Young Goethe's Works

The Labores juveniles is the earliest surviving manuscript by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832), one of the greatest figures of German literary history as well as one of the most influential people of the 19th century. Although it has been rebound, this 250-year-old codex originates from the hand of the young literary genius and serves as a record of his education. The text consists mostly of translation work in German, Latin, and Greek as well as school exercises, poetry, and various dictations. It also offers an inside view of Goethe’s family life and childhood home, which is now a popular tourist destination in Frankfurt. The family had a personal library and the home was a center of intellectual life. Goethe was already a celebrated author at the age of 25 and was ennobled by the Duke of Saxe Weimar, Karl August (1757–1828) following the success of his novel The Sorrows of Young Werther. Dating from March of 1757 to January of 1759, this manuscript represents the earliest of Goethe’s writings that have survived to posterity and is a rare and valuable piece of literary history.