BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Wednesday, August 20, 1823 (approximately)

About today, Beethoven is reading some old newspapers in a coffee shop when a few items catch his eye. First is an ad in the August 19, 1823 Beobachter Nr. 231 at 1060 for a newly-invented hail conductor. He also notes the book The Stomach, Its Structure and Functions, with an Anatomical Illustration, by Dr. H. Robbi, at Huebner’s Bookshop. Clearly his stomach was still giving Beethoven trouble, though there does not seem to have been any hail reported in Vienna around this time.

Conversation Book 39, 4r-4v.