Source:

Manuscript held by G. W. Leibniz Bibliothek, Hanover
Shelfmark LBr 948 Bl. 1



Date: 4 January 1713

Translated from the German



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SAMUEL URLSPERGER TO LEIBNIZ


[LBr 948 Bl. 1r]

Most Excellent Sir,

This is to follow up on what Your Excellence through Prof Wolff desires from me.1 The cause for the long delay are my fata contraria,2 which prevented me from getting to my books in order to put together the requested extract. Since I, however, have had letters to inform me that for the moment there is no open position either in Württemberg nor in my fatherland, I have decided for myself to spend this winter in Halle, and to have my English books redirected from Nürnberg, so I [LBr 948, Bl. 1v] make use of them for a small work, which I have planned to put together this winter. And since the very same have arrived in fact quite a few hours before the mail leaves again, I should not lose time to copy out the ending from the Memoirs of Literature in order to send it to Your Excellency most obediently.3
     I pray therefore not to receive this hasty note with bad grace, being pressed for time, but to rather allow me the honour of further high affections; for which together with my humble recommendation I remain
Your Excellency's

                  Most humble.

Halle, AD 4. Jan 1713                     M. Samuel Urlsperger





NOTES:

1. Christian Wolff (1679-1754), one of Leibniz's correspondents and supporters. He was at the time Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy at the University of Halle.
2. 'adverse fates'.
3. The Memoirs of Literature was an English-language journal (pamphlet might be a better description), issued weekly between 1710 and 1714. Several issues featured extracts from Leibniz's Theodicy; Urlsperger made copies of these extracts and enclosed them with this letter.


© Julia Weckend 2015