Beethoven asks his former colleague and publisher in Bonn, whether he is actually planning to publish his Variations WoO 67 - as reported to him by his brother. Beethoven is indignant about this and in the future wishes to be asked in advance. If the engraving has not yet been made, he offers to send an up-to-date and correct copy of the Variations via Count Waldstein, as he is interested in an edition with as few mistakes as possible. Beethoven had, however, hoped to publish the Variations at a later date, once several other more important works had been published.
In order to emphasize his demand for a correct edition, Beethoven points out the bad mistake which had been overseen in the last set of Variations (WoO 66) published by Simrock (the natural signs indicating the change of key from A major to A minor had been forgotten). He is also annoyed that he only received one author's copy and requests 24 copies of the new variations. He offers him further works and sends greetings to his former teacher Ries in Bonn.
