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Ludwig van Beethoven, Brief an Breitkopf & Härtel in Leipzig, Wien, 8. Juni 1808, Autograph

Beethoven-Haus Bonn, Sammlung H. C. Bodmer, HCB Br 69

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Summary
After two years Beethoven turns to his Leipzig publisher to once again offer him works (on the initiative of the publisher's representative in Vienna, Georg August Griesinger), although negotiations in the past had been broken off several times. The works are the Symphonies op. 67 and op. 68, the Mass op. 86 and the Cello Sonata op. 69. He asks for payment of 900 florins in total.
As far as the symphonies are concerned he stipulates the condition that they may not appear before December of that year. He stresses (at the same time offering a subtly veiled threat) that he might just as well offer the works to his publisher in Vienna (Industriekontor), who published seven of his larger works the year before. Yet he values Breitkopf & Härtel as a publisher and hopes that he will do business with them this time.
In a postscript Beethoven adds that his mass (op. 86) has been very well-received and emphasizes that "I do not like praising myself, but I do believe that I have treated the text in a manner in which it has seldom been treated".

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