Such wrote Beethoven in 1801 as a postscript to financial negotiations. With http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki... , we are aiming at a science version of such a repository (keeping in mind that it may well be distributed). UPDATE Nov 2011: The project is now up for crowdfunding via http://rockethub.com/project... . - Daniel Mietchen from Bookmarklet

"Nun waere das saure Geschaeft vollendet, ich nenne das so weil ich wuenschte dass es anders in der Welt sein koennte. Es sollte nur ein Magazin der Kunst in der Welt sein wo der Kuenstler seine Kunstwerke nur hinzugeben haette um zu nehmen was er brauchte; so muss man noch ein halber Handelsmann dabei sein und wie findet man sich darein -- du lieber Gott -- das nenne ich noch einmal sauer." - Bill Hooker

Possibly bad translation: "Now let the sour business be finished; I call it so because I wish it could be otherwise in the world. There should be only one Repository of art in the world, to which the artist need only donate his work in order to take what he needed. That one must be half a merchant into the bargain, and how to find oneself in it -- dear God! -- that is what I call again sour." - Bill Hooker

If I have the translation even close, then Ludwig is complaining not just about the absence of a single repository and reciprocal access rights for depositors, but also about search! :-) - Bill Hooker

A video on Beethoven's repository is now up: http://friendfeed.com/danielm... . - Daniel Mietchen

Fascinating bit of history. I'll be giving a talk on open science in the city of Beethoven's birth (Bonn) later this month and it'll be fun to riff on this. - Todd Vision

Thanks Dan for the link to the Google Books transcription. I found a facsimile of the letter itself here: http://bit.ly/w3ubXA - Todd Vision

Thanks - I cropped the relevant passage to http://dl.dropbox.com/u... . When will the talk be? - Daniel Mietchen