Notes for a Romantic Encyclopaedia: Das Allgemeine Brouillon

Notes to Introduction

Notes to Introduction  1. The enduring Romantic image of the blue flower may be found in Novalis’s novel Heinrich von Ofterdingen. According to both Novalis scholarship and popular legend, the tragic and painful experience of Sophie’s early death in 1797 was the impetus for much of the imagery in Hardenberg’s most well-known work: Hymns to the Night. For English translations and editions of these and other Novalis writings, see the Select Bibliography. 2. Cf. the short stories by E. A. Poe, “The Mystery of Marie Roget” and “The Tale of the Ragged Mountains” (1849); and Karl Popper, The Logic of Scientific Discovery (1934/1959); J. S. Mill, System of Logic (1843); and Martin Heidegger, The Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995). 3. See, among others, Frederick Beiser, The Romantic Imperative—The Concept of Early German Romanticism (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004) and German Idealism: The Struggle against Subjectivitism, 1781–1801 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002); Manfred Frank, “Unendliche Annäherung”: Die Anfänge der philosophischen Frühromantik (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1998)—partial English translation: The Philosophical Foundations of Early German Romanticism, trans. Elizabeth Millán-Zaibert (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2004); Karl Ameriks, ed., The Cambridge Companion to German Idealism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000); Andrew Bowie, From Romanticism to Critical Theory (London: Routledge, 1997); and, most recently, the Handbuch Deutscher Idealismus, especially chapter 12 by Bärbel Frischmann (“The Philosophical Contributions of Early German Romanticism and Hölderlin,” pp. 326–354), ed. Hans Jörg Sandkühler (Stuttgart: Metzler, 2005). 4. The historical-critical edition of Novalis’s writings: Novalis Schriften: Die Werke Friedrich von Hardenbergs, ed. Richard Samuel, Hans-Joachim Mähl, and Gerhard Schulz (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer Verlag, 1965–2005), henceforth abbreviated as HKA (Historischekritische Ausgabe), followed by volume number and page number(s). In English, see Novalis : Fichte Studies, trans. Jane Kneller (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003) and Novalis: Philosophical Writings, trans. and ed. M. Mahony Stoljar (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997). In French, see Olivier Schefer’s translation of Novalis’s complete philosophical works: Novalis: Œuvres philosophiques completes (Paris: Allia, 2000 and 2004—see Select Bibliography for volume titles). 223 5. Letter to Rachel and Coelestine Just (HKA IV, p. 266). Also see Gerhard Schulz’s seminal study on Novalis’s career as a mining engineer: “Die Berufslaufbahn Friedrich von Hardenberg (Novalis),” in Jahrbuch der deutschen Schillergesellschaft 7 (1963): 253–312. 6. This view is still prevalent in such widely read works as Isaiah Berlin’s The Roots of Romanticism (London: Pimlico, 2000, pp. 104–109). Rudolf Haym’s influential Die romantische Schule (Berlin: Gaertner, 1882, pp. 325–390) was one of the works responsible for this perception gaining currency. 7. Thomas Carlyle, “Novalis,” Foreign Review, 1829; reprinted in “Miscellaneous Essays,” in Collected Works (London: Chapman and Hall, 1887, vol. 15, p. 406). 8. See M. Mahony Stoljar, trans., Novalis, Philosophical Writings (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997, pp. 2–12), henceforth abbreviated as NPW, followed by page number(s); and William Arctander O’Brien, Novalis: Signs of Revolution (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1995, p. 80). 9. For example, see Friedrich Schlegel’s revealing letter (January 1792) to his brother August Wilhelm Schlegel, just after becoming acquainted with Novalis (Hardenberg): Destiny has placed into my hands a young man who is capable of anything . . . .—An extremely fine countenance with dark eyes, majestic expression whenever he speaks passionately about something beautiful— indescribably inflamed—he talks three times as much and three times as fast as the rest of us—the most rapid powers of comprehension and sensitivity . . . . Wildly inflamed he related his opinion to me on one of the very first evenings—there is no evil in the world—and everything is again approaching the Golden Age. . . . His name is v. Hardenberg. (HKA IV, pp. 571–572) 10. Regarding Novalis’s belief in the miraculous healing properties of the sciences, see the letter to his brother Erasmus von Hardenberg (February 26, 1797): Your decision to study algebra is indeed highly beneficial. The sciences possess wondrous healing forces—and like opiates, alleviate all our pains, elevating us into spheres where we are bathed in everlasting sunshine. They are the sweetest sanctuaries granted to us. Bereft of their consolation, I would and could not live. Without the sciences, how could I have so peacefully beheld Sophie’s illness for the last 1½ years—and moreover, tolerated all those annoyances? Whatever may befall...