Ludwig van Beethoven, Billet an Nikolaus Zmeskall, Wien, 13. November 1802, Autograph

Beethoven asks his friend Zmeskall, to cancel playing music at Emanuel Förster's (quartets were regularly played there) and instead to rehearse the next day in the morning at Zmeskall's, then to play music at Beethoven's apartment afterwards. He signs saying "addio vortrefflicher [excellent] plenipotentarius Regnis Beethovensis".

In a postscript he says that "the rogues" have been "imprisoned through their own hand" . He is alluding to the dispute with Artaria, which had a successful outcome for him. Artaria had produced a pirate copy of his Quintet op. 29, although Beethoven had already sold the quintet to Breitkopf & Härtel in Leipzig. Following a lengthy dispute Artaria had finally agreed in writing not to publish his unlawful edition before the Leipzig original edition had appeared.