• 382. Caroline to Luise Gotter in Kassel: Würzburg, 4 January 1804 [*]
Würzburg, 4 January 1804
|377| Better late than never, my unforgettable friend — for months I have wanted to answer a letter from Julchen but truly was not able. You had to learn through public sources where you actually needed to seek me out amid all your concern. [1] We did not make it to Italy; the Promised Land still lies ahead of us. Perhaps it was a stroke of good luck, if you want to call it that, that we were indeed interrupted in mid-journey, since Rome has been inundated by incessant rains this winter; and yet it pained me, indeed, it pained both of us having to postpone our hopes in this regard even further — and then in Swabia having to view the Swiss mountains ranges, and in |378| Bavaria the Tyrolean Alps, without, however, being able to get over them. [2]
The first time we came through Franconia, [3] Schelling already knew that they were considering him in a quite specific fashion for Würzburg and the new order of things, but the final decision was delayed because so much still needed to be resolved here politically before attention could be turned to the university. And we, too, put it all in abeyance and for all practical purposes already had left Germany behind us when Schelling was contacted from Munich in September and asked at least to travel through Bavaria on the way to Italy.
Hence we went there by way of Ulm and Augsburg. This journey, along with our stay in Munich itself, was, all things considered, extremely pleasant. [4] Although we spent almost three weeks there, during the first three days they had already secured Schelling’s acceptance and prevailed upon him not to deny his presence and influence to the university’s inaugural period; [5] in return, they promised to grant him leave as soon as possible for the trip. We were modestly delighted by the treasures of the Munich Art Gallery, considering the grander treasures of Italy were denied us for the time being, and got to know the German artists here, who are anche pittore — in German — “also painters”!
Our friend Schelling and the ministers got along most contentedly together, prompting the most profound annoyance among a certain gang of inferior scribes who are accustomed to publishing fat books or shorter pasquinian flyers against Schelling each week in Bavaria. [6]
From Munich we traveled by way of Landshut, Regensburg, where Schelling dined with the well-known electoral arch-chancellor — as I nearly did as well; [7] his host and cathedral provost, Count von Thurn, escorted me to a brilliant concert where the entire Imperial Diet was assembled [8] — so, then by way of |379| Regensburg — Nürnberg, which we found inexpressibly interesting, then Bamberg, where we would like to have stayed, and on to here — where it is now our destiny to remain.
But we only had a short stay here, long enough to make a few arrangements, then returned once again to Swabia to Schelling’s wonderful parents, who frankly were overjoyed that at least for the time being we would not be wandering off to Italy — his mother had written to us: “Godspeed, but only as far as Munich.”
We arrived back here at the beginning of November, that is, at the most unfavorable time of the year, nor was I able to escape its influence regardless of how well I genuinely did feel during the summer; and without any of the normal domestic comforts, since I sold everything in Jena except beds and linens, which had not yet arrived here; and essentially without an apartment yet, since the one the government had designated for us had not yet been vacated or prepared because for several weeks they were still uncertain whether the whole university might yet be transferred to Bamberg.
Well, you can imagine what tribulations I had to overcome, especially since during the first two weeks, Schelling was twice summoned to Bamberg to our trustee, Count von Thürheim, though my own health prevented me from accompanying him there. [9] Moreover, I did also have my sister-in-law here with me, who will be spending the winter with us.
It is merely that I have still not gotten any further than a merely provisional stage in arranging the apartment; my own rooms — of which there are 4: a bedroom, living room, and 2 larger rooms for company, all in a single row connected by French doors with glass panes — are only just now being finished. Only Schelling’s auditorium was ready, as is also appropriate, a nicely decorated hall, splendid in a completely different way than the one in Jena and yet with even more people attending. [10]
|380| You are probably not unaware of how things went in Jena.
A dark spirit did walk through that house, And swiftly did Destiny close on it. [11]
The changes that can come about in human affairs have proven to be quite remarkable. The ladies Hufeland and Paulus paid me a visit and are being quite charmant, as am I as well, without any resentment at all. I know too well how much — that is, how little — both the hatred and the love of such creatures are worth; neither is worth even a single Kreutzer to me. [12] Madam Paulus lives in the same building as do I — a castle or a monastery of some sort, more precisely the former seminarium for the nobility — though in a completely separate wing. If we were conversing in person, I would have several rather peculiar things to relate to you, things that are, however, curiosities of too ill a sort to relate in writing. [13]
There is still an element of tension in Würzburg between the new government, the old nobility, the clerisy, and philosophy, all of which makes it difficult to come to any clear assessment concerning the overall settlement that will be reached, or the kind of society one can expect in the future. Nor are we all that concerned about such things. Schelling’s position in the senate does obligate him to participate in public affairs, and although that does unfortunately take up considerable time, it is also quite salutary just now. In addition to the fact that his lectures are the talk of the town, he has also acquired a high degree of trust among people in general; his personality reconciles even his enemies. It gives him not inconsiderable satisfaction to be so employed with such respect at precisely the place where he earlier had the vilest adversaries. [14]
One can hardly enumerate all the applications and proposals that have already been and indeed are still being so urgently made in Würzburg. The most peculiar of all was that of Schütz, who even after |381| having accepted the appointment in Halle appeared yet again in Munich with proposals that arrived during our very first few days there and were related to Schelling, who had declared from the very outset that he would not come if Schütz were accepted; hence Schütz did not receive even so much as an answer, something which, by the way, his outrageous propositions did not merit in any case. [15]
So, that is how things now stand with your friend. Even if her external situation were not so fortunate, you could still feel good concerning her — but even as it is, that situation is certainly better than any previous one. —
I almost had the good fortune of having my sister here. Wiedemann received an appointment, Schelling received the commission, Wiedemann had already decided to go, but the duke managed to keep him there with a generous gesture. [16] I was so sorry, I would so much have liked to have the children here. [17] My mother is still in her sickly, excessively irritable condition. I learned through Julchen that the dear foster mother’s life ended. [18] Peace be with her.
Please send me news soon — that is my perennial request. I write only when I can no longer bear my own distress at not hearing anything from you. What are your three daughters doing? I embrace them all along with their precious mother. [19] —
A young painter from here by the name of Martin Wagner received Goethe’s full prize this year. [20] We are getting a very nice art collection here, everything that was in Mannheim in the way of antiquities and casts. [21] All of you stay well a thousand times over!
Your Caroline
To satisfy Julchen’s curiosity, I am enclosing our academy’s organizational decree.
Notes
[*] Although Caroline mentions the Gotters’ move to Kassel in her letter to Julie Gotter on 18 February 1803 (letter 375), it is difficult if not impossible to determine when exactly the family moved. Recent letters prior to this one from Caroline to the Gotters seem to militate in favor of their still being in Gotha. Caroline’s remarks in that earlier letter suggest that at that time, Luise Gotter had already made the decision to move her family to Kassel, ca. 160 km west of Gotha; the family had not been in the best financial shape since the death of Friedrich Wilhelm Gotter in 1797 (Rudolf Koch and Fritz Kredel, Deutschland und angrenzende Gebiete [Leipzig 1937]):
[1] The National-Zeitung der Teutschen (1803) 41 (13 October 1803), 921, published in Gotha itself, where Luise and her children resided, reported the following:
Franconia. Professor Schelling, from Württemberg, previously a professor in Jena, has been appointed professor in Würzburg. This was reported by the Bamberger Zeitung in an article from Würzburg on 18 September in the following words: “The renowned philosopher of nature Schelling has received and accepted an appointment as teacher of philosophy at our academy. He will be arriving here soon and during the coming semester will begin lecturing on transcendental philosophy and the philosophy of nature. — With Schelling and his system, a new, brilliant epoch will commence at our school of higher learning; the study of philosophy, aesthetics, physics, and medicine will receive a beneficent transformation, and what recently was yet an object of satire will soon be our pride and jewel.” Back.
[2] Caroline mentions their view of the Tyrolean Alps from Munich in her letter to Luise Wiedemann on 8–17 September 1803 (letter 381); see note 17 there. In her extant letters, Caroline has not otherwise mentioned being able to view the Swiss Alps from Swabia, though such may have been possible from the Swabian Alps. Back.
[3] On their original journey from Jena, which they had left on 22 May 1803, to Murrhardt. See the initial paragraph to her letter to Luise Wiedemann on 5 June 1803 (letter 379). Concerning the route, see Johann Wilhelm Ritter’s letter to Hans Christian Örsted on 22 May 1803 (letter 378b), note 1. Back.
[4] See Caroline’s letter to Luise Wiedemann on 8–17 September 1803 (letter 381) for a lengthy description of the route and journey (Post Karte Durch ganz Deutschland, ed. J. Walch [Augsburg 1795]):
[5] Caroline and Schelling were in Munich 7–24 September 1803. Back.
[6] See Andreas Röschlaub’s letter to Schelling on 2 January 1804 (letter 381h) and Georg Friedrich Zentner’s letter to Schelling on 22 November 1803 (letter 381e), note 4; also Caroline’s letter to Luise Wiedemann on 8—17 September 1803 (letter 381), note 39. Back.
[7] Caroline and Schelling departed Munich on 24 September 1803, made stops in Landshut, Regensburg, and Nürnberg, arrived in Bamberg on 29 September, then journeyed on for a brief visit in Würzburg. They were back in Murrhardt on 10 October 1803, then departed Murrhardt for Würzburg on 31 October 1803, where they resided until the spring of 1806 (Historical Map of Central Europe about 1786 (1926), from William Shepherd, Historical Atlas [1926]):
Karl Theodor von Dalberg, now an “arch-chancellor” in Regensburg, appeared earlier in Caroline’s biography in connection with the events in Mainz. Concerning the biographical arc leading to his presence in Regenburg in 1803 as a result of the Peace of Lunéville (on the latter see also Adalbert Friedrich Marcus’s letter to Schelling on 30 April 1803 [letter 377c], note 3), see the anonymous book review “Sammlung Bischöflicher Hirtenbriefe und Vorordungen seiner H. d. D. Fürsten-Primas d. Rheinischen Bundes, and thirteen other works,” The Foreign Quarterly Review 4 (April & August 1829) no. 8, 539–73, here 542–44:
Charles Theodore of Dalberg was born of one of the most ancient and honourable houses of Germany. The reader will at once remember the proclamation at the crowning of the emperors of Germany, Ist kein Dalberg da? (Is there no Dalberg here?)
This ancient line was divided into two, the houses of Dalberg-Hernsheim and Dalberg-Dalberg. Their possessions lay on the left bank of the Rhine, near Speyer and Worms. Charles Theodore [Karl Theodor] was born in 1744, of the first of these families, at their ancient castle of Hernsheim, near Worms, of which his father was governor.
He was educated at Göttingen and Heidelberg, and gained in those universities the literary taste and knowledge which were the ornament and comfort of his troubled life. His father conceived that the church offered the fittest career for his distinguished son, and after various inferior honours, and much attention given to matters of state, law, and diplomacy, as fitting him for the higher honours of his profession in Germany, he became, on the nomination of the Elector of Mainz, in 1772, governor of Erfurdt, a situation which he retained for some years, and which gave him habits of intercourse with the distinguished coterie of Weimar.
In 1787 he was elected coadjutor to the Elector of Mainz, and thus his future prospects of power and honour seemed to rest on a sure foundation; and they were shortly still further extended, by his being chosen coadjutor, in 1788, to the Bishop of Constanz, and in 1797 provost of the chapter of Würzburg.
The French revolution, however, cast a shade on these brilliant prospects. The larger part of the territory of the future elector was seized before he entered on it. On the death of his predecessor, Frederic Charles, in 1802, he found himself in possession only of the Principality of Aschaffenburg, the town of Erfurdt, and Eichsfeld. He had succeeded, in 1799, to the bishopric of Constanz, but Mainz and Worms were gone to France.
Finally, in 1803, by a recess of a Deputation of the Empire [complex negotiations providing compensation for German principalities and states for the territory lost on the west bank of the Rhine River [Reichsdeputationshauptschluss, February 1803, implementing parts of the Treaty of Lunéville [9 February 1802] and eventually bringing about the end of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, with effects, e.g., on Würzburg and Bamberg], it was settled that the archiepiscopal seat should be transferred from Mainz to Regensburg, and that the archbishop was to be elector, arch-chancellor, metropolitan, and primate of Germany [as which Caroline and Schelling here encounter him].
His power was to extend over all the lands on the right side of the Rhine which had formerly belonged to the sees of Mainz, Trier, and Kölln, except the Prussian territory, and over those parts of the see of Salzburg which had been put into the possession of Bavaria.
His temporalities were to consist of the principalities of Aschaffenburg and Regensburg, with the town and county of Wetzlar, which, with Regensburg, was declared neutral. His income was settled at a million of florins. We have every reason to believe that his government as a temporal prince was most beneficial to his little states; but it endured for a very brief period. In fact, he had lost the temporalities of Constanz in 1802, and was stripped of those of Regensburg in 1810. Back.
[8] The original organ or forum for legislation of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation (1495–1806) was the imperial diet, or Reichstag, which met at irregular times depending on the current state of imperial affairs. Periods of annual diets alternated with those with only one or two per decade (here the imperial diet in 1640, i.e., before it became a “perpetual diet” [see below]: anonymous, Der Reichstag in Regensburg 1640 (1640); Herzog August Bibliothek; Museums./Signatur Graph. C: 180):
The Thirty Years War had caused a suspension of diets for essentially an entire generation (until 1640), but even irregularly scheduled diets became a thing of the past during the following decades. See Axel Gotthard, Das Alte Reich: 1495–1806, 4th ed. (Darmstadt 2009), 22–23:
Whereas the imperial estates had hitherto always managed to assemble in wholly irregular intervals for several months for a diet in a given imperial town or city, indeed altogether ca. fifty times, the diet convened in 1663 in Regensburg by contrast genuinely never came to an end. No agreement could be reached concerning central political-constitutional issues (primarily concerning the now disputed preeminence of the electoral princes in the imperial system, i.e., concerning the power distribution of the oligarchical provisions in the empire’s hybrid constitution), hence after years of wrestling with the problem, members eventually began to come to terms with the fact that the diet had in fact become “perpetual,” a development which, of course, changed the disposition of the diet itself.
[Here the “perpetual diet” in Regensburg in an anonymous engraving, Eigentlicher Abriß der Reichstags Solemnnitat so den 10/20 Ianuarÿ Anno 1663 in Regensburg . . . (1663):]
Whereas previously the territorial rulers had always been personally present at least for discussions of points that were important for them, the diet now increasingly became a congress of delegates and emissaries — the territorial lords, after all, had other things to attend to than to sit around in the Regensburg counsel rooms year after year, e.g. they had to take care of the business more narrowly concerned with their territories and subjects. Even the emperor himself now consistently had his “principle commissar” represent him.
It is to this “perpetual diet” in Regensburg and its delegate members to which Caroline is here referring. Of course, soon enough — 1806 — the empire itself would officially come to an end, and with it this perpetual diet.
In any case, it is a trenchant testimony to Schelling’s enhanced and even lofty professional and social status that Caroline enjoyed such an impressive escort on this evening, since Count von Thurn was in fact an imperial count and an extremely high-ranking member of the Regensburg administration (Taschenbuch für das Jahr 1812: Der Liebe und Freundschaft gewidmet [Frankfurt]; Inhaltsverzeichnis deutscher Almanache, Theodor Springmann Stiftung):
[9] See Friedrich von Hoven’s account of those visits (one was on 7 November 1804) in his account of his initial period in Würzburg, supplementary appendix 381g.1. Back.
[10] Although there seem to be no illustrations of these French doors with glass panes in Caroline’s apartment (she mentions the doors later in connection with a dream [letter 390]), they presumably resembled those in the house in Bauerbach in which Schiller found refuge in 1782; here his study with French doors leading to the sleeping chamber (A. Diezmann, “Bilder aus dem Leben deutscher Dichter: Nr. 4: Ein Dichter-Asyl,” Die Gartenlaube: Illustriertes Familienblatt [1860] 46:731–35, here 733):
The following reading room in the original Würzburg library, located two stories directly below the Schellings’s apartments and with the same elongated floor plan (see also illustrations further below), illustrates how the glass French doors (at the far end of the room) functioned connecting successive rooms in Caroline’s apartment two stories up (frontispiece to Otto Handwerker, Geschichte der Würzburger Universitäts-Bibliothek bis zur Säkularisation [Würzburg 1904]):
The Old University was the location of the apartments assigned to the families of Heinrich Eberhard Gottlob Paulus (lower floor), Friedrich von Hoven (upper floor), and Caroline and Schelling (opposite wing). Concerning these housing arrangements, see the supplementary appendix on the Schellings’ residence in Würzburg.
Here the living arrangements in the old university complex (Caroline describes it below as “a castle or a monastery of some sort, more precisely the former seminarium for the nobility”; strictly speaking the seminary, not shown in this illustration, adjoined the old university quadrangle on the left; illustration: Universität Würzburg, Universitätsarchiv):
In the following illustration from the opposite end of the quadrangle, the Schellings lived in the wing on the left, the Hovens and Pauluses in the wing on the right (Carl Heffner, Würzburg und seine Umgebungen: ein historisch-topographisches Handbuch, illustrirt durch Abbildungen in Lithographie u. Holzschnitt [Würzburg 1871], plate following p. 334):
Initial arrangements, however, did not last; concerning the subsequent distribution of apartments, see the pertinent section in Friedrich von Hoven’s account of his initial period in Würzburg (supplementary appendix 381g.1).
In general, see von Hoven’s account of these professors’ early days in Würzburg, in which, e.g., he mentions earlier in his account that the Schelling’s were indeed assigned a handsome apartment, and that a better auditorium than Schelling’s was hardly to be found.
Henriette von Hoven, by contrast, mentions in her letter to Charlotte Schiller on 2 January 1804 (letter 381h) that Caroline seemed quite keen on “trying to live in grand style” and was “acting enormously genteel,” behavior Friedrich von Hoven, in his account, describes as Caroline’s desire to play the “first lady” of Würzburg and to arrange her living quarters commensurately (earlier representative illustration from Retif de la Bretonne, Les contemporaines; ou, Avantures des plus jolies femmes de l’âge présent, 42 vols. in 12 (Leipsick 1780–85), vol. 7 [1780], 170):
[11] Caroline is referring at least in part to the dissatisfaction and eventual departure of certain faculty members in Jena ca. 1803.
“Dark spirit etc.” after lines in Schiller’s play Die Piccolomini, act 3, scene 9; the play is the second part of Wallenstein; Caroline slightly alters the lines (including tense) to accommodate her meaning:
Es ging [Schiller: geht] ein finstrer Geist durch jenes [Schiller: unser] Haus und schleunig that [Schiller: will] das Schicksal mit ihm [Schiller: uns] enden.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge translates Schiller’s original lines, The Piccolomini, act 3, scene 9, trans. S. T. Coleridge, in The Works of Frederick Schiller, Historical and Dramatic (London 1887), 252:
There's a dark spirit walking in our house, And swiftly will the Destiny close on us.
For the context and full text of the scene, see Henrik Steffens’s letter to Caroline on 26 July 1799 (letter 242d), note 14 (Minerva für das Jahr 1811; Inhaltsverzeichnis deutscher Almanache, Theodor Springmann Stiftung):
[12] The Kreuzer (Caroline spells it Kreutzer; both forms were used) was a copper coin; 90 Kreuzer = 1 Reichsthaler (Therese Huber Briefe 1:462; illustrations: Abbildung von Sechs Kreutzer Stücken, welche in Bayern, Würtemberg, Baden, Hessendarmstadt, Nassau und Frankfurt devolvirt oder abgeschätzt sind [Munich 1830]; München, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, 4 Num.rec. 1 f-2):
[13] The relationships between Caroline and these other faculty spouses quickly deteriorated (Taschenbuch für Damen auf das Jahr 1801; illustration following p. 172):
That these relationships had in other respects similarly quickly become (or already were) strained is attested by H. E. G. Paulus’s letter to Friedrich Immanuel Niethammer back on 17 November 1803, i.e., hardly two weeks after Schelling and Caroline had arrived in Würzburg (Schelling im Spiegel seiner Zeitgenossen: Ergänzungsband, ed. Xavier Tilliette [Torino 1981], 46–47; illustration: J. Collin de Plancy, Dictionnaire infernal, 6th ed. [Paris 1863], 180):
Schelling has become invisible. We see him neither at home nor in town. He is allegedly working on his novel [?], which even in Jena already filled his otium cum vel sine dignitate [variation of Cicero’s cum dignitate otium, “leisure time with dignity,” in Pro Sestio 98; De oratore 1.1; Cic. Fam. 1.9.21; Paulus’s alteration reads: “leisure time with or without dignity”]. He will no doubt give his medical fantasies free rein there, which, God willing, may prompt him finally to restrict or even abandon his breakneck ride in the field of philosophy. The feline [Caroline] will, just as hitherto, not budge from his side, and here, too, will help conjure spirits within this theatrum magicum that will be charged with denying the One Holy Spirit entry.
Paulus’s remarks here are not the only ones associating Caroline with witchcraft and demonology and accusing her of consorting with the devil and with witches’ familiars such as cats. Here illustrations from Nicolas Remi (Remigius), Dæmonolatria, Oder Beschreibung von Zauberern und Zauberinnen, 3 vols. (Hamburg 1693), here from vols. 1 and 2:
[14] See Caroline’s letter to Luise Wiedemann on 8–17 September 1803 (letter 381), note 39. Back.
[15] See Caroline’s lengthy discussion in her letter to Luise Wiedemann on 8–17 September 1803 (letter 381). Back.
[16] Caroline mentions this position in Würzburg as well as a possible one in Jena in her letter to Luise on 8–17 September 1803 (letter 381).
This gesture was the second the Duke of Braunschweig had made to Christian Rudolf Wilhelm Wiedemann to keep him in Braunschweig; the first involved a position in Dorpat in Estonia for which Wiedemann had received and declined an appointment after the duke elevated him to the status of Hofrath
See Caroline’s letter to Julie Gotter on 29 November 1802 (letter 373). In the case of the Würzburg offer, the duke “made him an offer so advantageous that it was impossible for him to decline” (supplementary appendix on Wiedemann’s biography). Back.
[17] Luise’s two children were Emma and Minna Wiedemann. Back.
[18] Uncertain allusion. Back.
[19] At the time of this letter (January 1804), Cäcilie Gotter was twenty-one years old, Julie Gotter twenty, and Pauline Gotter seventeen, similar to the young woman in this representative illustration from 1797 (Frauenzimmer Almanach zum Nutzen u Vergnügen für das Jahr 1797; Inhaltsverzeichnis deutscher Almanache, Theodor Springmann Stiftung):
[20] Johann Martin Wagner became acquainted and remained on quite cordial terms with Schelling. He received the 1803 prize from the Weimar Friends of the Arts for his drawing of Odysseus and Polyphemus. See esp. Goethe’s letter to Schelling on 29 November 1803 (letter 381f), note 8. Back.
[21] In 1803 as a result of the Principal Conclusion of the Extraordinary Imperial Delegation (Reichsdeputationshauptschluss), a resolution passed by the Imperial Diet of the Holy Roman Empire on 25 February 1803 (as a result of which Würzburg became part of Bavaria), the right bank territories of the Palatinate, including Mannheim, were taken by the former Margrave, now Prince Elector of Baden, Karl Friedrich von Baden, Baden having now become an electorate. In March 1797, Friedrich Karl’s granddaughter, Friederike Karoline, had married the later king Maximilian I of Bavaria.
Munich, as the capital of the Electorate of Bavaria, acquired not inconsiderable art collections for safekeeping against the French from the Rhenish Palatinate, with which it had been ruled in personal union since 1777. Mannheim, with Heidelberg, was one of its principle towns (“Typical German States Before and since the French Revolution: I: Baden,” from William R. Shepherd, Historial Atlas [New York 1923], 142):
During the wars of the French Revolution and especially as a result of the geopolitical changes in 1803, the Palatinate essentially ceased to exist. Along with several other acquisitions of art and monastery properties after the secularization of 1803, Bavaria could now boast impressive art collections, though Napoleon subsequently removed a not inconsiderable number of valuable works. King Louis 1 of Bavaria (reigned 1825–48) oversaw the construction of what would later become the Alte Pinakothek in Munich. Caroline visited the collections in the earlier gallery in the royal gardens.
In any event, the Mannheim collections were indeed being enhanced at precisely this time. One reads in the National-Zeitung der Teutschen (1803) 32 (11 August 1803), 717–18, under the rubric of “Affairs of State”:
Mannheim. The venerable Prince Elector of Baden provides daily demonstrations of how ardently he intends to restore Mannheim to its former grandeur. In addition to the annual sum of 20,000 Florins already granted to the theater there, an additional 6000 Florins has been added. The transformation of the town perimeter and moat and razed town walls is being zealously pursued. The requisite sum for reestablishing the hall of antiquities has already been assigned. That hall will now enjoy a more enhanced collection of statues than did the former collection, and a large portion of the casts made by excellent artists will arrive here from Paris by the end of the year.
Approximately 300 paintings were purchased all at once and have already been put on exhibition in the royal palace, a number that will, moreover, soon be increased by more than half. One can also reliably anticipate the imminent enhancement of the collection of specimens of the natural-science cabinet and of the library, the acquisition of a collection of copper engravings and drawings, the support of the German Society, and the organization of art academies.
The wise prince’s idea of erecting a monument to the immortal [patron of the arts] Karl Theodor [1724–1799, from 1742 Prince Elector of the Palatinate, from 1777 of Bavaria] in the Schwetzinger Garden [the latter’s summer residence] is both sublime and touching. It will at once also be a monument to his greatness of soul. Back.
Translation © 2017 Doug Stott