F. Mendelssohn Bartholdy. Autograph history notebook, early 1820s

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy

Remarkable autograph history notebook, containing notes made by the young composer in his study of European history, INSCRIBED AND SIGNED ON THE TITLE ("Geschichte. Felix") 

comprising historical chronologies, in the form of lists of significant dates and events, of various European countries, beginning with entries on England ('1399 = 1413 Heinrich IV Lancaster, kann die durch Gewalt gewonnene Kron, nur behaupten durch Gewalt - durch Nachgiebichkeit gegen die Geistlichkeit...'; these covering the period from 1399-1509), and followed by entries on 'Germanische Volker im Norden Europas' (including Denmark, Norway and Sweden), 'Slavische Volker' (including Russia, Poland and Bohemia), and concluding with entries on Italy (covering the period from 476-945), some of the English history entries ornamented WITH FINELY-DRAWN ILLUSTRATIONS OF CROWNS AND BATTLE SYMBOLS etc., with some autograph deletions, all in the precocious hand of the young composer

30 pages, plus blanks, small 4to (c.21.2 x 17.2cm), later decorative paper wrappers, no place or date [probably Berlin, early 1820s], some staining, chiefly to lower right-hand corners, slight paper loss to lower right-hand corner of title

THIS REMARKABLE NOTEBOOK PROVIDES STRIKING TESTIMONY TO THE BREADTH OF THE YOUTHFUL MENDELSSOHN'S EDUCATION, ONE OF THE MOST COMPLETE ENJOYED BY ANY COMPOSER BEFORE THE 20TH CENTURY. 

Mendelssohn's earliest schooling was provided by his parents, his father teaching him French and arithmetic, his mother instructing him in German, literature and the fine arts; it was probably also from her that Mendelssohn received his first piano lessons. When the composer was ten, his education in general subjects was entrusted to C.W.L. Heyse, a philologist and father of the poet Paul Heyse, Carl Zelter instructing him in music theory and composition. But as the first page of the notebook demonstrates, with its finely-drawn illustrations, the young Mendelssohn was also gifted artistically, and to further his talent in this area he was given instruction by the landscape painter J.G.S. Rösel. Travel also played a part in the broadening of the young composer's horizons, 1821 witnessing a celebrated first meeting with Goethe. The breadth and depth of the young Mendelssohn's education is further testified to by a number of similar volumes containing notes on other subjects, including mathematics, French history and European geography, now at the Bodleian Library, Oxford. The present notebook is in fact a direct continuation of one of the Oxford volumes (MS. M.Deneke Mendelssohn d.67/12), headed "Geschichte England's" and which covers the period 1154-1399. Although the exact time of writing of the notebook being offered here is unknown (a later document together with notebook describes it as having belonged to the eleven-year-old Mendelssohn), it is unlikely to have been written after 1822, from which time on Mendelssohn regularly styled himself 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'.

PROVENANCE:

Dora and Albrecht Mendelssohn; Elizabeth Curtis, Oxford (1935); by family descent of Elizabeth Curtis