Ludwig van Beethoven, Billet an Joseph Karl Bernard, Wien, Ende Januar 1823, Autograph

At the beginning of 1823, after having sent a call for subscriptions for the Missa solemnis op. 123 to the royal courts in Europe, Beethoven thought about how to reproduce the mass. There were two possibilities: copy or lithograph. He had asked the Lithographic Institute, the leading Viennese producer of lithographers, for a quotation. In a few lines Beethoven asks his friend Bernard for advice as he is not certain whether the head of the Lithographic Institute only wanted to know the number of pages or to see the mass.

He asks Bernard not to visit him the following day, but on Sunday instead.