Beethoven tells his publisher Steiner that the engraver's model for the English edition of the piano reduction of op. 91 has (finally) arrived in London.
However the publisher there has asked him to delay publication of the Viennese edition for three to four months. Beethoven apologizes to Steiner that he has to wait so long before publishing it. At the same time he is relieved because he sees this as proof that the piano reduction has not already appeared in England as feared.
Beethoven simultaneously sold some works to two publishers. As far as copyright was concerned, this worked if the two publishers were in different countries, for instance in England and in Austria, as is the case here. As goods were not exchanged within Europe as frequently as they are today, parallel editions did not generally present any problems - as long as both of them appeared at more or less the same time. For this reason Beethoven negotiated the publication date with both sides, as in this case. Provided neither party was going to lose out financially, the same date (more or less) was imperative.
