1 Georg Nikolaus von Nissen, Biographie W. A. Mozart's (Leipzig, 1828), 633: ‘Nur darum sprach Mozart's erstes Clavier-Quartett, Gb, anfangs so Wenige an, daher der Verleger Hoffmeister dem Meister den vorausbezahlten Theil des Honorars unter der Bedingung schenkte, dass er die zwey anderen accordirten Quartette nicht schrieb und Hoffmeister seines Contractes entbunden waere.’ All translations are my own unless otherwise stated.

2 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Quartett in g für Klavier, Violine, Viola und Violoncello KV 478: Faksimile nach dem Autograph im Museum der Chopin-Gesellschaft Warschau mit einer Einführung von Faye Ferguson (Warsaw, 1991), 13.

3 Robert W. Gutman, Mozart: A Cultural Biography (San Diego, CA, 1999), 670–1. Alec Hyatt King also suggests, in A Mozart Legacy: Aspects of the British Library Collections (London, 1984), 43, that K.499 might have been intended ‘to repay a debt to Hoffmeister’.

5 Mozart: Die Dokumente seines Lebens, ed. Otto Erich Deutsch (Kassel, 1961; hereafter Mozart, Dokumente), 279–80; translated in idem, Mozart: A Documentary Biography, trans. Eric Blom, Peter Branscombe and Jeremy Noble (London, 1965), 317–19. See also the translation in Hermann Abert, W. A. Mozart, ed. Cliff Eisen (London, 2007), 864.

4 Simon Keefe, Mozart's Viennese Instrumental Music: A Study of Stylistic Re-Invention (Woodbridge, 2007), 7.

6 See Alfred Einstein, Mozart: His Character, his Work, trans. Arthur Mendel and Nathan Broder (London, 1945), 264, and Maynard Solomon, Mozart: A Life (London, 1995), 295.

7 The first extant editions of K.545 and K.547 were published in Vienna in 1805 by the Bureau d'Arts et d'Industrie and Tranquillo Mollo respectively.

10 Translation published in the Harmonicon, 3 (November 1825), 199, where it is described as ‘written from Prague in 1783’ and Hoffmeister is incorrectly identified as the Leipzig music-dealer Friedrich Hofmeister (1782–1864). The letter is included in the complete edition of Mozart's correspondence as ‘doubtful’. See Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Briefe und Aufzeichnungen: Gesamtausgabe, ed. Wilhelm A. Bauer, Otto Erich Deutsch and Joseph Heinz Eibl, 7 vols. (Kassel, 1962_75; hereafter Mozart, Briefe), iv (1962), Anhang, 528–9 (letter A/III, lines 35–40): ‘So habe ich vor drey Wochen eine Symphonie fertig gemacht, und mit der Morgenpost schreibe ich schon wieder an Hoffmeister und biete ihm drey Klavierquatuor an, wenn er Geld hat. O Gott, war ich ein grosser Herr, so sprach ich: Mozartl, schreib du nur, aber was du willst und so gut du kannst! Eher kriegst du von mir keinen Kreuzer, bis du was fertig hast.’ See also the commentary to this letter ibid., vi (1971), 673_5. Rochlitz's edition of the letter was published with footnotes commenting both on the content and on the physical state of the original, in some places referring to indecipherable words.

8 Much of the material collected by Nissen is now in the Mozarteum in Salzburg. For a description of the collection, see Rudolf Angermüller, ‘Nissen's Kollektaneen für seine Mozartbiographie’, Mozart-Jahrbuch (1971/2), 217–26.

9 Maynard Solomon, ‘The Rochlitz Anecdotes: Issues of Authenticity in Early Mozart Biography’, Mozart Studies, ed. Cliff Eisen (Oxford, 1991), 1–59 (p. 53).

11 ‘Nur das erste von disen ist bald darauf erschienen; es ist das herrliche, ebenfalls aus G moll.’

12 Solomon, ‘The Rochlitz Anecdotes’, 6. See also Neal Zaslaw, review of Mozart, Briefe, in Journal of the American Musicological Society, 31 (1978), 370–1; and Joseph Heinz Eibl, ‘Ein Brief Mozarts über seine Schaffensweise?’, Österreichische Musikzeitschrift, 35 (1980), 578–93.

15 Mozart, Briefe, iii, 461 (letter 906): ‘gestern brachte endlich der Austräger ein wohlverwahrtes Päckl vom Postwagen mit den 6 Quartetten, und 3 Sparten, näm: ein quartett mit dem Clavier, Violino, Viola, und Violoncello obligato. dann die 2 grossen neuen Clavier Concerte. das Clavier quartetto ist erst vom 16^ten October dieses Jahr, und liegen schon das Violin und Viola, weils bereits gestochen sind, im Abdruk dabey.’ Translation partly based on the translation in Mozart, Letters, 894 (letter 534).

13 Ruth Halliwell, The Mozart Family: Four Lives in a Social Context (Oxford, 1998), 620.

14 Leopold Mozart, letter to Nannerl dated 3 November 1785. Mozart, Briefe, iii (1962), 439 (letter 985, lines 53–5): ‘Von deinem Bruder habe noch keinen buchstaben, sein letzter Brief war vom 14 Sept: und seit der Zeit sollen mit iedem Postwagen die Quartetten kommen.’ Translated in Emily Anderson, The Letters of Mozart and his Family (London, 1985; hereafter Mozart, Letters), 892 (letter 531).

16 Mozart, Briefe, iv, 113 (letter 1135, lines 27–8). These letters are discussed and translated in John Arthur, ‘“N. N.” Revisited: New Light on Mozart's Late Correspondence’, Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven: Studies in the Music of the Classical Period – Essays in Honor of Alan Tyson, ed. Sieghard Brandenburg (Oxford and New York, 1998), 127–45.

17 Mozart, Briefe, iv, 114 (letter 1136, lines 12–14).

18 Mozart, Briefe, iv, 117 (letter 1139, lines 17–19). A promissory note dated 1 October (see letter 1137) may be related to this piece of business, assuming that Constanze acted on Mozart's behalf and he signed the note on his return from Frankfurt later that month. According to the note, Mozart undertook to pay 5% interest on a loan of 1,000 gulden from the Viennese merchant Heinrich Lackenbacher, with his furniture as security. There is no mention of Hoffmeister. The outcome of the deal is not known and neither Lackenbacher nor Hoffmeister appeared in the list of Mozart's creditors after his death; see Mozart, Dokumente, 500–1.

19 Weinmann describes the edition as ‘completely inconsistent’ (‘ganz uneinheitlich’) and detects three different hands in the engraving of the word ‘Violino’ alone. See Alexander Weinmann, Vollständiges Verlagsverzeichnis Artaria & Comp., Beiträge des Alt-Wiener Musikverlages, 2/2 (Vienna, 1952), 19.

20 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Quartette und Quintette mit Klavier und mit Glasharmonika, ed. Hellmut Federhofer, Neue Ausgabe sämtlicher Werke (hereafter NMA), VIII/22/1, 2 vols. (Kassel, Basle, etc., 1957–8), Kritischer Bericht (1958), 22–3. The theory that Artaria acquired the plates of the violin part from Hoffmeister is also promulgated in Ludwig von Köchel, Chronologisch-thematisches Verzeichnis sämtlicher Tonwerke Wolfgang Amadè Mozarts, 6th edn, ed. Franz Giegling, Alexander Weinmann and Gerd Sievers (Wiesbaden, 1964), 547. According to Gertraut Haberkamp (Die Erstdrucke der Werke von Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, 2 vols. (Tutzing, 1986), i, 263), Artaria engraved the violin part and acquired the other three parts from Hoffmeister. See also New Mozart Documents: A Supplement to O. E. Deutsch's Documentary Biography, ed. Cliff Eisen (London, 1991), 36 (commentary to document 61).

21 The role of historical/contextual enquiry in the science of analytical bibliography is described in Fredson Bowers, ‘Bibliography, Pure Bibliography, and Literary Studies’, Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, 46 (1952), 186–208, repr. in his Essays in Bibliography, Text, and Editing (Charlottesville, VA, 1975), 37–53.

22 See Axel Beer, ‘Hoffmeister, Franz Anton’, Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, rev. edn, ed. Ludwig Finscher, 28 vols. (Kassel, 1999–2007), Personenteil, ix (2003), cols. 133–5. See also Henry Hausner, ‘Franz Anton Hoffmeister (1754–1812), Komponist und Verleger’, Mitteilungen der Internationalen Stiftung Mozarteum, 38 (1990), 155–62.

23 Wiener Zeitung (24 January 1784), 152: ‘Der Musikkapellmeister Franz Anton Hoffmeister hat die Ehre allen in- und ausländischen Musikkennern und Liebhabern anzuzeigen, daß er sich entschlossen habe, auf eigene Kosten und unter seiner Aufsicht alle seine musikalische Arbeiten gestochener heraus zu geben. Sein öffentlicher Verlag ist hier in Wien in der Rudolf Gräfferischen Buchhandlung am Jesuiterplätzel.’

24 See Alexander Weinmann, Die Wiener Verlagswerke von Franz Anton Hoffmeister, Beiträge des Alt-Wiener Musikverlages, 2/8 (Vienna, 1964), 22–6. See also his Addenda und Corrigenda zum Verlagsverzeichnis Franz Anton Hoffmeister, Beiträge des Alt-Wiener Musikverlages, 2/8a (Vienna, 1982).

26 Mozart, Briefe, iii, 302 (letter 776, lines 27–37); translated in Mozart, Letters, 868 (letter 504): ‘Nun muß ich sie um etwas fragen, davon ich gar nichts verstehe, und nichts begreife. – wenn man auf seine eigene unkösten etwas drucken oder Stechen lässt, wie macht man es denn, daß man da von dem Stecher nicht betrogen wird? – er kann Ja so vielle Exemplairs abdrucken, als er nur will, und mich folglich Prellen. – da müsste man Ja den leuten beständig auf den Hals sitzen – welches aber bey ihnen, als sie ihr Buch drucken liessen, nicht möglich war, weil sie in Salzburg waren, und das Buch in Augsburg gedruckt wurde. – Ich hätte halt lust, ferners hier, meine Sachen keinem Stecher mehr zu verkauffen, sondern auf Praenumeration auf meine unkösten drucken, oder stechen zu lassen, wie es die meisten machen, und sehr viel dabey Profitiren.’

25 Koželuch first announced his intention to issue a series of piano concertos on subscription in the Wiener Zeitung (14 April 1784), 804–5; his new shop was announced ibid. (12 November 1785), 2629.

27 The letter is listed in Mozart, Briefe, iii, 303 (no. 777).

28 The edition was published with a decorative title page, in contrast to the plain text-based title pages that typically adorned editions in Hoffmeister's subscription series.

29 New Mozart Documents, ed. Eisen, 36–7 (document 61). See also Addenda zu Mozart: Die Dokumente seines Lebens, ed. Cliff Eisen (Kassel, 1997), 39.

30 Wiener Zeitung (6 August 1785), 1855–7. For valuable advice on the translation of the advertisement in Appendix 1, I am grateful to Arthur Searle, Colin Brazier and John Arthur.

34 Wiener Zeitung (10 September 1785), 2135–6. (18 February 1786), 379: ‘Hoffmeisters Musiksammlung. Die grosse Anzahl der nachgekommenen Abonenten auf meine Musiksammlung und das dadurch erfolgte Nachdrucken, haben die frühere Herausgabe des dritten Hefts verhindert. Es dient demnach den resp. Herren Pränumeranten zur Nachricht, daß das 3te Stück der Klavier- und Flötensammlung den 20. und die Kammermusik bis den 25. d.M. abzuholen sey; sogleich versichert man auch, dass, da nun die Witterung zum trocknen immer besser wird, und mehrere Pressen als vorher im Erange sind, das 4te Heft sehr beschleunigt wird, und längstens in 3 Wochen erscheinen kann.’

31 Paul Bryan notes that the subscription method adopted by Hoffmeister was similar to that employed by Antoine de Peters in Paris in the 1770s. See Paul Bryan, Johann Wanhal, Viennese Symphonist: His Life and his Musical Environment (Stuyvesant, NY, 1997), 489.

32 Wiener Zeitung (6 August 1785), 1857: ‘The subscription dates will be open from today until the end of the first month of autumn [i.e. September]. The distribution of the first monthly volume, however, will take place in the first wine month [i.e. October] of this year.’

33 Wiener Zeitung (10 September 1785), 2135–6.

35 Hoffmeister clearly employed independent printers to undertake the work, rather than operating his own press, which would have involved a very substantial outlay in equipment. A number of such printers were established in Vienna's suburbs at the time. Lists of them are given in Rupert M. Ridgewell, ‘Mozart and the Artaria Publishing House: Studies in the Inventory Ledgers, 1784–1793’ (Ph.D. dissertation, University of London, 1999), 236–45, and Peter R. Frank and Johannes Frimmel, Buchwesen in Wien 1750–1850: Kommentiertes Verzeichnis der Buchdrucker, Buchhändler und Verleger (Wiesbaden, 2008), 223–33.

36 Weinmann, Die Wiener Verlagswerke von Franz Anton Hoffmeister, 31.

37 The advertisement of 6 August 1785 is signed ‘Franz Anton Hoffmeister, Music Kapellmeister and publisher, resident in the Old Wieden opposite the Klagbaum in the Baron Fischer House, no. 3’ (for original German, see Appendix 1). Weinmann was not aware of the association with Fischer and states that Hoffmeister's connection with Gräffer continued until the end of 1788, at which point Hoffmeister opened his own shop in the centre of Vienna at no. 26 Herrengasse. See Alexander Weinmann, Wiener Musikverleger und Musikalienhändler von Mozarts Zeit bis gegen 1860: Ein firmengeschichtlicher und topographischer Behelf (Vienna, 1956), 21–2.

38 Vienna, Stadt- und Landesarchiv, Repertori zu den Merkantil Documenten, vol. 18, 212. I am grateful to Rita Steblin for drawing this to my attention.

39 Verzeichniß der in den Vorstädten befindlichen Gässen, Häuser, Innhaber, und ihrer Schilden (Vienna, 1776), 43. Verzeichniß der in den Vorstädten befindlichen Gässen, Häuser, Innhaber, und ihrer Schilden (Vienna, 1778), 46–7. Karl Hofer, Verzeichniß der in der Haupt- und Residenzstadt Wien, samt den dazu gehörigen Vorstädten und Gründen befindlichen numerierten Häuser, derselben wahrhaften Eigenthümer, deren Konditionen und Schilder (Vienna, 1789), 74.

40 Hof- und Staats-Schematismus (Vienna, 1788), 148.

41 Vienna, Stadt- und Landesarchiv, Merkantilzivilgericht, fasc. 7, 90/1786. The Merkantilzivilgericht was the government body responsible for regulating commercial life in Vienna and for adjudicating disputes involving businesses.

42 The contract itself is referred to as exhibit ‘A’ in Fischer's affidavit, but does not survive in the file of papers relating to the case in the Stadt- und Landesarchiv, Vienna (ibid.).

43 By 1789, Hoffmeister had moved from the Hungelbrunn suburb to no. 26 Herrengasse in the city centre (see his advertisement in the Wiener Zeitung (31 January 1789), 244, and note 37 above).

44 Mozart, Briefe, iii, 454 (letter 902) and the facsimile on p. 496: ‘Liebster Hoffmeister! Ich nehme meine Zuflucht zu ihnen, und bitte sie, mir unterdessen nur mit etwas gelde beyzustehen, da ich es in diesem augenblick sehr nothwendig brauche. – dann bitte ich sie mühe zu geben mir so bald als möglich das bewusste zu verschaffen. Verzeihen sie daß ich sie immer überlästige, allein da sie mich kennen, und wissen wie sehr es mir daran liegt daß ihre sachen gut gehen möchten, so bin ich auch ganz überzeugt daß sie mir meine zudringlichkeit nicht übel nemmen werden, sondern mir eben so gerne behülflich seyn werden, als ich ihnen.’ Translation based on Mozart's Letters, Mozart's Life: Selected Letters, ed. Robert Spaethling (London, 2000), 376, and Mozart, Letters, 894 (letter 533).

45 See Solomon, Mozart, 525–6. Other biographers who have estimated Mozart's publishing income include H. C. Robbins Landon, 1791: Mozart's Last Year (London, 1988), 45–7, and Volkmar Braunbehrens, Mozart in Vienna 1781–1791 (New York, 1990), 140.

46 H. C. Robbins Landon, Mozart: The Golden Years (London, 1989), 142. This reading of the letter has become firmly established in writings about Mozart. See, for example, William Stafford, The Mozart Myths: A Critical Reassessment (Stanford, CA, 1991), 103.

47 Emily Anderson renders ‘Zudringlichkeit’ (‘importunity’ in my translation) as ‘insistence’, while Robert Spaethling prefers ‘obtrusiveness’.

48 It cannot be ruled out that Mozart had helped Hoffmeister in a different way, perhaps even by lending him money to assist in the start-up costs of the subscription venture.

49 Magazin der Musik, 2/2, achtes und neuntes Stück, pp. 1042–3: ‘5) Praenumeration pour le Forte Piano ou Clavecin I.II.III.IV. Cahiers pour les Mois Novembr. Decembe 1785. Janvier & Fevrier 1786. Publiée et Se vend à Vienne au Magazin de Musique du Mr. Hoffmeister. Die vier ersten Monatshefte dieser periodischen Musiklese enthalten Quartetten, Terzetten, Sonaten für vier Hände, Fugen, Koncerte, Variationen von Albrechtsberger, Mozard, Haydn, Wanhall, Hoffmeister, leichte und schwere, galante und ernsthafte Stücke. Jedes einzelne Stück von einem Verfasser ist auch besonders für sich abgedruckt, und wird wahrscheinlich auch so einzeln verkauft. Ein Terzett von Haydn ist das Schönste dieser Sammlung; sodann kommen Mozarts Kompositionen. Wenn der Herausgeber künftig noch mehr Sorgfalt auf die Auswahl der Werke wendet, so könnten die Hefte sehr interessant werden.’

50 According to the July 1785 advertisement, Hoffmeister also intended to print the names of the subscribers ‘at the beginning of each collection in alphabetical order’ (see also Appendix 1), but no such lists are extant.

51 As a further sign of their collaboration, the autograph manuscript of Mozart's Variations for Piano K.54 (547b), published by Hoffmeister in 1793, bears the publisher's signature (personal communication from John Arthur).

52 Four wrappers are reproduced in Weinmann, Die Wiener Verlagswerke von Franz Anton Hoffmeister, Bildteil, unpaginated (after p. 252).

53 Square brackets in this transcription indicate handwritten passages. This Umschlagblatt and the accompanying copy of the Pleyel String Quintet are now in private hands. I am most grateful to Julia Rosenthal and Ulrich Drüner for their invaluable help in obtaining the reproduction shown in Figure 3, and to John Arthur for drawing it to my attention. It is also reproduced in Ulrich Konrad and Martin Staehelin, Allzeit ein Buch: Die Bibliothek Wolfgang Amadeus Mozarts (Wolfenbüttel, 1991), 107, where the editors wrongly interpret the rubrics as cahier numbers, rather than a listing of the works in cahier 1 (as the title page states, ‘Pour Ce Cahier ont fourni […]’).

54 Mozart was in possession of 22 cahiers from Hoffmeister's series at the time of his death. See ibid., 18 and 107.

55 Schwerin, Landesbibliothek Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Mus. 2620. The title page for this Umschlagblatt is transcribed in Weinmann, Die Wiener Verlagswerke von Franz Anton Hoffmeister, 49.

56 Of the six composers originally mentioned in Hoffmeister's announcement in the Wiener Zeitung, only Mitscha (that is, František Adam Míča) and Karl von Ordonez are not known to have contributed to the series, and no Hoffmeister editions by either composer have come to light. Ordonez died on 6 September 1786 and Míča is thought to have left Vienna in December 1785 (see David Young and A. Peter Brown, ‘Ordonez, Karl von’, and Milan Poštolka, ‘Míča, František Adam’, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, rev. edn, ed. Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell (London, 2001), xviii, 551–2, and xvi, 588). It should be noted that Míča's name was not included in the earlier version of Hoffmeister's advertisement, published on 22 July 1785.

57 Hoffmeister's previously published editions are listed at the beginning of the Wiener Zeitung advertisement of 6 August 1785 (see Appendix 1). The Gräffer editions were originally published without plate numbers, and it seems possible to suppose that Hoffmeister added the numbers only when he established his own press.

58 Leopold Mozart, in a letter to his daughter Maria Anna of 2 December 1785, also gives 16 October as the date of completion, as noted above (note 15); see Mozart, Briefe, iii, 461 (letter 906).

59 See NMA, VIII/22/1, ed. Federhofer, Kritischer Bericht, 5. Philippe Autexier argues that the Masonic Funeral Music, which precedes K.478 in the catalogue, was originally composed in July 1785 for performance at an elevation ritual on 12 August, but then reused as funeral music on 17 November 1785 and again on 7 December 1785 with additional wind parts. See Philippe Autexier, ‘Wann wurde die Maurerische Trauermusik uraufgeführt?’, Mozart-Jahrbuch (1984/5), 6–8.

60 An account of a meeting between an Englishman named John Pettinger and Mozart in the summer of 1785, in which Mozart is said to be working on ‘compositions for string quartet’, is now acknowledged to be a forgery (personal communication from Peter Gammond). The account was first published in Peter Gammond, One Man's Music (London, 1971), 111, and also appears in New Mozart Documents, ed. Eisen, document 62, 36–7, and Addenda, ed. Eisen, 42.

61 Neal Zaslaw also suggests that the dates ‘mark off the period from Mozart's first draft of the piece to his putting the final touches on the manuscript’. See Neal Zaslaw and William Cowdery, The Compleat Mozart (New York, 1990), 280. It should be noted that the autograph of K.478 was written on paper of a single type consistent with the summer of 1785, but betrays no further clue as to the work's genesis. See Wassenzeichen-Katalog, ed. Alan Tyson, NMA, X/33/2 (= Textband 37) (Kassel, Basle, etc., 1992), Wasserzeichen 77.

62 See Weinmann, Die Wiener Verlagswerke von Franz Anton Hoffmeister, 48.

63 Ian Woodfield, ‘John Bland: London Retailer of the Music of Haydn and Mozart’, Music and Letters, 81 (2000), 210–44 (p. 214).

64 Dorothea Link, The National Court Theater in Mozart's Vienna: Sources and Documents, 1783–1792 (Oxford, 1998), 72.

65 The two copies are held by the Fürstlich Waldburg-Zeil'schen Archiv, Leutkirch-Zeil, and the Státní oblastní archiv, Český Krumlov. See Einzeldrucke vor 1800, ed. Karl-Heinz Schlager, Répertoire internationale des sources musicales, ser. A/1, 14 vols. (Kassel, Basle, etc., 1971–2003; hereafter RISM A/1), vi (1976), nos. M5340 and MM5340.

66 I am grateful to Gertraut Haberkamp for alerting me to the catalogue's existence and to Gottfried Heinz-Kronberger for providing access to it.

67 Two arias from Salieri's La grotta di Trofonio, in an arrangement for flute quintet, were later included in cahier 3 and were similarly published without a title page. See Weinmann, Die Wiener Verlagswerke von Franz Anton Hoffmeister, 52, and RISM A/1, vii (1978), no. S526.

68 Hoffmeister later published an arrangement for flute quintet (also with two violas) of Mozart's ‘Al desio, di chi t'adora’ (K.577), which was composed in July 1789 to replace ‘Deh vieni non tardar’ for performances of Le nozze di Figaro at the Burgtheater in Vienna. See Weinmann, Die Wiener Verlagswerke von Franz Anton Hoffmeister, 109, and RISM A/1, vi, no. M5344.

69 A wrapper held by the British Library (shelfmark h.318.q.) for the fifth chamber-music cahier, intended for March 1786, shows that Hoffmeister planned only two works: a symphony by Pleyel and a duet for violin and viola by Hoffmeister.

70 Köchel, Chronologisch-thematisches Verzeichnis, 6th edn, 528. The first extant edition of K.485 was published by Artaria and first advertised on 30 May 1792. See Haberkamp, Die Erstdrucke, i, 247.

71 Köchel, Chronologisch-thematisches Verzeichnis, 6th edn, 528. The first extant edition of K.485 was published by Artaria and first advertised on 30 May 1792. See Haberkamp, Die Erstdrucke, i, 247.

72 For discussion of the omissions from Mozart's Verzeichnüss, see Albi Rosenthal and Alan Tyson, Mozart's Thematic Catalogue: A Facsimile (London, 1990), 16–19.

73 Otto Erich Deutsch and Cecil B. Oldman, ‘Mozart-Drucke: Eine bibliographische Ergänzung zu Köchels Werkverzeichnis’, Zeitschrift für Musikwissenschaft, 14 (1931–2), 135–50, 337–51 (p. 144). Constanze's letter is given in Mozart, Briefe, iv, 355 (letter 1299, lines 120–1).

74 According to Weinmann, the sonata appeared in the third cahier of year 2, in January or February 1788, although, as Haberkamp notes, no copies of the wrapper for this cahier are known to survive. See Weinmann, Die Wiener Verlagswerke von Franz Anton Hoffmeister, 84, and Haberkamp, Die Erstdrucke, i, 300. The publication by Hoffmeister of K.533/494 makes a lost earlier publication by him of the first version of K.494 quite unlikely, even if Mozart originally intended it for the series.

75 The ‘lost’ piano-quartet arrangement of K.451 is listed in Ulrich Konrad, Mozart: Catalogue of his Works (Kassel, 2005), 93. On K.448 see Köchel, Chronologisch-thematisches Verzeichnis, 6th edn, 391–2, and Haberkamp, Die Erstdrucke, i, 215. Deutsch/Oldman speculate that K.452 was arranged in Hoffmeister's edition for piano quartet by Jakob Freystädtler. See Deutsch and Oldman, ‘Mozart-Drucke’, 144–5. On K.540 and K.570, see Haberkamp, Die Erstdrucke, i, 305 and 322. On K.375 see Weinmann, Vollständiges Verlagsverzeichnis Artaria & Comp., 50.

76 It seems more likely, however, that many of these plate numbers may be accounted for by more ephemeral publications. An edition of a ‘Duetto’ in G major for two flutes by Hoffmeister, for example, probably formed part of the series, but the only extant copy, in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (shelfmark A.34415), lacks a plate number. See RISM A/1, iv (1974), no. H6062.

77 A copy of the first flute quartet in the series is held by Det Kongelige Bibliotek, Copenhagen (shelfmark Box A9.1034).

78 Salzburg, Mozarteum, Rara 478/2 (title page reproduced in Haberkamp, Die Erstdrucke, ii, 202). Oxford, Bodleian Library, Rosenthal Mus. 52.

79 Haberkamp, Die Erstdrucke, i, 241.

80 I am grateful to John Irving for drawing the addition of the staccato stroke to my attention. This brought the incipit more into line with the musical text of the edition, although the engraver failed to change the forte sign to fortissimo or to add a slur to the octave E?–D quavers at the beginning of the second bar.

81 See Appendix 1.

82 A single copy of the second issue has been located, albeit lacking the violin part, in the Széchényi National Library, Budapest, shelfmark ZR 801. See Haberkamp, Die Erstdrucke, i, 244–5.

83 Weinmann, Die Wiener Verlagswerke von Franz Anton Hoffmeister, 104–5.

84 Wiener Zeitung (15 January 1791), 126, including editions with plate numbers 14, 160, 163, 191, 192, 195, 196, 198, 199, 201–6, 208, 240 and 259; and ibid. (22 June 1793), 1842, including editions with plate numbers 14, 20, 94, 98, 101, 127, 145, 203, 204, 207, 230 and 235. See Weinmann, Die Wiener Verlagswerke von Franz Anton Hoffmeister, 116 and 154. Some editions were made available separately without any engraved alterations to the title page, but with the addition of a handwritten price.

85 The review in the Magazin der Musik quoted above also suggests that the works would be available separately.

86 These editions are listed in Ulrich Drüner, ‘Bibliographie der zu Mozarts Lebzeiten unternommenen Nachdrucke seiner Werke’, Mozart-Jahrbuch (1993), 83–111 (pp. 97–8).

87 Hans-Christian Müller, Bernhard Schott, Hofmusikstecher in Mainz: Die Frühgeschichte seines Musikverlages bis 1797 mit einem Verzeichnis der Verlagswerke 1779–1797, Beiträge zur Mittelrheinischen Musikgeschichte, 16 (Mainz, 1977), 108.

88 Hans Schneider, Der Musikverleger Heinrich Philip Bossler 1744–1812 (Tutzing, 1985), 264. A copy of the complete series is held at the British Library, shelfmark Hirsch III.14.

89 The Times (1 December 1787), 1: ‘New Music. This day is published, by Longman and Broderip […] Mozart's Harpsichord Quartet, 2s. 6d.’ This is sometimes identified as Artaria's edition of the piano quartet K.493, imported by Longman (see David Wyn Jones, ‘From Artaria to Longman & Broderip: Mozart's Music on Sale in London’, Studies in Music History presented to H. C. Robbins Landon on his Seventieth Birthday, ed. Otto Biba and David Wyn Jones (London, 1996), 105–14 (p. 113)), but it seems more likely that Longman advertised their new edition of the G minor Quartet, which was registered at Stationers’ Hall shortly after, on 31 December 1787. The registration copy held by the British Library (shelfmark g.117.(3.)) has the price of 3 shillings, rather than 2/6 as advertised in The Times, suggesting that the price might have been raised after the initial advertisement. No copies of the Artaria edition of K.493 with Longman's label are known to have survived, although a copy in the British Library has the remains of what might have been a Longman label (shelfmark e.490.cc.(3.)). The imported Artaria edition is listed in Longman's sale catalogue of July 1788 as ‘Op.13’, priced at 3 shillings (British Library, shelfmark 1609/5257).

90 Hans Schneider, Der Musikverleger Johann Michael Götz (1740–1810), 2 vols. (Tutzing, 1989), i, 389. The first known issue of the Götz edition lacks an opus number and price, but it has a passepartout title page allowing Götz to label it as ‘No. 1’ (the British Library's copy is at shelfmark h.321.nn, with the price given in ink as 3 gulden 30 kreutzer). The second issue was priced at 1 gulden 30 kreutzer, with the addition of the opus number ‘oeuvre XIII’.

91 The same catalogue also includes an entry for a ‘Trio mit I violin in Es dur’ by Mozart, which Cliff Eisen identifies as K.493, although it could equally refer to a trio arrangement in E? major of a different work, especially since Mozart is not likely to have distributed manuscript copies of K.493 so soon after completion. See Addenda, ed. Eisen, 48, and New Mozart Documents, ed. Eisen, 46.

92 The state of research into the paper types used in Viennese music publishing is still too primitive to allow us to date the second issue of Hoffmeister's edition with any accuracy.

93 Wiener Zeitung (21 July 1787), 1762 (Anhang); in accordance with Artaria's usual practice the advertisement was repeated in the next issue of the newspaper (25 July 1787), 1795 (Anhang).

94 Wiener Zeitung (19 December 1787), 3071 (Anhang). The work was re-advertised at 1 gulden 40 kreutzer in the Wiener Zeitung (19 March 1788), 674–5 (Anhang), and (22 March 1788), 707–8 (Anhang).

95 Artaria's catalogue of 1788 is reproduced in full in Die Sortimentskataloge der Musikalienhandlung Artaria & Comp. in Wien aus den Jahren 1779, 1780, 1782, 1785 und 1788, ed. Otto Biba and Ingrid Fuchs, Veröffentlichungen des Archivs der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien, 5 (Tutzing, 2006), 243–326; the section for piano quartets is reproduced on p. 291 (p. 41 of the original catalogue).

96 Additional supporting evidence is provided by Artaria's Inventory Ledger no. 4, which represents the firm's financial position on 1 August 1787 with a full disclosure of its assets and liabilities. The evidence of this document suggests that K.493 had been engraved (or at least that the number of plates required was known) when the ledger was compiled, but that it had not yet been printed: the edition is listed in the section of the ledger that records the number of engraving plates held in storage by the firm in Vienna, but not in the list of printed stock copies. See Ridgewell, ‘Mozart and the Artaria Publishing House’, 57–60 (transcription of the list of stock copies) and 66 (engraved plates).

97 Artaria did not usually add their own label to such imported editions, although these may sometimes be identified from the annotation of the new price on the title page in pencil or ink.

98 Artaria's edition of K.478 appeared as ‘op. 24’ with the plate number 493. See RISM A/1, vi, nos. M6307 and MM6307. The autograph of K.478 is annotated in Nissen's hand with the note ‘bey Artaria & Schott’. See Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Quartett in g […] mit einer Einführung von Faye Ferguson, 13 and fol. 1r.

99 Gertraut Haberkamp has identified four different states of the edition, but at no point was it identified as ‘No. 2’. See Haberkamp, Die Erstdrucke, i, 262–3.

100 Deutsch and Oldman (‘Mozart-Drucke’, 144) conjecture that the unnumbered piano quartet advertised in Artaria's sale catalogue of 1788 might be an arrangement of the Piano and Wind Quintet K.452, in a lost edition published by Hoffmeister.

101 Textual differences between the two editions suggest that they were based on independent sources. See NMA, VII/22/1, ed. Federhofer, Kritischer Bericht, 23. It is likely that Storace acquired the work directly from Mozart, either before he left Vienna in early 1787 or subsequently, and his edition may therefore be counted as ‘authentic’.

102 Mozart, Briefe, iii, 565–7 (letter 974). The works Mozart offered to Winter were the symphonies K.425, 385, 319 and 338, five recent piano concertos (K.451, 453, 456, 459 and 488), the Sonata for Piano and Violin K.481, and the Piano Trio K.496, as well as the G minor Piano Quartet, K.478.

103 Mozart, Briefe, iii, 565–7 (letter 974). The works Mozart offered to Winter were the symphonies K.425, 385, 319 and 338, five recent piano concertos (K.451, 453, 456, 459 and 488), the Sonata for Piano and Violin K.481, and the Piano Trio K.496, as well as the G minor Piano Quartet, K.478, iii, 589 (letter 988, lines 5–6): ‘es ist ganz natürlich daß einige Stücke von mir ins ausland versendet werden’.

104 See Cliff Eisen, ‘Dissemination of Mozart's Music’, The Mozart Compendium: A Guide to Mozart's Life and Music, ed. H. C. Robbins Landon (London, 1990), 185–6, and Ulrich Drüner, ‘Die Frührezeption von Mozarts Werken im Musikaliendruck’, Acta Mozartiana, 40 (1993), 39–49.

105 We do know that Die Entführung aus dem Serail was performed at the Kärntnertortheater on 9 November 1786 and a series of four Advent concerts were apparently scheduled in the Trattner Casino, although there is no documentary evidence for them beyond a brief mention in Leopold Mozart's letter to Nannerl of 8 December 1786. See Mozart, Briefe, iii, 618 (letter 1010, lines 41–4). See also Mozart, Dokumente, 246, citing Hermann Abert, W. A. Mozart, herausgegeben als fünfte, vollständig neu bearbeitete und erweiterte Ausgabe von Otto Jahns Mozart, 2 vols. (Leipzig, 1919–21), i, 1015.

106 Mozart, Briefe, iii, 613 (letter 1006, lines 34–5): ‘Von deinem Bruder hab seit der Zeit keinen Brief mehr, werde auch vermutlich so geschwind keinen erhalten.’

107 See Rupert Ridgewell, ‘Artaria Plate Numbers and the Publication Process, 1778–1784’, Music and the Book Trade, ed. Giles Mandelbrote, Michael Harris and Robin Myers (New Castle, DE, and London, 2008), 145–78.

108 On 11 February 1787 Haydn promised to bring ‘the quartet’ in eight days; on 14 February he states that ‘the quartet will follow soon’, claiming opera rehearsals had held him up; on 4 March he sent the first movement of the third quartet, promising the remainder in a few days; on 19 May he reports having completed the fourth quartet; on 10 June he undertakes to finish the fifth quartet that week and the sixth shortly thereafter; on 21 June he promises to send the fourth and fifth quartets (perhaps corrected proof copies?) via Princess Liechtenstein or Count von Lamberg at the latest on Sunday; on 23 June he sent the fourth quartet, promising the fifth in the following week; on 12 July he sent the sixth quartet, stating that he had been unable to ‘set’ (or rather copy) the fifth quartet, although it had been completed, owing to lack of time; finally on 16 September he sent the fifth quartet, requesting proof copies as soon as possible. He returned the proofs on 22 November. See Joseph Haydn, Gesammelte Briefe und Aufzeichnungen, ed. Denés Bartha (Kassel, 1965), letters 77 (p. 157), 78 (p. 158), 80 (p. 161), 86 (p. 167), 87 (p. 168), 88 (p. 169), 89 (p. 171), 91 (p. 172) and 96 (pp. 177–8).

109 On 11 February 1787 Haydn promised to bring ‘the quartet’ in eight days; on 14 February he states that ‘the quartet will follow soon’, claiming opera rehearsals had held him up; on 4 March he sent the first movement of the third quartet, promising the remainder in a few days; on 19 May he reports having completed the fourth quartet; on 10 June he undertakes to finish the fifth quartet that week and the sixth shortly thereafter; on 21 June he promises to send the fourth and fifth quartets (perhaps corrected proof copies?) via Princess Liechtenstein or Count von Lamberg at the latest on Sunday; on 23 June he sent the fourth quartet, promising the fifth in the following week; on 12 July he sent the sixth quartet, stating that he had been unable to ‘set’ (or rather copy) the fifth quartet, although it had been completed, owing to lack of time; finally on 16 September he sent the fifth quartet, requesting proof copies as soon as possible. He returned the proofs on 22 November. See Joseph Haydn, Gesammelte Briefe und Aufzeichnungen, ed. Denés Bartha (Kassel, 1965), letter 77 (p. 157).

110 Soler's opera Una cosa rara had first been performed at the Burgtheater in Vienna on 17 November 1786.

111 It has been suggested that he arrived back in time to take part in Nancy Storace's farewell concert on 23 February. See New Mozart Documents, ed. Eisen, 39 (commentary to document 64), and Addenda, ed. Eisen, 90–1.

112 In a letter to his young friend Gottfried von Jacquin, dated 15 January 1787, Mozart reports performing ‘ein kleines Quatuor in caritatis camera’ (that is, ‘a little quartet for ourselves’) in his room at the palace of Count Thun a day after his arrival in Prague. Since he also reports that a piano had been delivered to the room, it has been suggested that the quartet in question was K.493, but it is equally possible that Mozart is referring here to a quartet for another combination of instruments. See Mozart, Briefe, iv, 10 (letter 1022, lines 30–1).

113 For Hoffmeister's correspondence see: Axel Beer and Klaus Burmeister, ‘“… in betreff des geizigen Caracters von Haydn”: Ein Brief Franz Anton Hoffmeisters als Quelle zur Musik- und Verlagsgeschichte der Zeit um 1800’, Die Musikforschung, 50 (1997), 36–47; Axel Beer, ‘Beethoven und das Leipziger Bureau de Musique von Franz Anton Hoffmeister und Ambrosius Kühnel (1800 bis 1803)’, Festschrift Klaus Hortschansky zum 60. Geburtstag (Tutzing, 1995), 339–50; and Else Radant, ‘Ignaz Pleyel's Correspondence with Hoffmeister & Co.’, Haydn Yearbook, 12 (1981), 122–74. For the receipt, see Sotheby's Catalogue of the Sale of Valuable Autograph Letters, Literary Manuscripts and Historical Documents including Sections of Continental and Music Manuscripts (London, 29 June 1982), lot 201, 82. I am grateful to John Arthur for drawing this document to my attention.

114 See Ridgewell, ‘Artaria Plate Numbers and the Publication Process, 1778–87’, 163–5. If the music engraver did engrave his or her ‘signature’ on an edition, it would most commonly appear at the bottom right-hand corner of the first page of music, or occasionally at the very end of the edition.

115 See See Ridgewell, ‘Artaria Plate Numbers and the Publication Process, 1778–87’, 163–5. If the music engraver did engrave his or her ‘signature’ on an edition, it would most commonly appear at the bottom right-hand corner of the first page of music, or occasionally at the very end of the edition, 164.

116 This was Artaria's only edition of a complete opera in full score. The publication was announced in the Wiener Zeitung on 26 April 1786 and it appeared with the plate number 77. For a facsimile reprint of the edition, see La grotta di Trofonio, opera comica in due atti, introduzione di Laura Callegari (Civico Museo Bibliografico Musicale), Bibliotheca Musica Bononiensis, IV/18b (Bologna, 1984).

117 Weinmann, Die Wiener Verlagswerke von Franz Anton Hoffmeister, 8: ‘Sicherlich hat Hoffmeister in der Zeit zwischen 1787 und 1791 als Mitarbeiter bereits Stecher und Drucker beschäftigt, die aber später oder möglicherweise schon gleichzeitig für andere Verleger, besonders eben auch für Artaria arbeiteten; gerade dieser Umstand aber macht einer reinliche Trennung der Werkstätten Hoffmeisters und Artarias unmöglich.’

118 Ted Ross, The Art of Music Engraving and Processing (Miami, FL, 1970), 55–60.

119 David Wyn Jones, ‘What Do Surviving Copies of Early Printed Music Tell Us?’, Music Publishing in Europe, 1600–1900: Concepts and Issues, Bibliography, ed. Rudolf Rasch (Berlin, 2005), 139–58 (pp. 144–5).

120 On the confusion between Giuseppe Sarti and Joseph Sardi in Artaria's publications, see Richard Armbruster, ‘Joseph Sardi – Autor der Klaviervariationen KV 460 (454a): Zum Schaffen eines unbekannt gebliebenen Komponisten in Wien zur Zeit Mozarts’, Mozart-Jahrbuch (1997), 225–48.

121 Artaria's edition of the Boccherini violin sonatas survives in a single copy, lacking the violin part, held in the Bibliotheca Boccherini, Lucca (RISM A/1, i (1971), no. B3037). I am grateful to Rudolf Rasch for comparing this with a copy of the Torricella edition.

122 The firm also issued an arrangement for piano and strings of Pleyel's Concerto in C major, Ben. (1023) 103A (RISM A/1, vi, no. P2782; PN 275).

123 This point is made by Peter Ward Jones in ‘The Rosenthal Mozart Collection’, Brio, 44 (2007), 6–15 (p. 9).

124 An entry for 28 ‘Planche non incise’ (‘Plate[s] not engraved’) is given in a list of ‘Rami di Musica in Stagno’ (‘Plates of music in pewter’) in Artaria's Inventory Ledger no. 3: Wienbibliothek im Rathaus, Handschriftensammlung, I.N. 178.881, Artaria Geschäftsinventar 3, p. 67.

125 Gertraut Haberkamp gives the following measurements: for K.478, 29.5 x 22 cm (title page 21.5 x 29 cm); and for K.493, 22 x 29.5 cm. See Haberkamp, Die Erstdrucke, i, 240.

126 Weinmann, Die Wiener Verlagswerke von Franz Anton Hoffmeister, 76. A copy of this edition is held by the British Library at shelfmark e.101.a.(9.).

127 Examples of Viennese music engraving dating from before 1778 reveal that all the elements of the engraved image were produced freehand with the burin, the standard tool of the art engraver. See Hannelore Gericke, Der Wiener Musikalienhandel von 1700 bis 1778, Wiener musikwissenschaftliche Beiträge, 5 (Vienna and Cologne, 1960). In much of central Europe until the 1770s, however, music printing was mostly the preserve of book publishers who issued sporadic typeset editions for a limited market.

128 The introduction of music engraving to Vienna is usually credited to Anton Huberty (c.1722–91), an engraver of Flemish descent, who spent much of his early career in Paris before moving to Vienna in 1776. In Vienna he initially attempted to establish his own business in opposition to Artaria, but soon settled for working for various publishers, including Artaria, Torricella and Rudolf Gräffer. See Alexander Weinmann, Kataloge Anton Huberty (Wien) und Christoph Torricella, Beiträge des Alt-Wiener Musikverlages, 2/8 (Vienna, 1962), 1–7. See also Ridgewell, ‘Artaria Plate Numbers and the Publication Process, 1778–87’, 163–8 and appendix.

129 Donald William Krummel, Guide for Dating Early Published Music: A Manual of Bibliographical Practices (Hackensack, NJ, and Kassel, 1974), 96.

130 For a practical description of music engraving, see Anik Devriès-Lesure, ‘Technological Aspects’, Music Publishing in Europe, 1600–1900, ed. Rasch, 64–88 (pp. 75–8). See also H. Edmund Poole, ‘Music Engraving Practice in Eighteenth-Century London: A Study of Some Forster Editions of Haydn and their Manuscript Sources’, Music and Bibliography: Essays in Honour of Alec Hyatt King, ed. Oliver Neighbour (London, 1980), 98–131. There is, however, no generally accepted standard method for describing a set of music-engraving punches, although the bibliographical issues are similar to those involved in the description of typefaces, as discussed in G. Thomas Tanselle, ‘The Identification of Type Faces in Bibliographical Description’, Journal of Typographic Research, 1 (1967), 427–47.

131 See the published facsimile cited in note 2.

132 There is a single appearance of a second ‘p’ punch in the violin part, on p. 3, line 13, bar 3 (an indication that does appear in Mozart's autograph).

133 Hoffmeister 1 engraved three plates in the viola part for Hoffmeister's two flute quartets, plate number 25 (RISM A/1, iv, no. H5920). The treble-clef punch used by Hoffmeister 2 appears in the violin part of Vanhal's Concerto for Piano, plate number 24 (RISM A/1, ix (1981), no. V353).

134 Haydn, Gesammelte Briefe, ed. Bartha, letter 72 (p. 148): ‘Ich erhielte vorgestern die Clavier Sonaten mit gröster Verwunderung des schlechten stiches wegen, und denen so vielen ärgerlichen fehlern, welche in allen stimen besonders in der Clavier stim ansehen muste, ich ware anfangs So toll, dass ich Ihnen das geld zurück senden, und die Partitur deren Sonaten augenblicklich nach Berlin den Herrn Hummel zusenden wolte, weil ich mir wegen denen hier, und da, unlesbahren, übel, aus-, und eingetheilten Stellen wenig Ehre, und Sie hiedurch wenig Nutzen verschaffen werden. Jeder, der Sie kaufft, wird bey Abspiellung über den stecher fluchen, und zu spielen aufhören […] und diss scheint mir geschahe aus Ersparung, ich wolte lieber aus mein[em] eigenen Sack noch 2 blatten gezahlt haben, als solche Verwürrung ansehen.’ Translated in H. C. Robbins Landon, The Collected Correspondence and London Notebooks of Joseph Haydn (London, 1959), 51.

135 Anthony von Hoboken, Joseph Haydn: Thematisch-bibliographisches Werkverzeichnis, 3 vols. (Mainz, 1957), i, 688: ‘Artaria hat mich gebeten die verdorbenen Klaviertrios für die Gräfin Witzay zu reparieren. Ich werde sie also schleunigst stechen.’ The letter was addressed to Canon Johann Georg Battonn, who was librarian of the Bartholomäus Stift in Frankfurt at this time. Hoboken cites two other letters to Battonn held by the Schott archive (ibid., ii, 52 and 66), but does not give the location of this letter.

136 These included the repeated bass notes on page 18 and the positioning of the turn sign.

137 Axel Beer, ‘Composers and Publishers: Germany 1700–1830’, Music Publishing in Europe, 1600–1900, ed. Rasch, 160–81 (p. 159).

138 I wish to thank Oliver Neighbour for this suggestion.

139 Zaslaw and Cowdery, The Compleat Mozart, 280.