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Paris Books & Co 1999 96 pages in-8. 1999. cartonné. 96 pages. In-8 étroit (286x107 mm) 96 pages. Cartonnage illustré. Illustrations en noir et en couleurs. Très bon état. Poids : 320 gr
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5 book(s) with the same title
Biblical Humanism in Bohemia and Moravia in the 16th Century
, Brepols, 2017 Hardback, 329 p., 156 x 234 mm, Illustrations:30 tables b/w., English, Czech, Latin. *NEW. ISBN 9782503551814.
Bohemia and Moravia are extraordinarily important in the history of biblical translation into the Slavic languages. In the mid-14th century the first complete translation of the Bible into a national Slavonic language, namely the Old Czech, appeared in Bohemia. Other works that exerted influence on translations of the Bible into Polish, Lusatian, or Ruthenian originated in the Bohemian Lands in the 14th to 16th centuries. The Old Czech biblical tradition found its successors in the 16th century producing a number of translations of the Bible or its parts into the Czech language. The present volume follows the transmission of the biblical text in the 16th century focusing on those translators who exploited incentives of the biblical humanism and, as a consequence, deviated to a various degree from the Latin Vulgate tradition. The pioneering work of the N m??? New Testament translation of 1533, closely linked to the first grammar of the Czech language issued in the same year, was followed shortly after by others and found its peak in the monumental Six-Volume Kralice Bible which originated between 1579 and 1594 and decisively influenced Modern Standard Czech. The present volume brings bio-bibliographical information about the authors of the translations, translatological analyses of the works examined, characterization of their Czech language and new findings about the sources for the translations. The breadth and depth of analysis are unprecedented in the scholarship dealing with 16th century Czech translations of the Bible. he book is divided into two parallel and mutually linked parts (I. Biographical sketches of translators and bibliography of prints, II. Linguistic analysis), each consisting of seven chapters (see below). The structure of the book, selection of prints examined and editorial note are described in an introductory part. Individual chapters describe biblical translations or their parts into Czech which were influenced by biblical humanism. The chapters are ordered chronologically according to the first edition of the translations described. The biographical information consists of information about the translation (period reports and reception, realization of the translation, copies preserved until today) and the translator (his studies, professional occupation, intellectual skills, confession and genres of his works important for the context of the work described and bibliography). The linguistic analysis aims at determining the sources of the translation, the translation strategy, the Czech of the translation and the impact of further tradition. The following works are analyzed: 1. New Testament (printed in N m??? 1533) by Bene? Opt t and Petr Gzel. The first Czech biblical translation to deviate intentionally from the Vulgate, translated from Erasmus? Latin New Testament version. The translators were non-conformist Utraquists residing in Moravia. The translation is unique as the translators created a lot of neologisms while trying to express the etymology of some religious terms. The translation was made use of in Jan Blahoslav?s works including his New Testament of 1564 and 1568. 2. The second Severin Bible of 1537 printed in Prague. It is a revised text of the first edition of 1529 and a very important text for further development of the Czech biblical translation. In both the Old and the New Testaments it deviates from the Vulgate to a certain even though limited degree. This Bible became the textual model for Melantrich?s editions of the Bible. 3. Paraphrase on the Gospel of St Matthew (Leitmeritz 1542) and translation of the Old Testament by Jan Vartovsk of Varta. The paraphrase is a translation of Erasmus? paraphrase of the Gospel according to Matthew. Vartovsk , a trilingual utraquist scholar and a Prague citizen, was also an author of an unpreserved translation of the Old Testament from original texts. 4. Netolick and Melantrich Bibles (1549?1577). The translation or modification of older versions was partially prepared by Sixt of Ottersdorf, a Reformation humanist and a well-known historian who prepared the translation of the Third Book of Maccabees (for the first time in a Czech version issued in the Netolick Bible of 1549) and also took part in modification of the New Testament. The Melantrich Bibles represent the official and most widespread Czech translation of the second half of the 16th century. 5. ?alt ? svat ho Davida, translated by Mat?j ?ervenka and released in 1562 possibly in Prost?jov. It is the first translation of the Unity of Brethren to include numerous non-Vulgate readings even though it was translated from a Latin version. The translation was fiercely criticized in Jan Blahoslav?s grammar but in some readings it did influence the translation of Psalms in the Kralice Bible. 6. Two New Testament translations (printed in Ivan?ice in 1564 and 1568, respectively) by Jan Blahoslav, a bishop of the Unity of the Brethren, strongly influenced by Melanchthonian Reformation humanism. The translation was based on Greek-Latin versions of the Bezan and Erasmian tradition and quoted also the Greek text. It is a direct predecessor to the Six-Volume Kralice Bible. It originated as a counterpart to the N m??? New Testament of 1533 and translations following the Vulgate. During the translation, Jan Blahoslav prepared a grammar of Czech intended also as a manual for future translation of the Old Testament. In the grammar various biblical sources and humanistic translations are mentioned which help us reconstruct the sources for the translation. 7. The Six-Volume Kralice Bible (1579?1594) and its reeditions before 1613. This Bible is the largest Czech humanistic translation and the first complete biblical translation into Czech to have been translated from the original languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek). It was prepared by a group of scholars and priests of the Unity of the Brethren. The first edition was printed in six volumes in which the biblical translation was supplemented by extensive philological and theological commentaries. These should compensate for exegetical works. The translation reflects influences of Reformation confessional culture and in the following centuries it decisively influenced the Standard Czech. The Kralice Bible and Blahoslav?s New Testament are therefore treated in the prepared publication most extensively. New findings enable to give a more accurate account of the whole process of translation and its cultural context.
Begrebet Angest. En simpel psychologisk=paapegende Overveielse i Retning af det dogmatiske Problem om Arvesynden. Af Vigilius Hafniensis. Andet Oplag. - [THE SCARCE AND IMPORTANT SECOND ISSUE]
Kjøbenhavn, Reitzel, 1855. 8vo. (8), 172 pp. Bound in a beautiful later brown half Morocco binding with double gilt lines and gilt Gothic lettering to spine. Single gilt lines to boards. Gilt super ex libris to inside of front board. Occasional pencil- and red crayon-underlinings. Otherwise internally very nice. A beautiful copy.
The surprisingly rare second issue, which although published in 500 copies as opposed to the mere 250 of the first issue, almost never appears on the market. It is this classic of Existentialism that introduced the notion of “Angst” (anxiety) in philosophy. If Kierkegaard had written nothing else, The Concept of Anxiety alone would have cemented him as one of the most important thinkers since antiquity. Nowhere else can one find an account of the concept of anxiety that comes close in importance to the one Kierkegaard gives in the present work. Using the Fall in the Garden of Eden as the foundation of the analysis, he succeeds in describing what no-one has been able to before or since. “Long before modern psychology had entered puberty, Kierkegaard unfurled advanced psychological concepts that in many senses were Freudian before Freud was around. In his primary psychological work, The Concept of Anxiety, he presents his detailed analyses of the relationship of anxiety to phenomena such as freedom, sexuality, original sin, and history.” (The Søren Kierkegaard Research Centre). Being one of his most important and influential philosophical works, The Concept of Anxiety is essential to all later existentialist writers. It was arguably this work that more than any other influenced Existentialism. The work bears a printed dedication to his beloved Poul Martin Møller, one of the most beautiful and moving dedications in a philosophical work. Poul Martin Møller was his philosophy professor, but more than that he was a moral mentor and one of a few people that Kierkegaard truly admired and cared for. Poul Martin Møller died in 1838, leaving almost no published works behind he is the only person outside of Kierkegaard’s immediate family (here including Regine), who had been honoured with a printed dedication in any of his books. Apart from the title Sixteen Upbuilding Discourses (the amputated Eighteen Upbuilding Discourses – without the two that were quickly sold out), The Concept of Anxiety is by far the scarcest of Kierkegaard’s works – “The Concept of Anxiety was only printed in 250 copies!” (Textspejle, p. 58, translated from Danish), which is ca half of most of the other works. It is, interestingly, the only one of the pseudonymous writings from the period that was reprinted, despite the poor sales numbers of the first issue. In the summer of 1847, when Reitzel buys the remainders of the first issue, a mere 165 copies of what is arguably now considered Kierkegaard’s most important work had been sold. At the beginning of the summer of 1855, the last 85 copies had finally been sold, and amid the tumultuous time of the “Church Fight”, Kierkegaard had agreed with Reitzel to a reprint of the work, now in an issue of 500 copies. The Concept of Anxiety is one of the only interesting reprints of a work by Kierkegaard, not least due to the timing of its appearance. The printers, Bianco Lunos, had finished the printing of the second issue on August 16, 1855, and the book appeared on August 20th, a mere two and a half months before Kierkegaard died. From the age of 37 till ca 41 (1850-54), Kierkegaard did not publish any substantial books. He seems to have focused on writing his journals and only published a few smaller pieces, mostly discourses. In other words, he is not very publicly visible during this period. That is, until he begins publishing his famously controversial periodical The Moment. Along with articles in the paper The Fatherland, this becomes the beginning of his fight against the established Church, the so-called “Church fight”. After Martensen in his eulogy over his predecessor Bishop Mynster had called Mynster a testament of truth for Christianity and a “martyr” (in Danish “Blodvidne”), Kierkegaard cannot hold his tongue and embarks on a fierce attack upon the Danish Church. With his newspaper-piece on December 1854, he declares war, and his merciless siege fire lasts for almost a year, right up until his death in November 1855. Beginning with a showdown with Bishop Martensen and that which Myster represented, Kierkegaard’s attack quickly transforms into a hateful war upon priesthood and the established Danish Church in general. A war from which the Danish Church would late recover. It is amid this very public fight that the second issue of The Concept of Anxiety appears, in twice as large a number as the famously scarce first issue. Himmelstrup 62.
Danske Romanzer, hundrede og fem. Samlede og Udgivne. [Danish Romances, One Hundred and Five. Collected and Issued]. - [A PRESENT FOR REGINE OLSEN AT THE TIME SHE WAS ENGAGED TO KIERKEGAARD]
Kjøbenhavn, H.C. Klein, 1839. 8vo. Bound in a magnificent, contemporary full mottled calf binding with exquisitely gilt spine, Gothic gilt lettering to spine (author in Latin lettering, title in Gothic lettering) and boards with a lovely, romantic border of gilt leaves. Lovely blue end-papers. Very light wear to spine and slight wear to corners. A small, almost unnoticeable restoration to lower front hinge. An absolutely exquisite copy in wonderful condition. Internally some brownspotting. (6), 386 pp.Jørgen Bertelsen’s book-plate to inside of front board.
First edition of Christian Winther’s lovely collection of Danish romantic poems, with the very neat and meticulously written ownership signature of the young Regine Olsen (""Regina Olsen"") - Søren Kierkegaard's fiance and lifelong muse - to front free end-paper. The name that has gone down in history as one of the most important muses in philosophy, Regine, is also frequently known – perhaps even more significantly so – in the variation Regina. From February 2nd, 1839, e.g., we have the now so famous Kierkegaardian praise of the woman: “You, my heart’s sovereign mistress stored in the deepest recesses of my heart, in my most brimmingly vital thoughts, there where it is equally far to heaven as to hell–unknown divinity! Oh, can I really believe what the poets say: that when a man sees the beloved object for the first time he believes he has seen her long before, that all love, as all knowledge, is recollection, that love in the single individual also has its prophecies, its types, its myths, its Old Testament? Everywhere, in every girl’s face, I see features of your beauty, yet I think I’d need all the girls in the world to extract, as it were, your beauty from theirs, that I’d have to criss-cross the whole world to find the continent I lack yet that which the deepest secret of my whole ‘I’ magnetically points to – and the next moment you are so near me, so present, so richly supplementing my spirit that I am transfigured and feel how good it is to be here…” (EE :7 1839, SKS 18, 8). Here, Kierkegaard plays with the name of his beloved, his “mistress”, whose name in Latin (with an “a”) means queen. The entry originally merely had “my heart’s sovereign mistress”, but afterwards, Kierkegaard inserted the name of her – the one –, Regina, the queen of his heart. This has been the source of much interpretation. Some see in this the onset of the transformation of the actual, physical girl into the poetically spiritual figure, who is doomed to never becoming anything but that of which immortal writing is made. (See e.g. Garff, Regines Gåde, p. 46). Kierkegaard also elsewhere alludes to Regina (see NB3 :43 1847, SKS 20, 268) and in a draft of a letter to Schlegel from 1849, where he wishes to rekindle contact with Regine, of course with the approval of her husband (who did not accept), he refers to her as “a girl, who poetically deserves to be called Regina”, ending the passus with telling Schlegel that he makes her happy in life, whereas Kierkegaard will secure her immortality. (SKS 28, 255). Regine herself, perhaps prompted by Søren’s use of it, would also later sign herself Regina (see letters to her sister Cornelia sent from the West Indies). It is evident from the ca. 30 letters we have from Kierkegaard to Regine, covering the engagement period (September 1840-October 1841), that during that period, Søren would occasionally send Regine presents along with his letters. These presents include flowers, perfume, a scarf, a copy of the New Testament, candle sticks, a music rest, and a “painting apparatus”. But we know little of what could have come before. Could there have been an actual engagement present? Kierkegaard does not mention it in his diaries nor in any letter still known or preserved. What would he have given her? It is pure speculation, but it does not seem unreasonable that he would have given her a book – a recently published one – that contains some of his favourite romantic poems from some of his favourite Danish poets, poets that he quoted in his love letters to Regine, a book compiled by the poet he treasured more than anyone else, Christian Winther, and which also contained poems by one of the people he treasured the most as a person, a near father figure for him and one of the finest poets (and philosophers) in Denmark, Poul Martin Møller … Had he given her one such book, it would have been beautifully, exquisitely, and possibly slightly romantically bound. And she would have written her name in it – with all probability, seeing that it came from him, the name that he gave her in 1839 – Regina Olsen. This lovely publication by Christian Winther of Danish romantic poems contains extracts of the loveliest of Danish golden age romantic poetry. Apart from Winther’s own six contributions, the collection contains romances by all the greatest Danish poets of the period, among them Hans Christian Andersen, Baggesen, Grundtvig, Hauch, Heiberg, Ingemann, Poul Martin Møller, Paludan Müller, Oehlenschläger, and others.In his love letters to Regine, Kierkegaard will occasionally quote Danish romantic poems. These are often by either Christian Winther or Poul Martin Møller, arguably the two poets he treasured the most, but he will also quote Baggesen and Grundtvig. During the year of the engagement – from 1840 to 1841 –, in the letters to Regine that are preserved (as noted above), Kierkegaard quotes the following Danish poems:Brev 130: Poul Martin Møller, Den Gamle Elsker (SKS 28, 217,6)Brev 131: Winther, Violinspilleren ved Kilden (SKS 28, 217,22)Brev 131: Poul Martin Møller, Den gamle Elsker (SKS 28, 218,30)Brev 138: Baggesen, Agnete fra Holmegaard (SKS 28, 224,24)Brev 139: Poul Martin Møller, Den gamle Elsker (SKS 28, 225,24)Brev 145: Winther, Henrik og Else (SKS 28, 232,12)Brev 150: Grundtvig, Vilhelm Bisp og Kong Svend (SKS 28, 239,21) In the present work of Danish romantic poems gathered by Winther we find all but 2), which was only published the year after, in 1840. Added to that is another lovely detail, namely that Regine at the end of letter 139 to her from Kierkegaard has written a little quotation herself, namely part of a poem from Johannes Ewald’s Fiskerne (see SKS 28, 226,27). That exact part of the larger work Fiskerne, entitled Liden Gunver, from which Regine here quotes, is also to be found in the present work of Danish romances.This all might be pure coincidence. But we find it speaks to more than that. Even though nothing can be concluded as to exactly who gave Regine the present book, there is no doubt that she treasured this beautifully, romantically bound volume with some of the loveliest Danish poems, in which she wrote her name so beautifully in her youth, presumably right around her first engagement. As is evident from the auction record, Kierkegaard too owned a copy of the present book, albeit not in a dainty binding.Provenance: From the Thielst-family. REGINE OLSEN It is safe to say that Regine Olsen occupies a place like none other in Kierkegaard’s life. Their love story is one of the most intriguing in the history of intellectual thought and has always been an inevitable source of fascination for anyone interested in understanding Kierkegaard. It is not so much the love story itself, the engagement, and the rupture of the engagement that is responsible for the lasting importance that Regine has come to have upon Kierkegaard-reception and -scholarship, as it is Kierkegaard’s own, endless reflections upon it and his constant insistence that she – the one – is the reason he became the writer that he did. Regine is inextricably linked to Kierkegaard’s authorship, and in his own eyes, she became the outer, historical cause of it. It is not only in his journals and in letters to his confidantes that Kierkegaard keeps returning to Regine, their story, and the ongoing importance she holds for him, her unique position in his authorship is evident both directly (as in the preface to his Two Upbuilding Discourses from 1843, where he imagines how the book reaches the one) and more indirectly, albeit still clearly alluding to her in e.g. Repetition, Either-Or, Fear and Trembling, Philosophical Fragments, etc. “Even though Regine is not mentioned by her legal name one single time in the authorship, she twines through it as an erotic arabesque. In poetical form she appears before the reader in works such as Repetition, Fear and Trembling and Guilty? – Not Guilty [i.e. in Stages on Life’s Way], which in each their way thematizes different love conflicts, but she can also show herself quite unexpectedly, e.g. deep inside philosophical Fragments, where it is said about the relationship between god and man that “The unhappy lies not in the fact that the lovers could not have each other, but in the fact that they could not understand each other.” (Gert Posselt, in Lex, translated from Danish). One of the most striking passages is from Repetition, where Constantin Constantius explains the paradox of loving the only one, but still having to end the relationship and how the loved one became the cause of his writing career: “The young girl whom he adored had become almost a burden to him" and yet she was his darling, the only woman he had ever loved, the only one he would ever love. On the other hand, nevertheless, he did not love her, he merely longed for her. For all this, a striking change was wrought in him. There was awakened in him a poetical productivity upon a scale which I had never thought possible. Then I easily comprehended the situation. The young girl was not his love, she was the occasion of awakening the primitive poetic talent within him and making him a poet. Therefore he could love only her, could never forget her, never wish to love anyone else and yet he was forever only longing for her. She was drawn into his very nature as a part of it, the remembrance of her was ever fresh. (Lowrie, 1946, p. 140). It is no wonder that anyone interested in understanding Kierkegaard is also interested in understanding the relationship with Regine. According to Kierkegaard himself, there would not be the Kierkegaardian opus we have today, were it not for Regine Olsen – “the importance of my entire authorial existence shall fully and absolutely fall upon her” (draft of a letter, see: Mit Forhold til Hende, p. 116). Due to numerous letters and a wealth of journal entries, we have a very vivid picture of how Kierkegaard got engaged and what happened afterwards. Kierkegaard wanted us to know. He wanted posterity to know the significance that Regine and the relationship with her had upon his life and work. A few of Kierkegard’s journal entries about Regine are redacted – some things have perhaps become too personal for prosperity to read, or Kierkegaard had later wished to put the story in a slightly different light –, but the rest gives a very clear picture of both the engagement and Kierkegaard’s afterthoughts. And about the continuous role of both her and the rupture of the engagement in his authorship and personal life. Added to that, we also have many of the letters that Kierkegaard sent to Regine during their engagement period. A few years after the engagement ended, Regine got engaged to and later married the Government officer Fritz Schlegel, who got stationed in the Danish West Indies, where they lived from 1855 to 1860. Kierkegaard died the very same year that Regine left Denmark, and after his death, Regine received in the post the bundle of letters that Kierkegaard had written to her, along with the letters he wrote to his friend Emil Boesen concerning Regine as well as Kierkegaard’s Notebook 15, entitled My Relationship with “her”. When Søren and Regine’s engagement ended, it seems that they each gave back to the other the letters that they had written. Regine says that she burnt hers (see Raphael Meyer) – some speculate, however, that maybe she did not after all and that they might be out there in the world somewhere, but none of them have ever surfaced –, and Kierkegaard kept his, for Regine later to do with as she wanted. Regine kept the letters and the Notebook 15 and for years did nothing with them. But she did not destroy them. As she got older, she decided to pass them on to someone she trusted, and in 1893, she visited Henriette Lund (Kierkegaard’s favourite niece) and told her that she wished for her to be entrusted with the notebook and the letters. According to Henriette Lund, by the following year, Regine had given the matter some more thought and had decided that Henritte Lund should publish the letters, also parts of those to Boesen and parts of Notebook 15. The publication was to also include conversations she had with Regine about the engagement. The fruit of this is the book entitled Mit Forhold til Hende (My Relationship with Her) by Henriette Lund, which was finished in 1896 and published after Regine’s death, as agreed, in 1904. We do not know exactly what happened, but it seems that Regine was not completely satisfied with the collaboration, and in 1896 she turned to Raphael Meyer and asked him to “listen to what “an old lady” could have to tell”, write down everything about the engagement period, along with the publication of the letters, the letters to Boesen, and the contents of Notebook 15. This work too appeared in 1904, after Regine’s death, and is more complete than Henriette Lund’s publication. Thus, although this enormously important relationship seems to be somehow still shrouded in mystery and Kierkegaard followers still hunt for Regine’s diary from the period and the allegedly burnt letters that may contain groundbreaking new information that will let us understand the great existentialist philosopher and somehow solve the “mystery”, the Søren-Regine relationship is very well documented, from both sides. This does not make it any less interesting. There is a reason why it occupies Kierkegaard so deeply throughout his life. And why it continues to occupy the rest of us. It all begins in 1837, when Kierkegaard meets the lovely young girl Regine Olsen when paying a call to the widowed Cathrine Rørdam. Three years later, in September 1840, after having corresponded frequently with her and visited her on numerous occasions, Kierkegaard decides to ask for her hand in marriage. She and her family accept, but already the following day, Kierkegaard regrets his decision and agonizes endlessly over it, until finally, in October 1841, he breaks off the engagement. Or at least intentionally behaved in such a manner that Regine had no other choice but to break it off. Disregarding the scandal, the heartbreak (his own included), and the numerous pleas from family members and friends alike, Kierkegaard’s tortured soul, still searching for God and for the meaning of faith, cannot continue living with the promise of marriage. Once again, he says in his journals from 1848, looking back, he had been flung back to the abyss of his melancholy, because he did not dare believe that God would take away the underlying misery of his personality and rid him of his almost maddening melancholy, which is what he wished for with the entire passion of his soul, both for Regine’s and thus also for his own sake. (See Pap. 1848, p. 61). Later the same month, he flees Copenhagen and the scandal surrounding the broken engagement. He leaves for Berlin, the first of his four stays there, clearly tortured by his decision, but also intent on not being able to go through with the engagement. As is evident from his posthumously published Papers, Kierkegaard’s only way out of the relationship was to play a charming, but cold, villain, a charlatan, not betraying his inner thoughts and feelings – the relationship had to be broken and Kierkegaard had to be gruesome to help her – “see that is “Fear and Trembling” “ (Not 15:15 1849, SKS 19, 444). Despite the brevity of the engagement, it has gone down in history as one of the most significant in the entire history of modern thought. It is a real-life Werther-story with the father of Existentialism as the main character, thus with the dumbfounding existentialist outcome that no-one could have foreseen. This exceedingly famous and difficult engagement became the introduction to one of the most influential authorships in the last two centuries. It is during his stay in Berlin, right after the rupture of the engagement, that he begins writing Either Or, parts of which, like Repetition, as we have noted above, can be read as an almost autobiographical rendering of his failed engagement. Several of Kierkegaard’s most significant works are born out of the relationship with Regine – and its ending. And she is constantly at the back of his head, the backdrop to all of his writings. She was the reason for my authorship”, Kierkegaard writes, “Her name shall belong to my writing, remembered for as long as I am remembered”, “Her life had enormous importance”, “Neither history nor I shall forget you”, “In history she will walk by my side”, “She shall belong to history”, and so we could go on establishing the enormous importance of Regine through quotes from Kierkegaard’s diaries and letters. “– she has and must have first and only priority in my life – but God has first priority. My engagement to her and the break is in fact my relationship to God, is, if I dare say so, divinely my engagement to God.” (NB27 :21, SKS 25, 139). With good reason, many view Regine as the key to Kierkegaard’s authorship. Without Regine, not only none of Kierkegaard’s writings, but also no absolute relationship to God.
Fire opbyggelige Taler af S. Kierkegaard. - [ONE OF TWO KNOWN PRESENTATION-COPIES - THE ONE FOR HEIBERG]
Kjøbenhavn, Philipsen, 1843. 8vo. 84 pp. Original gift-binding of the black glitted paper with single gilt lines to spine and all edges gilt. A bit of wear to corners and edges front hinge a bit weak and paper cracked. Spine neatly restored, preserving almost all of the original spine. Tiny loss of paper at back hinge. Very light occasional brownspotting. With the book-plate of Karl Madsen to inside of front board.
One of two known presentation-copies, this being inscribed by Kierkegaard to Heiberg, of the important Four Upbuilding Discourses, the religious companion to Repetiton from the same year, inscribed by Kierkegaard to Heiberg on front free end-paper: “Til / Hr. Professor J.L. Heiberg / R af D. / ærbødigst / fra / Forfatteren. (i.e. For / Mr. Professor / J. L. Heiberg / R af D (i.e. Ridder (Knight) of Dannebrog) / most respectfully / from the Author). Kierkegaard's Upbuilding (or Edifying) Discourses were published over the course of two years, in 1843 and 1844. In all, 18 Upbuilding Discourses were published, divided over six publications, namely: Two Upbuilding Discourses from 1843, Three Upbuilding Discourses from 1843, Four Upbuilding Discourses from 1843, Two Upbuilding Discourses from 1844, Three Upbuilding Discourses from 1844, Four Upbuilding Discourses from 1844. Each of these publications accompanied one of the main pseudonymous works, beginning with Either-Or in 1843. As opposed to his major philosophical works, the religious upbuilding discourses actually bear the name of the author on the title-page. Of course, this was by no means incidental. While the pseudonymous works could raise the question of the religiousness of the author, the parallelly written religious discourses stress the fact that we are dealing with an author, who was religious from the very beginning – an essential fact that Kierkegaard wished to stress for those interested in his authorship. In his journals, Kierkegaard clearly states that the religious discourses are as significant in his oeuvre as a whole as are the larger pseudonymous works, “I began with “Either-Or” and two upbuilding discourses...” he says, and explains that he intended the upbuilding, the religious, to advance, and that he wanted to show “that the writer was not an aesthetic author who in the course of time grew older and for that reason became religious”. (Journals, IX A 227). He was religious all along, also during all of the major philosophical publications that were not written in his name. The fact that every major pseudonymous work – up until Concluding Unscientific Postscript appeared and revealed the identity of the real author – was accompanied by one of these small Upbuilding Discourses, bears testament to the pivotal role they play in Kierkegaard’s philosophical development. Furthermore, while Kierkegaard could not present anyone with copies of his pseudonymous works (as his name did not appear as the author on the title-page), he could indeed give away presentation-copies of his accompanying Upbuilding Discourses, which he then did. Most of these presentation-copies are in the typical black glitted paper bindings with single gilt lines to spines. Some, however, are in the original printed boards. The trade copies appeared in original wrappers, some of them blank, some of them printed, repeating the printing from the title-page within a printed frame. In May 1845, the publisher Philipsen buys the remainder issues of all six Discourse-publications, has a joint title-page printed along with a contents-leaf and now issues all six Discourse-publications together under the title Eighteen Upbuilding Discourses. The idea of the Eighteen Upbuilding Discourses was not Kierkegaard's. He had agreed to it, but it was not his intended project with the Upbuilding Discourses. Therefore, he wished for the book not to be reviewed, and he naturally did not give away any copies of the Eighteen Upbuilding Discourses, only the individual publications. In all, seven presentation-copies of the different Upbuilding Discourses are registered, all being for either Heiberg or Nielsen. Johan Ludvig Heiberg (1791-1860) was a Danish poet, playwright, literary critic, literary historian, philosopher, and quite simply the main cultural figure of 19th century Denmark. Heiberg profoundly influenced all of Danish culture within this period and must be considered the patron of Copenhagen's literati. He was very influential as a thinker in general, and he changed Danish philosophy seminally by introducing Hegel to the Northern countries. Needless to say, Heiberg also played a significant role in relation to Kierkegaard, who will comment on and refer to him continually throughout his career. As the unofficial arbiter of taste for the Danish intellectuals, Heiberg was also an inevitable recipient of Kierkegaard’s works as they were published. “There can be no doubt that Johan Ludvig Heiberg was a very important figure for the development of Kierkegaard’s thought. Heiberg’s criticism dominated an entire generation of literary scholarship and was profoundly influential on the young Kierkegaard. His dramatic works and translations are also frequently referred to and quoted by Kierkegaard and his pseudonyms… However, Heiberg was also a philosopher… His philosophical profile is clearly that of a Hegelian, and, not least of all due to Kierkegaard’s influence, this has led him to being unfairly dismissed…” (Jon Stewart in: Kierkegaard and his Danish Contemporaries I: p. (35)). Heiberg was there from the very beginning of Kierkegaard’s authorship, and although the two had both diverging personalities, diverging opinions, and diverging philosophies, Kierkegaard will have had respect for his place in society. Kierkegaard viewed himself as somewhat of an outsider, and it was of great importance to him to try and enter the famous literary and cultural circle of Heiberg. Heiberg is known for founding his own school of criticism and for his brilliant polemics against literary giants of the period. He was without comparison the most dominant literary critic of the period, and he reformed Danish theatre, introducing eg. French vaudeville to the Danish stage. Although through foreign influence, he ended up creating for the first time an actual national theatre in Denmark. “Heiberg’s success in so many different fields during such a rich period is truly remarkable.” (Jon Stewart). Furthermore, he profoundly influenced Danish philosophy and was pioneering in introducing Hegelian philosophy to the country. Himmelstrup: 58.
To opbyggelige Taler af S. Kierkegaard + Tre opbyggelige Taler af S. Kierkegaard + Fire opbyggelige Taler af S. Kierkegaard. - [KIERKEGAARD'S OWN COPY OF THE FIRST THREE COLLECTIONS OF UPBUILDING DISCOURSES]
Kjøbenhavn, Trykt i Bianco Lunos Bogtrykkeri, 1843 + Kjøbenhavn, Philipsen, 1843. 8vo. 52 pp. + 62 pp. + 84 pp. All three publications bound together in an absolutely magnificent full black fine morocco binding with richly gilt ornamental spine with gilt Gothic lettering: Opbyggelige Taler. No. 1-9. White moiré-endpapers. Boards with a single gilt line-frame inside which another gilt frame with ornamental corners. Edges of boards and inner dentelles with gilt single line-ornamentation. All edges gilt. A truly magnificent binding with just minimal wear and no restorations of any kind. Printed on varying paper, one quire being thinner than the rest. Some browning and light brownspotting. Old owner’s names to front fly-leaf and previous owner’s neat pencil annotations to front and back free end-papers, explaining that this is Kierkegaard’s own, personal copy, and the further provenance of it. “MDCCCXLIII” contemporarily handwritten in brown ink to the title-page of Two upbuilding Discourses, in exactly the manner in which the year was written in the Upbuilding-publications from the following year, 1844. Some pencil-annotations and -underlinings have been erased (Two upb.: pp. 25, 47, 48, 50" Three upb.: pp. 10 & 33, Four upb.: pp. 27 (here, red crayon removed), 31, 35, 37, 38, 39, 63). Three lines underlined in ink (same as that on the title-page) on p. 52 of Two upb.
This is with great certainty Kierkegaard’s own copy, lavishly bound for himself, of his first three publications of Upbuilding Discourses, the copy listed in the auction catalogue as no. 2121, which is described as exactly what this copy is called in gold on the spine, namely “Opbyggelige Taler, 1-9.” This privately made copy is bound in exactly the same style as the most lavish of Kierkegaard’s gift bindings and some of the few other books that have been identified as being Kierkegaard’s copies (of e.g. the Bible). It is impossible to say whether the erased underlinings could have been Kierkegaard’s own. But it seems very likely that the roman numeral of the printing year on the title-page could be in his hand. See Tekstspejle p. 207, where the present copy is depicted and described. Kierkegaard's Upbuilding (or Edifying) Discourses were published over the course of two years, in 1843 and 1844. In all, 18 Upbuilding Discourses were published, divided over six publications, namely: Two Upbuilding Discourses from 1843, Three Upbuilding Discourses from 1843, Four Upbuilding Discourses from 1843, Two Upbuilding Discourses from 1844, Three Upbuilding Discourses from 1844, Four Upbuilding Discourses from 1844. Each of these publications accompanied one of the main pseudonymous works, beginning with Either-Or in 1843. As opposed to his major philosophical works, the religious upbuilding discourses actually bear the name of the author on the title-page. Of course, this was by no means incidental. While the pseudonymous works could raise the question of the religiousness of the author, the parallelly written religious discourses stress the fact that we are dealing with an author, who was religious from the very beginning – an essential fact that Kierkegaard wished to stress for those interested in his authorship. In his journals, Kierkegaard clearly states that the religious discourses are as significant in his oeuvre as a whole as are the larger pseudonymous works, “I began with “Either-Or” and two upbuilding discourses...” he says, and explains that he intended the upbuilding, the religious, to advance, and that he wanted to show “that the writer was not an aesthetic author who in the course of time grew older and for that reason became religious”. (Journals, IX A 227). He was religious all along, also during all of the major philosophical publications that were not written in his name. The fact that every major pseudonymous work – up until Concluding Unscientific Postscript appeared and revealed the identity of the real author – was accompanied by one of these small Upbuilding Discourses, bears testament to the pivotal role they play in Kierkegaard’s philosophical development. Furthermore, while Kierkegaard could not present anyone with copies of his pseudonymous works (as his name did not appear as the author on the title-page), he could indeed give away presentation-copies of his accompanying Upbuilding Discourses, which he then did. Most of these presentation-copies are in the typical black glitted paper bindings with single gilt lines to spines. Some, however, are in the original printed boards. The trade copies appeared in original wrappers, some of them blank, some of them printed, repeating the printing from the title-page within a printed frame. In May 1845, the publisher Philipsen buys the remainder issues of all six Discourse-publications, has a joint title-page printed along with a contents-leaf and now issues all six Discourse-publications together under the title Eighteen Upbuilding Discourses. The idea of the Eighteen Upbuilding Discourses was not Kierkegaard's. He had agreed to it, but it was not his intended project with the Upbuilding Discourses. Therefore, he wished for the book not to be reviewed, and he naturally did not give away any copies of the Eighteen Upbuilding Discourses, only the individual publications. In all, seven presentation-copies of the different Upbuilding Discourses are registered, all being for either Heiberg or Nielsen. Only a few months after Kierkegaard died (11th of November 1855), at the beginning of April 1856, his books were put up for sale. The sale was an event which created stir among scholars all over Denmark, and the event drew large crowds. Everyone wanted a piece of the recently deceased legend, and bidding was lively. The average price for the single items was nearly a rix-dollar a very high price for that time. As the old Herman Lynge wrote in a letter on the 22nd of May (The Royal Library, Recent Letters, D.), to the famous collector F.S. Bang, “At the sale of Dr. Søren Kierkegaard’s books everything went at very high prices, especially his own works, which brought 2 or 3 times the published prices”.” (Rohde Auction Catalogue, p. LVIJ). Many authors, philosophers, and scholars were present in the auction room, which was completely full, as was the Royal Library, who bought ca 80 lots. “Many of the books, not only his own, were paid for with much higher prices than in the book shops” (In Morgenposten no. 99, 30. April 1856, written by “P.”, translated from Danish). ""Some books were bought by libraries where they still are today, others were bought by private people, who sometimes wrote their names in the front of the books and thus, indirectly, stated that they came from Kierkegaard’s book collection… The edition (of the auction catalogue, 1967) registers all books from Kierkegaard’s book collection that it has hitherto been possible to identify – either in public or in private ownership… All in all, nearly a couple of hundred volumes – i.e. ca. 10 % – of the Kierkegaardian book collection is said to be rediscovered…"" (Rohde). Thus, today, books from Kierkegaard’s library are of the utmost scarcity. Only very few are still possible to acquire, and they hardly ever appear on the market. Himmelstrup 45, 57, 58" No. 2121 of the auction catalogue.
