John Ruskin | Autograph manuscript notes on Frederick the Great, c.1866

John Ruskin

Autograph manuscript notes on Carlyle's Frederick the Great

14 pages (numbered 5-18), c.3700 words, folio, text on rectos only, each leaf window mounted, bound in brown morocco gilt by Riviere, gilt lettered on upper cover, in a blue folding box, first preliminary leaf partially detached, binding worn at corners and joints with some loss 

"...For my own part, I don't trouble myself much about these 'rights', never being able to make out any single one to begin with, except the right to keep everything and every place about you in as good order as you can - Prussia, Poland - & what else..."

DETAILED READING NOTES REVEALING RUSKIN'S RESPONSE THE CLASSIC HISTORY OF FREDERICK THE GREAT by Carlyle, who is here described as the "greatest of historians since Tacitus". Carlyle and Ruskin had a long friendship and Carlyle's work influenced Ruskin's ideas of the Gothic. These notes cover Books II and III of Carlyle's history so do not, in fact, touch on Frederick himself. They treat of the history of Brandenburg under the Hohenzollerns through the Middle Ages and into the early Modern period. These notes are believed to have formed part of Ruskin's research for his article, 'Notes on the Political Economy of Prussia', which was published as an appendix to 'The Future of England', a lecture that appeared in editions of The Crown of Wild Olive from 1873 onwards.

PROVENANCE:

Bloomsbury Auctions, 18 October 2012, lot 109