WorkJohann Wolfgang von Goethe

Italienische Reise [Italian Journey]

Italienische Reise [Italian Journey] (1816–1817) Inferred

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) · 1816–1817

TranslatedExcerptedAnalyzedQuotedReadMentioned

Documented 1833–1849

Additional passages preserved in the Memoirs (1852)

Letters • Journals • Manuscripts

Selected engagements, in chronological order.

Totals count documented engagements, once at the earliest witness. How we count →

Reprints, Memoirs passages, and repeat notes within a single manuscript are shown but never counted twice. Evidence for this work is selective, not exhaustive. Methodology →

When Fuller engaged with this work

I. Childhood

II. Adolescence

III. Self-Directed1record

IV. Transcendentalist2records

V. New York

VI. Europe2records

✦. Memoirs (1852)1record

1810

1820

1832

1836

1844

1846

1850

1833—

Letter to James F. Clarke

p216

analyzed · read

“Three or four afternoons I have passed very happily at my beloved haunt in the wood reading Goethe's 'second residence in Rome' - your pencilmarks show that you have been before me.”

Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. VI. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1988.

Hudspeth identified this refers to part 3 of Die italienische Reise, published in 1829, and identifies its emotional effect on Fuller: an earnest desire to live with an engrossing object of pursuit.

1836—

Journal December 1836

p13–14

analyzedManuscript page

“Mr D. knows only parts of the Ital n journey and the correspondence with Schiller. Told me what I have been told before that Mr Alston says G.”

Fuller, Margaret. "Journal December 1836." Houghton Library, Harvard University; MS Am 1086; Box 3.

Inferred Dana mentions 'the Italian journey and the correspondence with Schiller' — two distinct works; this entry covers the Italian journey. Dana knows Goethe's Italienische Reise (published in two parts, 1816 and 1817). He characterizes his knowledge as partial. Dana and Channing are both curious about Goethe but skeptical. Dana also mentions Goethe received 'impulse from Winkelmann'..

1839—

Journal April 1839

p22

excerpted · analyzed · readManuscript page

“First journey to Italy 1786. / Cemetery at Verona. ... / Very lovely to me was the picture by Guercino / Christ appearing to his mother after his resurrection. ...”

Fuller, Margaret. "Journal April 1839." Houghton Library, Harvard University; bMS Am 1086 (Box A); Box 5 (99).

1849—

Letter to Richard F. Fuller

p181

analyzed · read2 selected passages

“Read also Goethe's Year in Rome and Romish Elegies, Brownings "Bells and Pomegranates" at least those whose scene is laid in Italy and a book of late production (I mean within these past two or [three] years) We shall talk to better advantage on my return if you know these books.”

Fuller recommends to her brother Richard Goethe's Italienische Reise (Italian Journey), which she informally calls "Year in Rome." Published in 1816–17, Fuller knows the work from prior reading and explicitly recommends it as preparation for an Italian visit; Hudspeth's notes confirm Goethe visited the Barberini Palace, which Fuller references in the same letter, and notes that she has just passed "the Villa where Goethe lived when in Rome."

“From my windows I see the Barberini Palace. In its chambers are the portrait of the Cenci, and the Galatea so beautifully described by Goethe.”

Inferred Fuller mentions "the Galatea so beautifully described by Goethe," referring to Goethe's description of a painting at the Barberini Palace in his Italienische Reise.

Hudspeth's notes clarify that Fuller conflates two works—Goethe actually describes La Fornarina by Raphael at the Barberini, not The Triumph of Galatea—but her reference to "beautifully described by Goethe" with a painting at the Barberini Palace reflects her memory of the Italienische Reise passage.

Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. V. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1988.

1849—

Letter to Ellen Fuller Channing

p251

quoted · read

“The great Goethe hid thus in Italy; 'Then,' said he, 'I did indeed feel alone,—when no former friend could form an idea where I was.”

Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. V. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1988.

Fuller explicitly attributes a quotation to Goethe's Italian Journey, paraphrasing his experience of solitary meditation in Italy.

Undated

Pieces with no legible date. They are part of the record but cannot be placed on the lifeline.

n.d.—

Letter to unknown

p129

analyzed · read

“Goethe too studied architecture while in Italy. So his books are full of interesting information”

Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. VI. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1988.

Hudspeth identified this as Goethe's Italienische Reise (Italian Journey, published 1816–17), a central text for 19th-century readers studying Italy.

n.d.—

Notes toward The Life of Goethe

p53–p54

readManuscript page

“p53: '27-28 - First journey to Italy. 1786-7 / 29-30 Second residence at Rome from June 1787 - to April 1788. Campaign in France 1792. / 43. 3rd Journey into Switzerland, Letters to Meyer.”

Fuller, Margaret. "Notes toward The Life of Goethe." Houghton Library, Harvard University.

Preserved in the Memoirs (1852)

1816—

Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli

p256

quoted · read

“The great Goethe hid thus in Italy; 'Then,' said he, 'I did indeed feel alone, — when no former friend could form an idea where I was.”

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, William Henry Channing, and James Freeman Clarke, eds. Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli. 2 vols. Boston: Phillips, Sampson and Company, 1852.

Inferred She alludes to Goethe's experience of leaving his homeland for Italy, quoting his sentiment: "Then, said he, 'I did indeed feel alone, — when no former friend could form an idea where I was.'" This passage evokes the profound isolation and transformative self-discovery often associated with the work.