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Start Over Collection William A. Speck collection of Goetheana : manuscripts, 1542-1967, bulk 1770-1900

William A. Speck collection of Goetheana : manuscripts, 1542-1967, bulk 1770-1900 14.22 Linear Feet

Speck, William A. (William Alfred), 1864-1928
The collection, a part of the William A. Speck Collection of Goetheana, consists of correspondence, documents, playscripts, and other writings by or relating to Goethe and his work. The major strength of the manuscript collection is its documentation of Goethe's literary reception in England and America in the nineteenth century. There are 25 letters and manuscripts in Goethe's hand, and several Faust-related items. Authors represented prominently besides Goethe include Thomas Carlyle, Frank Claudy, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the Faust collector Georg Ehrhardt, Walther Wolfgang von Goethe, August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben, University of Illinois professor Julius Goebel, Anna Jameson, Johann Caspar Lavater, Friederich von Müller, Henry Crabb Robinson, Friedrich Schiller, Carl Frederick Schreiber, Horatio Robinson Storer, Bayard Taylor, Marie (Hansen) Taylor, Karl August Ludwig Philipp Varnhagen von Ense, and Albert Wünsch.
  1. Yale University -Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

Letter to the Councillors of Würzburg, 1542 Oct 3 Box 1, Folder 19

1 p., with address.
"The knight of the iron hand," the
German hero about whom Goethe
wrote his play, Götz von
Berlichingen.
Requesting to delay the matter of
certain fiefs which he and his
brothers were to receive.
Body of letter and signature in the
handwriting of a secretary.
Given in honor of Curt von Faber du
Faur by Herman W. Liebert, October
1958.

  1. Yale University -Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
  2. William A. Speck collection of Goetheana : manuscripts, 1542-1967, bulk 1770-1900
  3. Box and Folder List, 1542-1967
  4. BERLICHINGEN, GÖTZ VON, 1480-1562

Ode an Ihro Königliche Hoheit die Prinzessin Amalia bey unterthänigster Uberreichung der Passions-Cantate [Tod Jesu], die nach dero höchsteigenhändigen Angabe verfertiget worden, 1754 Box 14, Folder 552

AMs, 4 p. ; 18 x 21 cm.
Begins: "Vom gantzen Walde wählt mein
Lied."
The music to the cantata, which
according to Allgemeine deutsche
Biographie was never printed, was
composed by Johann Gottlieb Graun.
Princess Amalia was the sister of
Frederick the Great.
Published in Ramler's Lyrische
Gedichte, 1772.

  1. Yale University -Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
  2. William A. Speck collection of Goetheana : manuscripts, 1542-1967, bulk 1770-1900
  3. Box and Folder List, 1542-1967
  4. RAMLER, KARL WILHELM, 1725-1798

ALS, to Graf Hans Moritz von Brühl?, 1755 Apr 3 Box 5, Folder 200

4 p. ; 19 x 22 cm.
Enclosure: German copy and English
translation of this letter.
Chiefly Gellert's reaction to Samuel
Richardson's The History of Sir
Charles Grandison.

  1. Yale University -Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
  2. William A. Speck collection of Goetheana : manuscripts, 1542-1967, bulk 1770-1900
  3. Box and Folder List, 1542-1967
  4. GELLERT, CHRISTIAN FÜRCHTEGOTT, 1715-1769

Document, signed : Weimar, to Friedrich III, Duke of Saxe-Weimar- Altenburg, 1765 Mar 8 Box 16, Folder 673

1 p. ; 21 x 25 cm.
Seal cut out.
Formal request asking the duke to
stand godfather to his first-born
son, Gottlob Karl Wilhelm Friedrich.

  1. Yale University -Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
  2. William A. Speck collection of Goetheana : manuscripts, 1542-1967, bulk 1770-1900
  3. Box and Folder List, 1542-1967
  4. STEIN, GOTTLOB ERNST JOSIAS FRIEDRICH, FREIHERR VON

Document, signed : Weimar, to the Administration of Eisenach, 1771 Nov 29 Box 1, Folder 3

2 p. ; 22 x 23 cm.
Official impressed seal attached.
Concerning filling of a vacancy in
the "March-Commissarien Stelle."

  1. Yale University -Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
  2. William A. Speck collection of Goetheana : manuscripts, 1542-1967, bulk 1770-1900
  3. Box and Folder List, 1542-1967
  4. ANNA AMALIA, DUCH. OF SAXE-WEIMAR-EISENACH, 1739-1807

Autograph quotation in Greek, Giessen, 1772 Feb 1 Box 1, Folder 10

1 p. ; 10 x 16 cm.
The last part of the 11th verse of
Galatians III, "The just shall live
by faith."
Signed: D. Carolus Friedricus Bahrdt.
Apparently p. 7-8 of an autograph
album.

  1. Yale University -Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
  2. William A. Speck collection of Goetheana : manuscripts, 1542-1967, bulk 1770-1900
  3. Box and Folder List, 1542-1967
  4. BAHRDT, KARL FRIEDRICH, 1741-1792

Autograph note : Hamburg, to H. Cammersekretär Schmidt in Halberstadt, 1774 May 6 Box 12, Folder 442

1 p. ; 19 cm., mounted on inside of
folded double sheet opposite an
engraved portrait of Klopstock.
Only the last 5 lines are in
Klopstock's handwriting.
Announcing shipment of 20 copies of
"Gelehrten Republik" and giving
instructions to forward the
subscription payments to his sister.
A copperplate was enclosed as a memento.

  1. Yale University -Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
  2. William A. Speck collection of Goetheana : manuscripts, 1542-1967, bulk 1770-1900
  3. Box and Folder List, 1542-1967
  4. KLOPSTOCK, FRIEDRICH GOTTLIEB, 1724-1803