Penn in Hand: Selected Manuscripts

Kant, Immanuel, 1724-1804.

Collegium physico geographicum a viro excellentissimo professore ordinario domino Kant secundum dictata sua pertratum [sic] studio vero persecutum ab Joanne Siegismundo Kaehler ... [etc.] [manuscript].

[Kaliningrad (Kaliningradskai︠a︡ oblastʹ, Russia)], 1775.

284 leaves : paper, ill. ; 192 x 167 ( 160 x 115) mm. bound to 200 x 175 mm.

Handwritten notes taken by the student Johann Siegismund Kaehler at the lectures on physical geography given by Immanuel Kant at the University of Königsberg in the summer semester of 1775 (f. 7r). This manuscript is not the basis of any of the multiple published versions of these lectures. The notes consist of 127 consecutively numbered sections, and are divided broadly into the prolegomena (f. 8r) and the treatise (tractatio, f. 32r). The latter is in turn divided into section 1 (f. 32) and section 2 (f. 185v). Section 1 is subdivided into 5 articles with the following titles: 1. Vom Wasser (f. 32v); 2. Vom Lande (f. 72v); 3. Vom Luftkreise (f. 136r); 4. Von der Geogonie, oder von der allgemeinen Geschichte der Erde (f. 158r); and 5. Von der Schiffarth (f. 178r). Section 2 is subdivided into an introductory paragraph (f. 184v) and 5 articles with the following titles: 1. Von den Menschen (f. 184v); 2. Von den Thieren (f. 200v); 3. Von den Pflanzen (f. 229v); 4. Von den Mineralien (f. 237r); and 5. Von dem Nationalcharakter, Sitten u. Gebräuchen verschiedener Völker (f. 246r). The lecture notes are bound together with the printed brochure announcing those same lectures of Kant, including his essay "On the different races of humankind." The brochure was published in Königsberg by G. L. Hartung (publishing date is not given but is presumed to be 1775).

Ms. codex.

Title for codex from title page of predominant work (f. 7r).

Foliation: Paper, i + 272 + xi. First work: contemporary pagination in print, upper outer corners, 3-12. Second work: contemporary pagination in ink, upper outer corners, 2-530. Modern foliation in pencil, lower right recto. Catchwords on both recto and verso of every page of text in both works (in work 1 in print; in work 2 in ink).

Layout: Written in 19-23 long lines.

Script: Written in a German cursive hand.

Decoration: Work 1 contains as part of the printed brochure 2 decorative engravings (bird bath, p. 1; two naked children under a tree, p. 2); work 2 contains 3 hand-drawn diagrams (in the margins of ff. 27r, 27v, and 28v) illustrating aspects of the earth.

Binding: Contemporary half calf (Zacour-Hirsch). Upper cover and spine detached from text block. First several quires detached and others are nearly detached.

Origin: Written in Königsberg, East Prussia (today Kaliningrad, Russia), in 1775.

UPenn Ms. Codex 1120.

Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts University of Pennsylvania Ms. Codex 1120