the small enclosed book list for Schlegel in the Gotter auction? [1] He is taking the liberty to burden you with this request since, Winckelmann’s works no longer being available in bookstores, he himself is not really familiar with the price of the items; he has thus provided only an approximate price here in the hope that you will help him along. He is reckoning 10 rh. for Die Geschichte der Kunst and the remainder for the other brochure. [2] Although it may by chance go for less — he admittedly is not really interested in paying much more. You can doubtless determine that from the received commissions.
He is extremely interested in the two small publications for 280 and 13 g., especially the first. Although I put no price on the latter, Schlegel will probably pay 6–8 for it — if he does not get it for 2 g.
Please pass along my warmest regards to both your good wife and Dorette — I was truly delighted to hear of the birth of little Marie and hope she will thrive and prosper like her brothers. [3] Stay very well and please do pardon Schlegel — who warmly commends himself to you — for having allowed me to encourage him to the point of putting you to this trouble.
Caroline Schlegel
Notes
[*] Source: manuscript: Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München, Jacobsiana II.2. Schlegel, Caroline; 2 pages; although the manuscript in its entirety is previously unpublished, a facsimile of the second page was published in Martin Ninck, “Die Liebende und Freundin: Karoline Schlegel-Schelling (1763–1809),” in Ninck, Schicksal und Charakter. Lebensbilder (Vienna 1956), 191–236, here 193. — Transcription: Martin Reulecke.
Because Caroline had gone to school in Gotha as a young girl, she naturally had closer personal connections with the town and residents than did Wilhelm Schlegel, on whose behalf she is here writing. Gotha is located ca. 60 km west of Jena (Post Karte Durch ganz Deutschland, ed. J. Walch [Augsburg 1795]; Rudolf Koch and Fritz Kredel, Deutschland und angrenzende Gebiete [Leipzig 1937]):
[1] The family of Friedrich Wilhelm Gotter, whose death on 18 March 1797 had left them in restricted financial circumstances, was selling his library at auction. The auction was initially announced in the Intelligenzblatt of the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung (1798) 5 (Saturday, 13 January 1798) 39 (including the works by Winckelmann in which Wilhelm was interested):
Auction
On 26 February 1798 and the following days, a collection of books will be auctioned in Gotha containing some quite valuable pieces from all the various fields of the sciences and humanities, though especially such from the area belles lettres.
Outside Gotha itself, the catalog is available in Jena from Herr Hofcommissar [Friedrich] Fiedler, who is also willing to carry out any commissions he receives in this regard, and in Leipzig from Herr Universitäts-Proclamator [Johann August Gottlob] Weigel.
Among the more distinguished works, we will mention only the following:
Page 2, nos. 20–53. Allgemeine Welthistorie, vols. 1–34 with vols. 54–58, commentary and addenda. —
Page 3, nos. 76–79, 81–83, the collected works of [Johann Joachim] Win[c]kelmann. —
Page 28, nos. 671–83, [Anton Friedrich] Büsching’s Erdbeschreibung, with [Christoph Daniel] Ebeling’s continuation. Nos. 685–96, Bibliothek der schönen Wissenschaften vols. 1–12. Nos. 697–754, Neue Bibliothek etc., 1–58. —
Page 29, nos. 777–82, The Works of [Alexander] Pope, with notes of Warburton, vols. 1–6 with commentary. —
Page 30, nos. 814–22, Poesie del Sr. Metastasio, vols. 1–9 (Torino 1757). —
Page 38, nos. 993–1063, Oeuvres de Voltaire (Gotha), vols. 1–71. —
The first section especially, in addition to a strong and select collection of French, Italian, and English books, also contains a selection of the best dramatic works, especially of the French stage, including many pieces no longer available in bookstores.
The musical items listed on page 55 include no. 1436, a handwritten score of Ariadne auf Naxos prepared by Benda himself — a valuable relic indeed! —
Further, in the addenda on page 57, nos. 1–152, Die Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek, vols. 1–117, as well as the Neue allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek, vols. 1–14 complete with all addenda and indices included in this volumes.
Pages 74ff. list several Swedish works etc.
For some otherwise unexplained reason, a confirmation of the original auction date appeared in the Intelligenzblatt of the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung (1798) 13 (Wednesday, 24 January 1798) 104:
Auctions
The book auction in Gotha announced in issue 5 of the Intelligenzblatt concerns the book collection of the deceased Legationsrath Gotter, but it will begin not on the 5th, but rather on the 26th of February. Back.
[2] The currency abbreviations rh. and g. stand for Rheinishe Währung (Rhine currency, imperial currency) and Groschen.
Johann Joachim Winckelmann’s enormously influential Geschichte der Kunst des Alterthums, 2 vols. (Dresden 1764). The following illustrations include the title pages for vols. 1 and 2, three vignettes from vol. 1, and two from vol. 2:
[3] Jacobs later dedicated his memoirs, Personalien (Leipzig 1840), to “my beloved children: Wilhelm, Gustav, Paul Emil, and Marie Gabriele,” his eldest son, Friedrich Wilhelm Josias Jacobs, having died in 1833. Back.
Translation © 2012 Doug Stott