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Fine Jena student album from the circle of E. T. A. Hoffmann and E. M. Arndt

[Album amicorum]. Friendship album of Karl Gottfried Weber (1780-1859) from Steinwenden.

Mostly Jena (but four entries from Steinwenden), 1798-1800 & 1806.

Oblong 8vo. 268 (instead of 284) numbered pages with 176 entries. Contemporary leather binding, spine and covers gilt. All edges gilt. Coloured endpapers.

Karl Gottfried Weber, the owner of this friendship album, was the eldest son of the vicar of Steinwenden near Kaiserslautern, Johann Karl Weber (1738-1800), a leading representative of Palatinate physiocracy and an opponent of Goethe's friend Heinrich Jung-Stilling. Weber immatriculated at Jena at the age of 17 on 23 April 1798, on the same day as his younger brother Ludwig Christian Wilhelm Weber (1783-1830). Like his brother and several dozen other contributors to this album, he was among the signatories of two unsuccessful student petitions to Duke Charles Augustus to have the philosopher Johann Gottlieb Fichte, who had resigned after charges of atheism, reinstated as professor. The album contains a large number of contributors who later achieved celebrity and conveys an excellent impression of the fertile intellectual scene at the University of Jena in the years immediately following Fichte's departure.

Some of the rarest entries are those of the poet Gotthard Christian August Thieme (1780-1860: "Immer fidel Herr Bruder, bis dort oben der große Commersch angeht", 239, with a sketch of crossed foils) and of the naturalist Friedrich August Gebler (1781-1850: "Mit Männern sich geschlagen / Mit Mädchen sich vertragen / Und mehr Credit, als Geld / So kommt man durch die Welt", 158). The album also boasts entries from the circles of E. T. A. Hoffmann (Carl Friedrich Speyer: Schiller's "Zwey Tugendwege", 127), of Ernst Moritz Arndt (Johann Friedrich Hindrichs: "Adam war der einzige Ehemann, der mit völliger Gewißheit wußte, daß er Evchen als Jungfer in seine Arme schloß. Anmerk.: Die Gelehrten streiten sich darüber, ob er einen Nabel gehabt, weil er von keinerm Weibe geboren ward", 96), or of Clemens von Brentano (Carl Friedrich von Mülmann: a quotation from Horace, 95). Several contributors are mentioned in Goethe's diary or in his correspondence with Schiller and others (e.g., the entomologist Carl Friedrich Posselt). On contributor (the lawyer Friedrich Wilhelm Rupp: "Der Kuss, den mir die blühende Tochter giebt [...]", after Hölty; 151) would be godfather to Karl Marx's siblings, another would go on to baptise Georg Büchner (Johann Jacob Wiener: "Laß dich vom Teufel bei Einem Haare faßen, und du bist sein", 111), and another is among Büchner's teachers at university (Georg Friedrich Wilhelm Balser: "Sanftmuth ist die schönste Perle im Kranze weiblicher Tugend", 64). There are numerous well-known politicians from Baden, but also the long-standing mayor of Weimar, Carl Schwabe (with a dream anecdote, 205).

When his father died on 18 May 1800, Weber dropped out of university and took over the Steinwenden vicarage with his brother. He was later a close friend of Philipp Jakob Siebenpfeiffer, an initiator of the Hambach Festival, and of the radical democratic journalist Johann August Wirth; the Bavarian government instigated proceedings against him. His son Carl David Weber emigrated to the U.S. and founded Stockton in California.

The complete index lists 165 Namen, compared to which the album today lacks 11 entries; 22 of the extant extries are not listed in the index. Wants pages 21f., 35-38, 43f., 51-54, 65f., 81f., 115f., 123f., 137f., 145f., 165f., 183-186, 201f., that is to say, 16 leaves comprising a total of 11 entries. A few leaves loosened or loose; the pretty binding is very well preserved. A complete list of contributors is available.