Here is the second catalogue of Beethoven’s works, published in October 1819 by Artaria in Vienna, attached to the edition of Op. 106, with the title CATALOGUE DES OEUVRES de LOUIS van BEETHOVEN qui se trouvent chez Artaria & Compag: à Vienne rue Kohlmarkt N=ro 1219.

The one shown is the first printing of this catalogue published by Artaria; a later edition, also attached to the GROSSE SONATE für das Hammer=Klavier of 1819, includes on the last page a section entitled “Werke ohne Nummern” (see last photo).

The third catalogue, also published by Artaria in Vienna around 1828–1830 and cited by Kastner–Frimmel, lists all the works up to Op. 138, together with two columns for those without an opus number.

The same catalogue was later reprinted in the edition of the Sonata Op. 106 (around 1837) published by Artaria. Unlike the 1819 catalogue, it lists all of Beethoven’s works up to the time of his death.

It is worth noting that, in the meantime, Artaria had changed address (as can be seen on the first page).

This catalogue was published in a rare Finnish musical journal of 1827, a special issue dedicated to Beethoven. It is one of the first complete catalogues not written in the German language.

This catalogue was published in 1834 by the Musik‑Gesellschaft of Zurich. In addition to the catalogue, this small booklet contains a biography of Beethoven by Johann Georg Bürkli and the famous print of Beethoven composing the Pastoral Symphony (by Franz Hegi); on the frontispiece appears the Stieler portrait engraved by Rudolf Rahn.

In 1845 a great celebration was held for the inauguration of the Beethoven monument in Bonn, attended by high authorities from both the political and musical spheres. On this occasion a small booklet by Heinrich Karl Breidenstein was published, Festgabe zu der am 12ten August 1845 Stattfindenden Inauguration des Beethoven‑Monuments, Bonn, T. Habicht. Inside it contains a list of Beethoven’s works.

For further information on the monument erected in Bonn in 1845, see the dedicated section https://www.lvbeethoven.org/articoli-beethoven-album-1846/ with the publication of the Beethoven‑Album.

The thematic catalogue Thematisches Verzeichniss sämmtlicher erschienenen Werke von Ludwig van Beethoven, compiled by Johann Baptist Geissler and published in Leipzig by Breitkopf und Härtel in 1851. It is sometimes erroneously attributed to Nottebohm, who in fact prepared only the second edition of 1868 (to be published later). It is considered the true FIRST catalogue, listing the compositions under Werke mit Opuszahl, Werke ohne Opuszahl, and an Anhang with doubtful works, together with a small bibliography and a list of portraits of Beethoven. For the works listed, the book provides the incipits and the various editions published up to that date. Issued by an important publishing house, it was intended for a public wishing to know and purchase Beethoven’s pieces; unfortunately, the catalogue was limited to editions printed in Germany and Austria.

This catalogue of Beethoven’s works is found in the second volume of the German composer’s biography written by the musicologist Adolf Bernhard Marx and published in Berlin by Otto Janke in 1859 under the title Ludwig van Beethoven: Leben und Schaffen; in zwei Theilen, mit Beilagen und Bemerkungen über den Vortrag Beethovenscher Werke. This biography was published in several subsequent editions in 1863, 1875, 1884, and 1902, always in two volumes.

A further catalogue of Beethoven’s works (28 pages) was published in the book Beethoven und seine Werke: eine biographisch‑bibliographische Skizze by Otto Mühlbrecht and issued in Leipzig by C. Merseburger in 1866. It was later also translated into Danish in the edition published in Stockholm in 1870.

Finally we come to the second edition of the catalogue published by Breitkopf und Härtel, by Gustav Nottebohm and issued in 1868, Thematisches Verzeichniss der im Druck erschienenen Werke von Ludwig van Beethoven. Appearing three years after Thayer’s catalogue, it presents itself as an expansion of the first edition of 1851. In the same period Nottebohm was working on the monumental complete edition of Beethoven’s works, likewise published by Breitkopf und Härtel between 1862 and 1865. More complete than the first edition, Nottebohm’s catalogue (220 pages) includes the dates of the various compositions, of publication and first performance, the relevant manuscript, and the different editions. In the appendix the editor lists all the works in chronological order, and—as in the 1851 edition—provides a bibliography and a more complete and updated list of portraits.

The catalogue of Beethoven’s works by Nottebohm was later reprinted by Breitkopf und Härtel in 1913 together with Emerich Kastner’s Bibliotheca Beethoveniana, which includes a detailed bibliography of writings on Beethoven from 1827 up to that date. Both the catalogue and the Bibliotheca were then published again in 1925 with additions to the bibliography by the scholar Theodor von Frimmel, who included several publications on Beethoven from before 1827. Even today it is considered an excellent reference (though not a complete one) for writings on Beethoven.

We publish the four editions of the catalogue of Beethoven’s works by Antonio Bruers from 1937, 1940, 1944, and 1951. It is a critical edition complete with historical‑musical commentary. The first catalogue, only a few pages long, was published for the performance of a Beethoven cycle held at the author’s home in 1936–1937, up to the fourth edition, which was issued in a version twice the size of the previous one. All sections were updated, with the addition of a thematic index. The volume also contains a brief biography of Beethoven and his works, and offers an important contribution to the bibliography of the first Italian editions of Beethoven’s works, an Italian bibliography concerning Beethoven, and a catalogue of works recorded for the phonograph.

We now come to the most important and most widely used catalogue up to 2014. This is Das Werk Beethovens: thematisch‑bibliographisches Verzeichnis seiner sämtlichen vollendeten Kompositionen / von Georg Kinsky. Nach dem Tode des Verfassers abgeschlossen und hrsg. von Hans Halm, Munich; Duisburg: G. Henle. Published in 1955, it consists of more than 800 pages and was the result of Kinsky’s long work, later completed by Halm. In 1978 the Supplement zum thematisch‑bibliographischen Verzeichnis von Kinsky‑Halm by Kurt Dorfmüller was published, also by Henle. These two volumes were fundamental for the cataloguing of Beethoven’s works. Naturally, after many years and numerous discoveries, a new edition was needed, which only a few years ago finally came to light.

An interesting 72‑page volume written by the scholar Willy Hess (translated by Biamonti) and published in Italian in 1953. About 65 years after the last volume (the 25th) of the Gesamtausgabe, much that had seemed lost began to re‑emerge, and many previously unpublished works became increasingly numerous. The work follows the model of the second edition published in the Jahrbuch of 1937. The volume includes the completed works not mentioned in the earlier catalogues and several manuscripts, though without referring to the sketches.

Giovanni Biamonti, Schema di un catalogo generale cronologico delle musiche di Beethoven: 1781–1827, published in 1954. This 190‑page booklet offers the reader, in a rapid chronological synthesis, a view of the entire Beethovenian output. It begins with the list of works from 1783 to 1800, already included in Biamonti’s first catalogue but with the necessary updates, and continues the numbering of the subsequent works up to 1827; it concludes with an appendix concerning the pieces for which it was not possible to establish a date, together with two supplementary notes on spurious works and theatrical projects. The material is also accompanied by numerous musical examples. Included in this booklet are the works published in the “Gesamtausgabe” of B&H, the completed works not published in the Gesamtausgabe, and the sketches or fragments contained in the notebooks, letters, album leaves, and conversation books.

Here is the most complete catalogue ever published in Italy—and not only there. Giovanni Biamonti devoted a large part of his life to the study of Beethoven (see also the catalogues previously published), and only in 1968 did this volume appear, issued by ILTE (in a case together with the translation of the letters and the conversation books), listing no fewer than 849 items, including complete works and sketches by Beethoven. For each entry the author includes the incipit and an accurate description.

This catalogue records all of Beethoven’s completed works (published or not) as well as the fragments, notes, and various unused musical ideas scattered through the letters, album leaves, sketchbooks, and conversation books known up to that time, together with compositions of doubtful authenticity and projects for theatrical works, cantatas, oratorios, etc. Each entry is accompanied by indications of dates, editions, and references to other catalogues, and by information allowing one to identify the historical and aesthetic position of the Beethovenian creation: explanations, comments, comparisons, references to other works, hints at interpretations, and more or less widespread critical views or assessments. Every Beethoven enthusiast should have it in their library.

This is how the Italian translation of Willy Hess’s catalogue appears. Published in the USA by James F. Green, translated into Italian by Cristoforo Prodan, with an introduction by the great maestro Roberto Diem Tigani, an important collaborator of the website lvbeethoven.org and a Beethoven expert who passed away a few years ago. Hess not only published the catalogue but also made available to the public the works he had discovered. Between 1959 and 1971 he published 14 volumes of supplements to the old Gesamtausgabe. James Green carried out a considerable amount of work to update the catalogue to the current state of Beethoven research.