Manuscript draft letter with autograph corrections and additions.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, German poet (1749-1832).

Verlag: No place or date, [ca. December 1830].

Beschreibung

4to (19 x 20 cm). 2 pages on 1 leaf, apparently cut down from a larger leaf. With one enclosure (see below). Draft letter in a secretarial hand, expressing Goethe's wish that the mining director Carl Theodor von Kleinschrod procure for him one of the fossil Hippurites that were discussed and displayed at the gathering of scientists at Munich, and noting that it would give him particular pleasure to incorporate said fossil into the excellent collection in his care: "Zum Beweis daß mit dem Leben auch Lust und Neigung [holograph: 'zu Natur zu Kunst und Wissen sogleich'] zurückkehren, möchte ich die bittende Frage hinzufügen: ob nicht H. Bergrath Kleinschrott mir einen solchen Hippuriten wie sie bey jener Versammlung der Naturforscher in München zur Sprache gekommen und vorgezeigt worden, verschaffen könnte? [.]". Goethe's corrections comprise some deletions and the addition of thirteen words. - At Weimar, Goethe was a keen collector of rocks, minerals and fossils from 1780 onwards; his collection of the latter alone comprised some 718 specimens. The subject under discussion in the present draft letter are Hippurites, fossils discovered in Bavaria in 1827 and erroneously first identified as remains of corals. - With a manuscript attestation of authenticity in the hand of Hinrich Lichtenstein in the left-hand margin of the first page ("Beim Besuch des Goetheschen Hauses in Weimar 28 Sept. 36 ist mir dieses Blatt als ein Andenken an Goethes Weise zu correspondiren geschenkt worden. Die Correcturen sind von seiner Hand. Lichtenstein"). Together with an autograph letter signed by the poet and close friend of Goethe's, Karl Ludwig von Knebel, possibly to Hinrich Lichtenstein, concerning his sister, some drawings and Princess Caroline in Weimar ([Jena,] 26 April 1808, 1 page, 8vo). - Sämtliche Werke, Münchner Ausgabe, vol. 20.3 (1998), p. 859. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 56692

Bibliografische Details

Titel: Manuscript draft letter with autograph ...

Verlag: No place or date, [ca. December 1830].

Signiert: Signatur des Verfassers