Dietrich / ABriefGuideToJeanPaulRichterSTheLiteraryWorksOfLeonardoDaVinci

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A Brief Guide to Jean Paul Richter’s
The Literary Works of Leonardo da Vinci

One) »HER MOST GRACIOUS MAJESTY THE QUEEN«

She was asked and she did accept – to be the dedicatee of the monumental work, that still can be seen as one of the pioneering works of Leonardo da Vinci scholarship, and Leonardo da Vinci philology very in particular, and originally was published in 1883 in two volumes, »compiled and edited from the Original Manuscripts«. Because there is not a little confusion in the public – and on popular request – we assemble here a few concise informations as to the various editions of that Opus magnum and also of satellite works associated with it. And only the first edition, published by Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington (188, Fleet Street, London) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sampson_Low), was dedicated to Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen, i.e. to Queen Victoria (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Victoria).

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Two) His Most Ardent Adversary

The painter and art critic Heinrich Ludwig (1829-1897), who, in 1882, had provided a three volume edition of Leonardo’s Trattato della Pittura (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex_Urbinas). For Ludwig see: http://www.amazon.de/Heinrich-Ludwig-die-»ästhetischen-Ketzer«/dp/3412210463; and for his edition of 1882 (another volume with especially ardent attacks on Richter was following in 1885): https://archive.org.
It had been Richter’s original aim to track down an original manuscript of the Trattato, written by Leonardo himself (because the Codex Urbinas, as the main source for any edition of the Trattato is not written by Leonardo’s own hand). Yet there was no such book manuscript to be found (only manuscript material that obviously had been used by the compiler of the Codex Urbinas). And so Richter went on to transcribe and to assemble all the handwritten manuscript notes, written by Leonardo’s own hand, that he could get his hand on: in England, France, Germany and Italy. And from this work, from the reading and transcribing Leonardo’s famous left-handed mirror writing (see: http://www.leonardodigitale.com), the Literary Works, in fact an anthology with Italian and English parallel texts and with materials assembled by their subject, did result. The title of that anthology has from the beginning caused some confusion, since »literary» has to be understood here in a very wide sense. Yet some notes by Leonardo, fables, tales and other stories of various kinds, can also be regarded as »literary« in a narrow sense. In their way to organise the manuscript and also the visual materials (because drawings and text, in Leonardo, can hardly be separated), in Richter’s ability also to cross reference and to comment the notes, the Literary Works of Leonardo da Vinci can still be regarded as a pioneering, path breaking and epoch making work of Leonardo da Vinci philology (as can, not to forget, Ludwig’s work and also other’s works, as well).

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Three) The Secret Godfather

Of course Jean Paul Richter’s mentor, connoisseur of art Giovanni Morelli (http://www.seybold.ch/Dietrich/ForthcomingGiovanniMorelliAPortrait), who had not only his relations play as to pave Richter a way to the source manuscripts in England and in Italy, but did help in revising the Italian transcriptions, and in many other respects (for example in giving his opinions as to the authenticity of Leonardo drawings that were to be reproduced in great number, and many also for the very first time). But not to forget: also Morelli’s opponent Wilhelm Bode (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_von_Bode) did help – in providing for subscribers for the costly volumes in Germany. And although no one did ever take notice – here the two opponents, yet without their actual planning, did actually work together. Morelli, Senator of the Kingdom of Italy, did also provide for subscribers, for example among his fellow senators. Many other people were of help as well in various respects (see the preface to the Literary Works).

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Four) The Costs

According to Jean Paul Richter’s diaries the total costs amounted to 1514 pounds. This refers probably to the mere production costs, while Richter could only bring this self-imposed task to an end, because King Ludwig II of Bavaria had generously and unexpectedly paid a high bonus for Richter providing him with a catalogue of the Wallace Collection (another task that rather put the getting done of the Leonardo project at risk at first). The costs in time and energy finally amounted to a multiple of what Richter had expected.

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Five) The Career

Literally days after the Literary Works were published in 1883 Jean Paul Richter did embark on the new adventure of his life: he did, also thanks to the reputation he earned with the Literary Works, establish himself as a connoisseur of art, and only at the very end of his life he was actually to come back to Leonardo da Vinci philology, when he, in collaboration with his eldest daughter Irma and at Lugano, did revise once again his Opus magnum.
It was the German-born industrialist Ludwig Mond (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Mond), a chemist and entrepreneur, who did seek Richter’s services as a connoisseur in the main place, and also his organisational skills, when putting together what is known today as the Mond collection (partly in the National Gallery of London) and also of the collection of Henriette Hertz (who lived with the Monds). In the end of 1884 Richter went to live in Italy with his family, where he did further develop as a scholarly connoisseur, guided by Morelli, but where he also was able to make his actual fortune, in the early 1890ies, and with some rather savy and questionable dealings. But he did manage to be welcomed in the circles of Roman high society and in 1892 he was even being granted an audience by the Queen of Italy, who did ask him, in German, about his Leonardo edition and about his further plans (for a detailed account of his whole biography see my Das Schlaraffenleben der Kunst and also the section dedicated to the life and times of Jean Paul Richter on this website).

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Six) The Second and Posthumous Edition of 1939

Fifty years of Leonardo da Vinci scholarship had brought much progress, a better knowledge of Leonardo’s sources, and also various facsimile editions of various manuscripts. The Literary Works had to be updated, not in its organisational principles, but in taking into account the general growth of knowledge. Jean Paul Richter, who had lived most parts of his life on applied connoisseurship, dedicated the very last years of his life to this task, in collaboration with his daughter Irma. Yet he died in 1937 at Lugano, where he had, after living in Germany, England and Italy had found his last home, and it was his daughter Irma A. Richter who brought the revision of the Opus magnum to an end. At a particular unfavorable moment, in 1939 and with the beginning of the Second World War.

1939: posthumous Second Edition of the Literary Works, provided by Jean Paul Richter and his eldest daughter Irma A. Richter for the Oxford University Press (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_University_Press); enlarged and revised, the two leather bound volumes are dedicated to Irma’s sister Gisela M.A. Richter (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gisela_Richter); most important: Ernst H. Gombrich (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Gombrich) has provided an detailed index of names and subjects to the two volumes, whereas the First Edition had had none

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Seven) The Aftermath, the Reprints and the Commentary to the Literary Works of Leonardo da Vinci by Carlo Pedretti

Unlike the First the Second World War meant a complete break of Leonardo da Vinci scholarship, and after the war there was only step by step and slowly a new beginning. In 1952, however, the 500th anniversary of Leonardo was celebrated, scholars gathered at congresses, and discoveries were soon to come.

1966: discovery of the so-called Codices Madrid (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex_Madrid_%28Leonardo%29); this find that is especially important as to getting to know the engineer Leonardo da Vinci reminds also that Jean Paul Richter had, in his edition, deliberately focussed on materials that, in his view, were essential to the getting to know of the artist Leonardo (which also means that he had left much materials away that were/are dealing primarily or only with mathematics or with the natural sciences in a very specialist’s sense)

1970: Third Edition of the Literary Works: Phaidon Reprint (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phaidon_Press) of the Second Edition of 1939 (with new black and white photographs instead of the original heliogravures; the format is being reduced in size); a reprint of the First Edition (not by Phaidon) is also being published and provides for a great deal of confusion, since from the First to the Second Edition, from 1883 to 1939, Leonardo da Vinci scholarship has made progress for more than half a century (!); but the First Edition thus still circles under the title The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci

1977: two volume Commentary to the Third Edition of 1970 (the Phaidon Reprint) by Carlo Pedretti (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlo_Pedretti); the block of the in sum four volumes in equal size makes the Richter/Pedretti rock of Leonardo da Vinci scholarship; the Commentary is not only being a commentary, but assembles also unpublished materials of various kinds, and it is also indexed

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