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Ludwig van Beethoven, Skizzenbuch "Wittgenstein", Autograph

Beethoven-Haus Bonn, Sammlung H. C. Bodmer, HCB BSk 1/49

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Things worth knowing
A sketchbook that passed through famous hands

The history of this sketchbook - the so-called Wittgenstein Sketchbook - with drafts for the Diabelli Variations and the Missa solemnis can be followed back to the auction of Beethoven's estate on 5 November 1827. The publisher C. A. Spina acquired it then as No. 63 "Mass sketches" and sold it just a month later to Aloys Fuchs, who collected autograph scores. Other owners included well-known personalities such as Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and Ignaz Moscheles, who were not only both celebrated virtuosos and composers of their time, but also passionate collectors of autograph scores. Mendelssohn especially owned many autograph scores of Beethoven's works and often acquired manuscripts from Aloys Fuchs in Vienna. The sketchbook received the name by which it is known today from the Wittgenstein family in Vienna, who owned it at the beginning of the twentieth century. Names like this were often not bestowed according to logic - why the name Wittgenstein of all names is associated with the book remains a mystery. (J.R.)

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