WITTGENSTEIN'S COPY, SIGNED

BÖHME, JAKOB. (LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN).

Schriften. Ausgewählt und herausgegeben von Hans Kayser. Mit der Biographie Böhmes von Abraham von Franckenberg und dem kurzen Auszug Friedrich Christoph Oetingers.

Leipzig, Insel=Verlag, 1923.

8vo. Original half cloth. Blue paper-covered boards with "Der Dom" in gilding to front board. Spine with soiling and upper part of boards faded. 422, (2) pp. + 1 folded plate.

Wittgenstein's copy, with his own original signed owner's inscription in pencil to front free end-paper: "Von Tommy zu/ Weinachten 1931/ Ludwig Wittgenstein".

For the academic year 1932, Wittgenstein had been granted leave from his official teaching engagements at Cambridge, in order to concentrate on his own work. He did, however, wish to give private unpaid discussion classes for interested students, and did so, in his rooms at Whewells Court. These discussion classes became famous, and the lectures that he gave that year even more so.

As is evident from the present copy of Boehme's Works, Wittgenstein had been given this book (by "Tommy" - i.e. Tommy Stonborough (1906-1986), his nephew, being the oldest son of his sister Margarete Stonborough-Wittgenstein) for Christmas 1931. Having in his youth been fascinated by the "mystics", but for many years not worked on them, Wittgenstein, in his Cambridge lectures, commencing in the early 1930'ies (after Christmas 1931) revives certain aspects of the "Teutonick philosophy" that Böhme represents, finding resonance with many of his young disciples.

Wittgenstein, as Schopenhauer (and Wittgenstein perhaps originally inspired by Schopenhauer's interest), was fascinated by the tradition of the mystics, going back to Hildegard von Bingen, Nicolaus von Cusa, Paracelsus, and probably most importantly Jacob Böhme, and through him the teachings of Bruno, which influenced his philosophy a great deal.

Jacob Böhme (or Boehme, in English) was a German mystic, born in the East German town of Goerlitz in 1575 (died in 1624). He received almost no education and made his living as a shoemaker (thus also known as "The Shoemaker of Goerlitz"), but was early on interested in the works of Paracelsus, the Kabbala, and the Hermetic tradition. He is most famous for his unfinished main work "Aurora" (also present in the present copy of his Works), which attracted a circle of followers. He came into conflict with the church on several occasions, was banned from writing and later banished from his home. He became hugely influential within German romanticism, and both Hegel, Baader, and Schelling were influenced by him. He has been given philosophical revivals at frequent intervals, through both Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Bergson, Heidegger, Buber, and Wittgenstein.

Wittgenstein's nephew, Thomas Stonborough, who gave him the present copy of Boehme's Works had studied psychology under Charlotte Bühler (and possibly here himself encountered the writings of Böhme, as e.g. Jung was heavily influenced by him and gives many references to him in his works). He was a silent partner of Bank Shields & Co in New York and for a period of time assistant at Columbia University. He had quite a bit to do with his famous uncle and later inherited the "Wittgenstein-House" in Kundmanngasse in Wien, which he sold in 1971.

Wittgenstein handed over some of his belongings, including a number of his books, to his life-long friend Ludwig Hänsel. Among these belongings was the present copy of Böhme's Works given to him by his nephew. Wittgenstein did not have many close friends, but the closest -together with Rudolph Koder- was Luwig Hänsel, who was a high-school teacher of German and literature. Hänsel and Wittgenstein, who befriended each other in 1918 while being war prisoners in Monte Casino, also remained close friends throughout their lives.

Order-nr.: 44685