BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Thursday, June 15, 1820 (approximately)

Conversation Book 14, leaves 31v through 33v.

Continuing Beethoven’s shopping/reminder list.

+ There is an apartment in Vienna on the Schottenbastei that he wants to look at for the autumn.

+ Beethoven notes he should speak with Dr. Jacob Staudenheim (1764-1830), his physician, as to whether the water in Mödling or something else is the cause [of what, Beethoven does not say, but this may relate to the dietary discussions earlier in the list and his delicate stomach]

+ Red Austrian wine. Apparently the Mödling wine that Beethoven acquired on an emergency basis on June 8 was not to his liking. Beethoven conveniently overlooks his heavy wine consumption as a contributor to his stomach issues.

+ Tooth powder

+ 2 or 3 mousetraps

+ Beethoven twice reminds himself to “take the boots along.” He later notes he should give the shoemaker his address in Mödling so he can send him the boots back, so it seems that there are repairs required, but it’s unclear whether these are for old boots or the new boots he just purchased.

+ A coffee machine for in the City as well as in Mödling (he had just bought one on the 10th, which he presumably brought to Mödling and liked well enough to get another for his temporary apartment in Vienna).

Beethoven muses further about building a house, “at the gate to the right, toward the hills,” presumably on the east side of some unspecified place. The view is fine, and it would give his desired position: “toward morning and what a sunrise!” Based on his description of the topography, Beethoven doesn’t seem to be talking about either Vienna or Mödling, but rather some other village, likely in the area to the west of Vienna.