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These two individual leaves transmit both stanzas of the “Goldenes Ave Maria“: once as a song with glosses “Ave got grüß dich reine magt“ (A III 52a), a second time in an adaptation by the Carthusian Ludwig Moser of Basel (A III 52b). Both texts probably were written by him in the Carthusian Monastery of Basel.
Online Since: 12/14/2017
The comedy The Mad Day, or The Marriage of Figaro is a vivid satire of society during the Ancien Régime and of aristocratic privileges; it was first performed on April 27, 1784 and presaged the beginning of the French Revolution, which it doubtlessly helped bring about. After the fall of the monarchy in 1792, the comedy was again performed on several Parisian stages, albeit the concluding songs were modified by Beaumarchais. The final stanza of the stuttering judge Don Gusman Brid'oison, which in 1784 had concluded Tout fini-it par des chansons, was adapted to the difficulties of the period: Pour tromper sa maladie, / Il [the people] chantoit tout l'opera : / Dame ! il n'sait plus qu'ce p'tit air-là : / Ca ira, ça ira... However, after the fall of Robespierre and the Thermidorian Reaction, these words roiled young Muscadins just as the previous ones had caused the Sansculottes to react. Since the performances were disrupted by such turbulent audiences, Beaumarchais entrusted La Rochelle, the actor who performed the role of Brid'Oison, with an alternative ending that could be recited en cas de bruit (in case of noise). This variant, which remained unpublished until recently, was a praise of freedom of speech and of the sang froid de la raison (the cold blood of reason) against the stratagème (wiles) of ideological cabals.
Online Since: 06/22/2017
According to Beethoven, this is his “most accomplished work.” It celebrates the consecration of his student and sponsor, Archduke Rudolph, as Archbishop of Olomouc (Olmütz) in 1818. This mass was begun in 1818; it was completed three years after the ceremony and was presented to the cardinal and archbishop on 19 March 1823. This mass in D major seeks to express and communicate, in the words of the composer himself, a state of mind, a religious Stimmung. It is written for a large orchestra and consists of five movements (Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus Dei) The sections of the Gloria, imposed by the meaning of the text, constitute a sonata: allegro in D major, Gratias in B flat and back to the allegro; then the larghetto and as a third movement the allegro, Quoniam, the fugue In gloria Dei Patris, with a cyclical return to the theme of the Gloria in the principal tone. The music comments on the text: royal acclamation, heartfelt gratitude, divine omnipotence; then, in contrast: prayers, shouts and murmurs of the supplicants of this world (miserere nobis). Purchased at Sotheby's, London, 4 February 1952.
Online Since: 09/26/2017
At the beginning of his visiting professorship at the Reichs-Universität of Leiden, on May 5, 1920, Albert Einstein gave this lecture with the title “Ether and Relativity Theory.” This copy, in his own handwriting, contains numerous corrections and deletions. The lecture was published in the same year. Einstein later often returned to the concepts set forth in this lecture.
Online Since: 12/17/2015
Despite visible erasures, this is the completed version of this untitled text, which consists of six paragraphs on two leaves, bound in red Morocco leather. At the earliest it was written by Flaubert during his voyage to the Orient (1849-1851) with his friend Maxime du Camp, although it seems more likely to date from his return to France in 1851, the moment he dedicated his life to writing. Later know by the title Le Chant de la Courtisane, this prose poem in a humorous tone was not published by Flaubert himself. Nonetheless, it sums up his challenges as a writer: the work shows the author's fascination with Oriental culture and landscape, which he hopes to to reproduce in a realistic manner. A journal of his voyage, which records his observations and sensations and directly feeds his fictional work. The vocabulary reveals a certain erudition and a concern for accuracy, procedures which herald Salammbô. This manuscript, from the collection of Paul Voute (who had published a facsimile thereof in 1928), was purchased by Martin Bodmer at the Blaizot bookstore.
Online Since: 06/22/2017
Mentioned in his correspondence by Flaubert as an explanatory chapter to Salammbô, this manuscript consists of 28 leaves, which are all numbered, except for the last one that contains notes regarding the gods. The manuscript is in a folder on which Flaubert noted the work's title as well as a date, 1857, that corresponds with the beginning of the writing of Salammbô. This chapter, however, was written after 1857: it was actually conceived after an important documentation phase indispensable to the project and after a trip to Carthage. Upon his return in 1858, the writer worked on a chapter that would be “the topographical and picturesque description of the aforementioned city, with a portrayal of the people who inhabited it, including the traditional costume, government, religion, finances and commerce, etc." (Letter to J. Duplan, dated 1 July 1858). Despite a certain number of corrections and marginal additions, this is the completed version of the text, which ultimately was removed from the novel, even though information therefrom was scattered throughout the work. This chapter reveals the way the author works. He is distinguished by his encyclopedic erudition and his attention to detail, which shed light on the original challenges in the creation of Salammbô: that of reconstructing the then-lost city of Carthage. In November 1949, Martin Bodmer purchased this manuscript at the Blaizot bookstore.
Online Since: 06/22/2017
On October 25th and December 15th of 1810, Jacob Grimm sent Clemens Brentano this manuscript. It is the oldest handwritten version of the Kinder- und Hausmärchen since the Brothers Grimm systematically destroyed all the preliminary work for their edition of the fairy tales, probably in order to prevent the comparison between the handwritten versions and the later printed edition (first edition 1812), which was thoroughly revised and expressed in literary form. According to an analysis by Heinz Rölleke (Rölleke Heinz (ed.), Die älteste Märchensammlung der Brüder Grimm. Synopse der handschriftlichen Urfassung von 1810 und der Erstdrucke von 1812, Cologny-Genève 1975), 25 fairy tales were written by Jacob Grimm, 14 by Wilhelm Grimm (partly with addenda by his brother), and 7 can be attributed to four other authors. Martin Bodmer purchased this manuscript from Mary A. Benjamin, New York, in 1953.
Online Since: 12/17/2015
This poem in two stanzas of four lines each and titled “Der Frühling,” was written by Friedrich Hölderlin (1770-1843) in his own hand; at the end it is signed “Mit Unterthänigkeit Scardanelli” and dated to January 20, 1756. Hölderlin, who from about 1802 on was mentally ill, often signed his works, sometimes with invented names, among them Scardanelli, and invented dates. Another hand has corrected the given date in pencil to 1843; this suggests that the poem was created shortly before Hölderlin's death.
Online Since: 12/17/2015
This poem in three stanzas of four lines each and titled “Der Herbst”, was written by Friedrich Hölderlin in his own hand; at the end it is dated to November 15, 1759. Hölderlin, who from about 1802 on was mentally ill, often signed his works, sometimes with invented names and invented dates. At the top of the page another hand has written „Autographie v Hölderlin“ along with the correction „Tübingen d 12 Juli 1842.“
Online Since: 12/17/2015
This poem in two stanzas of four lines each and titled “Der Winter”, was written by Friedrich Hölderlin in his own hand; at the end it is signed “Mit Unterthänigkeit Scardanelli” and dated to April 24, 1849. Hölderlin, who from about 1802 on was mentally ill, often signed his works, sometimes with invented names, among them Scardanelli, and invented dates. Another hand has corrected the given date in pencil to November 7, 1842.
Online Since: 12/17/2015
This famous poem, probably written on 6 September 1835, is part of the composite manuscript Les chants du crépuscule that was published in the same year. Hugo movingly denounces the condition of prostitutes: he actually invites the reader to sympathize with rather than despise the “fallen women”. This symbolic vocabulary, usually denoting moral depravity, is used here not to convey a fault, but to express the courage of women who long struggled against the inevitability of the burden of misery before succumbing to it. Far from a moralizing Manicheism, Hugo assigns faults generally attributed to these women also to “à toi, riche ! à ton or”, pointing a finger at the injustice of a social system lacking any distribution of wealth as well as “à nous”, each citizen whose regard is not charitable enough. This manuscript presents a slight variation of the printed text since it reads: “s'y retenir longtemps de leurs mains épuisées” instead of “s'y cramponner longtemps”.
Online Since: 09/26/2017
This unsigned poem by Victor Hugo opens with the lines „Si j'étais femme (Hélas ! que je vous plains, ô mères ! …);“ it remained unpublished until 2009. Hugo himself crossed out the original title „Impératrice“ for being too obvious. The text is addressed to the wife of Napoleon III, Eugenia de Montijo, whom Hugo reproaches for her „bigoterie“ (3r) and her „signe de croix grotesque à l'espagnole“ (1r). Thus he extends to the spouse the criticism of Napoleon III that he had already presented in the Châtiments. The date of October 11, 1869, in Hugo's own handwriting, suggests that the text was created in Brussels, where Hugo lived in exile since the coup of December 2, 1851.
Online Since: 12/17/2015
The sixteen verses making up this passage are the sixth and last part of the poem "Dans l'église de ***”, included in the composite manuscript Les chants du crépuscule of 1835. Several themes are interwoven in this poem, which contrasts the probity of a woman praying in the middle of an abandoned church with the city's hedonists, nihilists hurling themselves "d'ivresses en ivresses”. Hugo surprises this pure soul in the midst of adversity, invoking the help of the Lord to save her from overwhelming sadness. In this last part (VI), the writer increases his Christian support (Votre âme qui bientôt fuira peut-être ailleurs / Vers les régions pures, / Et vous emportera plus loin que nos douleurs, Plus loin que nos murmures !) with an angelic and serene quatrain: Soyez comme l'oiseau, posé pour un instant / Sur des rameaux trop frêles, / Qui sent ployer la branche et qui chante pourtant, / Sachant qu'il a des ailes !
Online Since: 09/26/2017
Around the 1820s, Lamartine undertook an ambitious poetic work: Les Visions. Although several fragments thereof were used in Jocely (1836) or in La Chute d'un ange (1838), most of these verses remained unpublished for 30 years, with the poet tirelessly reworking, changing and correcting them until the final publication in 1851. This autograph of Song II contains a passage of ten verses that ultimately were not published (ellipsis marks the place in the original edition).
Online Since: 12/17/2015
In this letter to his young partner William H. Herndon (1818-1891), who had remained in Chicago as head of their joint law office, Lincoln, who is about to lose his seat in Congress as a Representative of the Whig Party, offers a lesson in political philosophy. Exhausted by months of political battles against the Mexican-American War and hurt by "exceedingly painful" statements by his friend (whom he describes as "a laborious, studious young man"), the future American President presents his "so Lincolnian" advice: "The way for a young man to rise is to improve himself every way he can, never suspecting that any body wishes to hinder him."
Online Since: 09/26/2017
While Cardinal Richelieu was besieging La Rochelle by land and by sea from September 1627 on, the poet François de Malherbe, who was very close to the government, reported on the royal council's decisions and orientation in order to appease the concerns of his Norman cousin. In Malherbe's opinion, there is no cause for concern: the King of England is no more than a second-rate monarch, militarily not on a par with France and not able to support the Huguenots of La Rochelle. As to the threat posed by the Reformed, Malherbe judges them to be near the end: "la Huguenoterie court fortune par toute l'Europe d'estre voisine de sa fin."
Online Since: 09/26/2017
With his six novels and his famous collections of over 300 short stories, Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893) has earned a place among the most important French writers of the end of the 19th century. He presented an often unvarnished picture of provincial as well as Parisian society of his time. This is the case in the present story, the only one to have had a separate original edition preceding its publication in the collection of the same name. This manuscript was used for the first printing of the text, which was originally published on June 15, 1887 in La Nouvelle Revue. It contains numerous corrections and deletions (which bear witness to the creation of the story), as well as slight variations in comparison with the version published in the volume of March 28, 1888.
Online Since: 12/17/2015
Michelangelo (1475-1564) addressed this sonnet and his dedication to one of his closest friends, the poet Vittoria Colonna (1492-1547), marchesa of Pescara. Although the painter often was very sparing in his use of paper, for these few lines he used a large and beautiful in-folio sheet, folded and glued together (to add more thickness). Writing in a humanist script close to calligraphy, he showed particular care for the layout, using line spacing and indentations to reinforce the customary architecture of the sonetto. His tone is very respectful: Michelangelo greets not only a friend, but also a lady who is part of high society and who has given him a valuable gift. This gift, which was to take its beneficiary "in paradiso”, must have been a manuscript of the Sonetti spirituali of the poet (who in general was very discreet and only rarely showed her verses).
Online Since: 12/17/2015
Following enlightenment philosophers, liberal thinkers - which include Mill - considered freedom of speech a fundamental human right. In this small autograph, with embossed monogram "JSM", consisting of three folios intended for dispatch, the philosopher copies a passage of his famous "On Liberty" from 1869, taken from chapter II: "Of the Liberty of Thought and Discussion." Mill emphasizes that humankind no more has the right to silence a single opinion than it has the right to silence all of humankind, if it had the power to do so. Before it became the property of Martin Bodmer, this letter had been purchased by the author Stefan Zweig in 1923.
Online Since: 06/22/2017
During his exile on St. Helena, Napoleon (1769-1821) availed himself of a library of 3,000 books — a poor remedy for boredom. Nevertheless, the deposed emperor found pleasure in reading and annotating ancient and modern classics. As a theater enthusiast, he read aloud Voltaire's La Mort de César to his entourage several times. He decided to write his own play on the same subject; this manuscript in Napoleon's own handwriting presents a quick sketch of the first two scenes. On page 3, tired of his subject, the emperor covers the page with strategic and military calculations, having frigates engage with regiments and artillery.
Online Since: 12/17/2015
This autograph by Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891) contains a fragment of a poem. Written on the recto side of a page are three sections numbered with Roman numerals from II to IV and, with the exception of the last one (IV), titled. Although the text is written in prose, the designation “sonnet” (II) could be due to the form of the excerpt in question, which is presented in 14 lines. The first section contains the sign +, which is difficult to interpret and which gives the impression that Rimbaud had planned to rework it. The numbering suggests that these three sections form a homogeneous whole together with the section Dimanche (I, BNF manuscript), thus constituting the poem Jeunesse. One can see inscriptions by other hands from after 1886: the annotation Illuminations in the upper left corner deliberately refers to the collection of poems with that same title, which was originally published in 1886. The poem Jeunesse, which consists of four stanzas, was first published by Vanier in 1895, after the Poésies complètes, as a complement to the Illuminations.
Online Since: 09/26/2017
The Lettres écrites de la montagne are the last work that was published during Rousseau's lifetime. For the first time, the philosopher becomes directly involved in the affairs of Geneva. Beyond fundamental proposals, the letters contain further developed thoughts on the spirit of the Reformation as well as a defense of the Contrat Social. Letter VII, where this page comes from, supports the right of representation when it comes to correcting abuses of the Small Council, and it recommends that citizens convened in the General Council reject all new elections of magistrates if these should insist upon overstepping the rights given them by the Constitution. The Lettres were censored in Geneva as well as in Paris. This document is from the collection of Ch. Vellay (purchased by Martin Bodmer in 1926) and contains a draft of two passages from the Lettres. The first of these was published in the original edition (Amsterdam, M. M. Rey, 1764), the second in the edition of the Œuvres complètes of the Bibliothèque de la Pléiade.
Online Since: 06/22/2017
The Mémoire présenté à M. de Mably sur l'éducation de M. son fils is Rousseau's first writing related to his experience as an educator. In 1740 he took up a difficult position as tutor in the family of the notable Jean Bonnot de Mably, provost general of police in the Lyon region. This position came to an end after only one year. Two young children with little inclination to study had been entrusted to his care: François-Paul-Marie Bonnot de Mably, called Monsieur de Sainte-Marie, five and a half years old, and Jean-Antoine Bonnot de Mably, called Monsieur de Condillac, four and a half years old. The long Mémoire, dedicated to the older boy, emphasizes the “educational mission” and experience with practical education: it is presented as a plan and a synthesis; its writing has been dated around December 1740. The young tutor addresses M. de Mably and makes known to him the plan and structure for the education of his son in order to shape “the heart, the judgment and the spirit.” This is not the natural education, which later on will be advocated in 'Émile. Did Rousseau really present this Mémoire to M. de Mably? Known is only that he gave this manuscript of the Mémoire to Mme Dupin, his employer in 1743, and that since then it has been kept with the “Papers of Mme Dupin.” It was published for the first time in Paris in 1884 by G. de Villeneuve-Guibert in Le portefeuille de Madame Dupin. The Fondation Bodmer's manuscript is the only one in existence. A Projet d'éducation, much shorter, more clearly structured and of unknown date, was found among Rousseau's papers at the time of his death (this manuscript, now lost, was first published in Geneva in 1782). It is very similar to the Mémoire and seems to have been written
Online Since: 06/23/2016
This "paperolle" from the famous "Code Gonzague" (held in the Biblioteca Ariostea of Ferrara) is a working copy for a passage that was added to Tasso's great work, completed the previous year. The poet had submitted his original work to various humanists and high-ranking scholars, and he took into consideration certain critiques and suggestions when editing his verses during the summer of 1576. Several stanzas were profoundly revised or even completely rewritten. Stanza 42 was one of the most reworked, to the point that Tasso had to paste this small strip of paper with the definitive version of the text into the manuscript. The text describes the attitude and thoughts of the Muslim princess Armide, who gets ready to harangue the caliph and his armies and incite them to fight to the death with the crusaders and thus to take revenge on the Christian hero Rinaldo, who had abandoned her.
Online Since: 06/22/2017
Felix Lope de Vega y Carpio (1562-1635), author of many comedias de santos, finished this Historia de Barlán y Josafat, comedia in three acts and in verse at home „En Madrid a primero de febrero de 1611.“ This complete manuscript contains numerous corrections and revisions by the author. This story of a conversion is more than an authentic Christian legend (then attributed to Saint John of Damascus) — it is above all a Christianized story. In the prince, who first gives up his palace in order to learn about the plagues of the world and then leaves his throne for the meditative life of an ascetic, one certainly recognizes Buddha. The edifying Christian story, set at the banks of the Ganges, is nothing other than an adaptation of Vie du Bodhisattva, a 2nd-4th century Sanskrit text, which over centuries was translated and adapted first by the Manichaeans, then by the Arabs, Georgians and Byzantines, until it finally reached the far distant people of the Western World: Lope de Vega's work thus (without the author's having been aware of this) is part of one of the most impressive chains of intellectual transmission in history.
Online Since: 12/17/2015
Manuscript of the first three books of the Confessions and part of the fourth. In comparison with the other two recorded copies, this one contains numerous corrections and variations. Parchment half-binding (spine and corners); the shelfmark 23 is handwritten on the cover, which has a permanent protective covering of acid-free paper. The introductory text was omitted from the published version.
Online Since: 12/17/2015
First complete handwritten edition, with a number of deletions and cross-references. Each booklet consists of 12 bifolia. The pages were numbered by Rousseau. The recto of the pages contain the text, the verso corrections and additions. In his Dictionnaire de musique, Rousseau takes up again the approximately four hundred articles he had written in 1749 for the Encyclopédie. Starting in 1753, in answer to attacks and criticism brought on by his articles, he begins to revise and rewrite them. Because he strives for lexicographic completeness in the field of music, the author composes more and more new entries, reaching close to nine hundred terms. In 1794 the manuscript is donated to the Neuchâtel Library by Pierre-Alexandre DuPeyrou (1729-1794) from Neuchâtel, Rousseau's friend and publisher.
Online Since: 04/09/2014
Carefully handwritten copy of the first seven Promenades (of the ten that make up the published text), with several crossed out and deleted passages. Each booklet consists of 12 bifolia. From page 1 to 83, the pages were numbered by Rousseau, from page 84 by Th. Dufour. In Les Rêveries, Rousseau performs one last introspection in the form of philosphical thoughts and reflections, which he himself characterizes as an appendix to his Confessions. In the fifth Promenade, he describes with nostalgia the moments of solitary happiness he experienced on St. Peter's Island in Lake Biel. The Rêveries are Rousseau's last text; after the philosopher's death, they were retained by his friend and publisher Pierre-Alexandre DuPeyrou (1729-1794) from Neuchâtel, who in his testament bequeathed the manuscript to the Neuchâtel Library.
Online Since: 04/09/2014
Small notebook with an 18th century cardboard binding that was covered in parchment. Double numbering by Théophile Dufour. Ink and pencil. The heavily corrected manuscript contains the draft of walks eight through ten of the Rêveries du Promeneur solitaire as well as parts of the Dialogues. It also contains references to botany.
Online Since: 12/17/2015
Pencilled note in the margin of a printed page, which was found in the binding of a draft of the Rêveries (Promenades 8 -10).
Online Since: 12/17/2015