BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Saturday, September 30, 1820

Beethoven may be in Vienna today, to give the Archduke a lesson. We know that Franz Oliva is definitely there, because on this date he goes to the cashier of Prince Franz Joseph von Lobkowitz’s estate to collect the quarterly annuity for Beethoven for the months of July through September 1820, and signs a receipt on Beethoven’s behalf for 175 gulden in cash.

The pension was set up in 1808 by Lobkowitz, Archduke Rudolph, and Prince Kinsky, to keep Beethoven in Vienna, after he had been offered the position of Kapellmeister at Cassell, under Jerome Bonaparte, King of Westphalia. Lobkowitz had died on December 15, 1816, but his heirs continued to honor the pension arrangement with Beethoven.

The original of the receipt is held in the Státni oblastní v Litoměřicích, pobočka Žitenice (State Regional Office of the Litoměřice District, in the village of Žitenice, Czech Republic). Albrecht, Letters to Beethoven nr. 275.

It seems likely that Beethoven asked Oliva to get the money for him while he was busy with the Archduke and apartment hunting today.