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LICHTENBERG, Georg Christoph (1742-1799). Autograph letter signed ('G. Lichtenberg') to the mathematician Georg Heinrich Hollenberg, Göttingen, 25 September 1791, illustrated with two small drawings, 3 pages, folio, bifolium (pencil annotation to p.1, minor spotting).
A witty letter, beginning with thanks for a gift of beans, confessing that it shouldn't be harder to send thanks for the beans than to consume them, and yet in the joy of the latter activity he had completely omitted the former: 'Einem Freund, der einen so mancher Schüssel voll großer Bohnen gespeißt hat, dafür zu dancken, solte man dencken, wäre nicht um ein Haar schwerer als diese Bohnen selbst zu verzehren, und doch habe ich by der bewundernswürdigsten Thätigkeit das lezte zu thun, das erste gantz unterlassen'. Hollenberg has asked for a 'Parallel-Lineal', and he is sending him his own, as he is now so adept that he doesn't need it, though he occasionally needs to label his attempts to remind him what they are -- 'ich ziehe schon über ein Decennium alle meine Parallele Linien aus freyer Hand, und damit ich nicht vergesse, was sie seyn sollen, so schreib ich es dabey, und das giebt ihnen gleich ein Ansehen'; he goes on to illustrate two other devices for drawing parallel lines, including one he saw in London. The letter ends with compliments on the introduction to Hollenberg's Geometrie, and joking comments on its dedication to 'Oblivion', hoping that this 'Goddess' will do as other patrons do, and not come near his work.
Published in Joost/Schöne, Vol.III, no.1929.
A witty letter, beginning with thanks for a gift of beans, confessing that it shouldn't be harder to send thanks for the beans than to consume them, and yet in the joy of the latter activity he had completely omitted the former: 'Einem Freund, der einen so mancher Schüssel voll großer Bohnen gespeißt hat, dafür zu dancken, solte man dencken, wäre nicht um ein Haar schwerer als diese Bohnen selbst zu verzehren, und doch habe ich by der bewundernswürdigsten Thätigkeit das lezte zu thun, das erste gantz unterlassen'. Hollenberg has asked for a 'Parallel-Lineal', and he is sending him his own, as he is now so adept that he doesn't need it, though he occasionally needs to label his attempts to remind him what they are -- 'ich ziehe schon über ein Decennium alle meine Parallele Linien aus freyer Hand, und damit ich nicht vergesse, was sie seyn sollen, so schreib ich es dabey, und das giebt ihnen gleich ein Ansehen'; he goes on to illustrate two other devices for drawing parallel lines, including one he saw in London. The letter ends with compliments on the introduction to Hollenberg's Geometrie, and joking comments on its dedication to 'Oblivion', hoping that this 'Goddess' will do as other patrons do, and not come near his work.
Published in Joost/Schöne, Vol.III, no.1929.
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