Novalis

Georg Philipp Friedrich von Hardenberg, better known by his pseudonym Novalis (Wiederstedt, May 2, 1772-Weißenfels, March 25, 1801), was a writer and German philosopher, representative of early German Romanticism.

In addition to the Hymns to the Night and the sets of fragments Polen and Faith and love – the core of his work published during his lifetime –, his production includes two unfinished novels (The Disciples in Sais and Heinrich von Ofterdingen), a collection of poems with religious themes (Spiritual Songs) along to several loose poems, two famous essays (Christianity or Europe and the Monologue) and various groups of fragments and notes, such as the “Logological Fragments”, the early “Studies on Fichte” or the later “General Draft”, better known as Encyclopedia.

His figure was traditionally associated with the literary topic of the “blue flower”, his love story with Sophie von Kühn, his worldview known as “magical idealism”, mystical thought and his membership in the group of early romantics. Germans, among whom were his friends – and those responsible for the first edition of his works – Friedrich Schlegel and Ludwig Tieck. It is currently considered that some of these associations, in particular that of his connection with Sophie von Kühn – to whose early death an alleged turn towards mysticism in Novalian thought was traditionally attributed – are based on a partial and careless study of his work. and in simplifications present in the first editions of his writings and in some early biographies.

His professional life developed in the field of mining (he became an inspector of the Weißenfels salt mines), a recurring theme in his literary work. A central part of his studies and interests were generally oriented toward scientific research. This orientation is very present both in his theoretical work and in his literary production, in which he frequently resorts to theories such as magnetism, galvanism or alchemy and to the topic, in general, of the study of nature..

Biography

Childhood and adolescence (1772-1790)

Novalis belonged to a family of Saxon nobility, native to the area of Lower Saxony, with antecedents that can be traced seamlessly back to the century XII. The branch to which Novalis would belong (the branch of the barons) moved to the area of the current German state Saxony-Anhalt. There, in the Schloss Oberwiederstedt in the small town of Wiederstedt, Georg Philipp Friedrich von Hardenberg was born in 1772.

In this Schloss Oberwiederstedt (now a museum and research center on early German Romanticism) Hardenberg spent the first twelve years of his life, until his father was appointed, in 1784, director of the Dürrenberg, Kösen and Artern salt works of the Electorate of Saxony and the family moved to a house (now a museum) in the town of Weißenfels (also in Saxony-Anhalt).

Novalis was the second of the eleven children born to Heinrich Ulrich Erasmus von Hardenberg – a man of firm pietist religiosity linked to the Moravian Brotherhood – and his second wife Auguste Bernhardine von Bölzig. The father's strictness would generate certain disagreements between him and his son Friedrich, which, however, would never lead to insurmountable conflicts. But for the disturbing onset of dysentery in 1780 or 1781, Hardenberg's childhood passed without major disturbances.

Years of formation (1790-1794)

Novalis was initially educated by private tutors. Later, in 1790, he attended the Luthergymnasium of Eisleben, where he acquired skills in rhetoric and classical culture. In October of this same year he enrolled at the University of Jena to study law. There he met, among others, Friedrich Schiller and Karl Leonhard Reinhold, and attended their lessons. During January 1791 he personally cared, along with other students, for Schiller, who had fallen ill. He is alluded to in Hardenberg's first publication, the poem Complaints of a Young Man (Klagen eines Jünglings), which appeared in the magazine Der neue Teutscher Merkur i>. In October he left the University of Jena and later enrolled at the University of Leipzig. During 1792 he met Friedrich Schlegel, who would later become one of his greatest friends, and went through great uncertainty about his future, even considering the possibility of becoming a soldier. The following year, however, he enrolled at the University of Wittenberg, where he finally graduated in 1794.

Beginnings of professional activity (1794-1795)

In October 1794 Hardenberg left for Tennstedt to take up a position as official secretary (Aktuarius) in the district administration, which was headed by August Cölestin Just. Just would later become his close friend and even the author of one of the most important early biographies of Novalis. At this stage, in November 1794, he met 12-year-old Sophie von Kühn in Grüningen, to whom he would later, on Sophie's 13th birthday on March 17, 1795, become engaged. During this year Hardenberg divided his time between official activities in Tennstedt and his relationship with Sophie in Grüningen, and also began his philosophical annotations known as “Studies on Fichte” (Fichte-Studien). With Fichte himself (and also with Hölderlin) he shared a meeting during May at Immanuel Niethammer's house.

On December 30, the appointment of Novalis as a junior official (Akzessist) in the management of the salt mines in Weißenfels was approved, a job that he would accompany with his continued notes on Fichte and his relationship with Sophie, increasingly marked by the deterioration of her health.

Relationship with Sophie von Kühn (1795-1797)

Hardenberg met Sophie in the context of an official trip and, according to his own testimony, it took him a quarter of an hour to fall in love with her. Sophie's illness would intervene, however, shortly after her engagement: already in November 1795 she suffered a first crisis and during the second half of 1796 she was operated on three times, without achieving hopeful improvements. She finally died in March from tuberculosis. Since then, Hardenberg kept a diary in which he recorded, with a date established from the number of days that had passed since Sophie's death, the evolution of his feelings, as well as the activities he engaged in during this period (in particular, the in-depth study of Goethe's Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship Years).

The relationship between Sophie and Novalis and her early death would leave certain marks on his literary work. Fundamentally, the third and central of Hymns to the Night and various elements of Heinrich von Ofterdingen refer to these events. The criticism surrounding Novalis's work made this relationship an absolutely capital element in Hardenberg's life, to the point of articulating his entire existence around it. This vision would later be discredited by research on his life and the work, although the commonplace image of Novalis as a poet tortured by the early death of his young beloved remains to this day.

Years of study in Freiberg and development of mature work (1797-1799)

Between December 1797 and mid-1799, a highly productive period of his life, Hardenberg trained at the Freiberg Bergakademie (the Mining Academy, today the Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg). /i>). There he attended, among others, Gottlob Werner's geology classes, which would have a great impact on his thinking and also on his literary work. During 1798 his most recognized sets of fragments were published, already under the pseudonym “Novalis”: Polen (Blüthenstaub), written at the end of 1797, and its content fragments political Faith and love (Glauben und Liebe). His first novel project The Disciples in Sais, the set of annotations known as “Teplice fragments” (Teplitzer Fragmente) and the first elaborations of the < i>General draft (Das allgemeine Brouillon), to some extent a result of his growing interest in the Naturphilosophie of Schelling, whom he had met personally during 1797. At the end of 1798 he began his courtship with Julie von Charpentier, who would accompany him from then on.

Last productive years (1799-1800)

In 1799 he finished his studies in Freiberg and, from mid-May, he resumed professional activity in Weißenfels, where he served as salt mine inspection advisor (Salinenassesor). Several notes and fragments come from this time and also Christianity or Europe (Die Christenheit oder Europa) and the first developments of his second and largest novel project Heinrich von Ofterdingen. He also develops and strengthens his friendship with Ludwig Tieck, who would be, together with Friedrich Schlegel, the main person responsible for the first edition of Novalis's complete works.

During 1800 he continued with the work of his advisor and with the writing of his novel and the Hymns to the Night (Hymnen an die Nacht), which were published in September. At the end of the year he was appointed supernumerary district official (Supernumerar-Amtshauptmann) in Thuringia, although his health was then already too poor.

Illness and death (1800-1801)

Lung deficiencies had accompanied his life since childhood, and in the last months of the 1800s they had revealed themselves to be highly problematic. At the end of 1800 he suffered a hemorrhage and his situation began to appear irreversible. On March 25, 1801, still convinced of the possibility of carrying out new plans for the second part of Heinrich von Ofterdingen, he died at noon in the presence of Friedrich Schlegel and his brother Karl von Hardenberg, due to hemorrhage caused by pulmonary tuberculosis or, perhaps, by muscoviscidosis. His remains were buried in Weißenfels.

Work

Early work

Leaving aside a very few prose sketches (among them, an interesting Apology for Friedrich Schiller), Novalis's production before 1795 consists fundamentally of poetry. More than one hundred poems from these years are preserved. These poems, however, are left aside by most critics, as mere explorations of a clear mimetic nature: in many cases they are poems of marked Horatian sensitivity and, generally, of little originality. However, they are interesting in that certain tendencies can be seen there that would later be characteristic of Novalian poetics. Among them, above all, the establishment of equivalences between the self and nature. From his student years, critics include, among others, Die Kahnfahrt, Badelied, Elegie beim Grabe eines Jünglings, Vergiß mein nicht , Walzer and his first publication: Klagen eines Jünglings, 1791.

During the time of Tennstedt and his relationship with Sophie von Kühn, Novalis composed some poems (including several that deal explicitly with his fiancée), such as Anfang, M. und S. , Lied beim Punsch or Zu Sophiens Geburtstag , but above all, his philosophical production stands out: the so-called “Studies on Fichte ”.

The Fichte-Studien

Between the German autumn of 1795 and 1796 Hardenberg wrote this series of 667 notes that are today known as "Studies on Fichte" (Fichte-Studien). These are notes on the philosophical problems that were at the forefront of discussion in Germany in the last decade of the 18th century, that is to say that, among other issues, it deals with the possibilities and limitations of knowledge, the self-knowledge faculties of the self, the links between the self and nature, between the self and transcendence, etc. For a long time poorly edited and little studied, these Fichte-Studien were transformed, during the second half of the 20th century , at the center of attention of research on Novalis's thought. These notes, called “Studies on Fichte” by virtue of an evident connection with the problems addressed by Fichte (at the time the most influential philosopher in Germany), contain ideas of the greatest originality and a series of personal, profound and complex developments, on the self-awareness of the ego and on its knowledge of the world. Regarding these issues, their proposals on the relationships between “feeling” (Gefühl) and “reflection” () stand out. Reflexion) as modes of self-knowledge, his theory about the “ordo inversus” in the fact of knowledge, his exposition of the limits of philosophy and the incipient presence of an idea (very significant in his later work) about the possibility of overcoming the limitations of philosophy through art.

1797

During the turbulent 1797, the year of Sophie's agony and death and that of Novalis's closest brother, Erasmus, his philosophical and poetic production was particularly scarce. In contrast to this, the section corresponding to this year in the personal diaries and letters is very large.

A few poems are preserved, otherwise occasional (for example Gedicht zum 29. April, dem Tage des Gartenkaufs), some interesting but limited studies on works by Hemsterhuis and Kant (the so-called called Hemsterhuis-Studien and Kant-Studien) and little else. In these studies, however, two important aspects can be noted: the growing interest in poetic language as that intended to overcome the obstacles of philosophical thought, on the one hand, and, on the other, the tendency of Novalis's language to approximate increasingly to the format that would be characteristic of his later production, that of the fragment.

The fragments

Already at the end of 1797 Novalis wrote his Intermixed Observations (Vermischte Bemerkungen), the manuscript that would serve as the basis for Polen (Blüthenstaub), his most recognized set of fragments today. The set addresses very diverse themes and alternates, from a formal point of view, between one-line sentences and long reflections of a page or more.

The first of the fragments, one of the best known, affirms, in continuity with the philosophical proposals of the Fichte-Studien, the limitations of thought in its search for the unconditioned:

We search everywhere for the incondition and always find only things (Wir suchen überall das Unbedingte, und finden immer nur Dinge).

Important for criticism are also the considerations about the fragment itself as a genre:

The art of writing books has not yet been invented, but it is about to be invented. Fragments of this class are literary seeds. Among them there will be, by the way, some sterile granite – however, with only one sprouting...

The fragment, for Novalis as well as for the circle of the Jena romantics, is an autonomous unit enclosed in itself from which an idea of value, a new thought, can arise (or not): small occurrences worked from the formal point of view and diverse content and different degrees of depth.

More uniform, however, is the theme of the other set of fragments by Novalis from this same period, Faith and love, or The king and the queen, 43 fragments of political themes that were to be completed with the 26 Political Aphorisms that, on the other hand, would not be published due to distrust of the censorship of the content of Faith and Love. Novalis here exalts the figure of the king and the queen as inspiring symbols for the citizen. In Faith and Love, as in his essay (posthumously published) Christianity or Europe, Novalis shows a strong commitment to the monarchical form of government that rests, on everything, in the value that unitary administration has for strengthening the brotherhood between men and for the exaltation of the ideas of nobility and heroism. Criticism also insisted, not only with respect to Novalis but mainly with respect to Romanticism in general, on the visible reactionary aspect of romantic ideology.

In addition to Polen, which would be published in the Schlegel brothers' magazine Athenaeum, and Faith and Love, which appeared in the < i>Jahrbücher der preußischen Monarchie, at this same time Novalis also wrote other fragments that would only see the light of day posthumously. Within the framework of this production, the set of “logological fragments” (Logologische Fragmente) stands out, where there are important notes on language, poetry, its links with philosophy, etc..

Origin of the pseudonym "Novalis"

With the publication of Polen “Novalis” was born as a name for a writer who until now had only published one poem seven years ago and under the guise of "v. H***g.". Novalis himself superficially explains his choice in the letter to August Wilhelm Schlegel that accompanied the sending of the manuscript with the fragments, on February 24, 1798:

If you wanted to make with them a public use, in that case I would ask you to go under the name Novalis – old name of my family and not quite inappropriate.

Indeed, Hardenberg's family had been called “von Rode”, or, in its Latin version, “de Novali”. This name “von Rode” came to the Hardenberg family as a result of one of their assets, the Gut Rode (later Großenrode) in the Lower Saxony. “Rod”, in turn, designates a field prepared for cultivation, generally a land left fallow (what today would be called “Brachfeld”, “Brachland”) or a land that will be used for the first time, “new” land (Neuland, Neubruch). That is, what in Latin would be said “novalis” or “novale”. The choice of the pseudonym is present not only the fact that it was a name that the family actually had but also, and in the foreground, the meaning, the etymology of this old name of the Hardenbergs. "Novalis" It is the name that the author assigns to his first small work, for his entry into the world of letters, and it is the name that the author of a text that corresponds to a genre that is very exploratory, of incursion, irruption into new terrain. Novalis describes both the terrain and the character and aspirations of the irruption into it in the elegiac couplet that serves as an epigraph at the beginning of Polen:

Friends, the soil is poor, seeds in abundance.

Throw, that we may be given even modest harvests.

Freunde, der Boden ist arm, wir müßen reichlichen Samen

Ausstreun, daß uns doch nur mäßige Erndten gedeihn.

The Disciples in Sais

Novalis's first novel project initially emerged as a set of fragments about nature, which he called at that time The Disciple in Sais. Later Novalis gave these ideas a narrative form. What he managed to write about this novel is about a series of apprentices who try, under the guidance of a teacher, to scrutinize the deepest mysteries of nature. In a succession of developments that go through narration, dialogue, wonderful story or even song, the novel is fundamentally concerned with the correct way to approach nature. This mode, in line with the ideas that Novalis defended with increasing conviction, has little to do with the analytical dissection of the elements of the natural world and much to do, instead, with a personal dedication to nature, with the consideration of nature as an other self and with interest in those planes of nature that escape a scientific or rationalist philosophical contemplation. The novel would remain unfinished, but not because Novalis considered his project uninteresting: among Novalis's goals in his last years was to finish it once he had given definitive shape to his other great narrative project, Heinrich von Ofterdingen .

Heinrich von Ofterdingen

This novel, designed in two parts, was written by Novalis in a much larger percentage: he completed the first part (“The Wait”) and outlined the beginning of the second and last (“The Consummation”).

The exterior plot of the novel is particularly simple and linear: it is about a trip made by Heinrich and his mother from Eisenach to Augsburg, her homeland. There Heinrich meets Mathilde, with whom he falls in love and with whom he becomes engaged, and his father Klingsohr, who tries to assist him in his training as a poet.

However, the novel is mainly interested in the inner plot of Heinrich, which is precisely his training as a poet: the development of the action is an accompaniment to what happens inside of Heinrich, for his gradual conquest of poetic skill. The first part of Heinrich von Ofterdingen deals mostly with this poetic learning of his character. The second part was to deal with the deployment of the acquired skills, about Heinrich's life as an accomplished poet.

In the novel they intersect, as in The Disciples in Sais but with greater intensity and harmony, different literary registers: stories, songs, dreams, dialogues, wonderful tales, verses and visions add elements to the poetic treasure from which Heinrich draws in his pursuit of poetry. This drive towards the poetic is symbolized, in the novel, by the famous image of the blue flower. Blue, in the work in general, is the color that alludes to the presence of something higher, something pure or superior.

Throughout the novel there are several points that are decisive in Heinrich's poetic formation: one of the most significant is found in the fifth chapter. There Heinrich, along with others who were from the party, accompanies an old miner on an excursion to some caves. On the way to the caves Heinrich understands, in the context of a singular vision, that the plurality of the world is nothing more than illusory since being is, in essence, unitary, and can be resolved into a few primordial forms. This element is represented in the novel in the insistent formation of human “types” (the miner, the poet, the sovereign, etc.) that represent certain basic and repeated forms of Humanity. On the other hand, both this reduction to models of the totality of being and the identification and hybridization of different characters of the same essence (for example, two poets are, in truth, the same person) or even, as planned, of natures (in principle) diverse, it is in harmony with Novalis's philosophical and scientific-philosophical ideas about the organic character of the Universe and about the identity between its different elements. This aspect is central to what is known as his “magical idealism” and to much of his later literary work.

Hymns to the night

The Hymns to the Night (Hymnen an die Nacht) appeared in the magazine Athenaeum in the year 1800, but its production began quite some time before. The starting point of the third hymn (third in the set, first in terms of its date of composition) seems to be an event in the life of Novalis, attested to in his diary, in the entry corresponding to May 13, 1797.:

I got up at 5. It was a good time. He spent the morning without me doing much. Captain Rockenthien came with his sister-in-law and his children. I received a letter from Schlegel with the first part of Shakespeare's new translations. After eating I went for a walk; then coffee; time worsened; first, storm, and then clouded and drunk; very voluptuous; I began to read Shakespeare; I surrendered completely to the reading. At sunset I headed towards Sophie [i.e. toward her grave]. There I was indescribably happy; relap moments of enthusiasm. He wipes the tomb before me from a sop, like dust. Centuries were like moments; you could feel her closeness; I constantly believed that she was about to appear. Once I came home, I had some emotion talking to ma chère. Anyway, I was very happy all day. In the afternoon was Niebekker. At night I still had some good ideas. Shakespeare gave me a lot to think about.

In the third of the Hymns to the Night there is a very clear equivalence with this experience, around which the complete set of the six “hymns” are organized, compositions written partially in prose, partially in verse, in which a lyrical self narrates an inner process of profound transcendence: from an initial veneration of Light (symbol of enlightened thought, reason, etc.) it passes to a later understanding of the superiority of Night (associated with the deepest, the unknown and mysterious but also the most authentic). This process reaches its climax in the third hymn, in which the self who enunciates the hymns agrees to see the other side of what in the fourth hymn is called the “border mountain of the Earth.” and can contemplate the kingdom of Night and its magic. The remaining three hymns present a calm self, endowed with the truth about the deepest plane of reality.

Spiritual Songs

The fifteen Geistliche Lieder, “spiritual” songs or “Christian” songs as Novalis also called them on some occasions, are devotional poems intended for the adoration of divinity, Jesus Christ and Mary. They are considered one of the highlights of Novalis' poetics and were used for liturgical purposes in authentic religious songs. It is known that on one occasion, Novalis already dead, the poet's father asked, upon leaving the religious service, the authorship of a song that had seemed beautiful to him, and received the answer that it was his own son. he. One of the most recurring themes in all the Cantos is that of obtaining consolation for the misfortunes of life in surrender to Jesus and divinity.

Late lyric

Along with his novels and the sets of Hymns and Cantos, Novalis also composed several isolated poems in his last years, in some of which can be found displayed with particular forces the ideas that occupied his interest throughout this last period. For example, Der Himmel war umzogen or Es färbte sich die Wiese grün correspond to this period, poetry about the arrival of spring in which the integration of the human being with the different orders of being, or Wenn nicht mehr Zahlen und Figuren, which was possibly destined to appear in the second part of Heinrich von Ofterdingen and which constitutes, canonically, one of Novalis's best attempts at exposing his ideas about the correct approach to nature.

The "magical idealism"

The theme of the identification between “microcosm” and “macrocosm”, between man and the Universe, reappears insistently in Novalis' later philosophical and scientific thought. Conventionally, this tendency of his reflections is associated with a label with which his own theory on the links between man and nature became famous: that of “magical idealism.” Novalis himself rarely used the expressions “magical idealism” and “magical idealist”, but they ended up being the most synthetic and effective ways of naming his later philosophical conception. This so-called “magical idealist” worldview seems to rest, ultimately, on the idea that the world is a projection of a powerful self that, like a sorcerer, manages, manipulates or at least has a decisive impact on reality.. Although it is difficult, given the scarcity of testimonies, to establish a clear and precise meaning for “magical idealism”, it is known, at least, that Novalis conceived it as the culmination of a journey that would lead to “pure empiricism” (which implies total passivity on the part of the subject), passing through a “transcendent empiricism”, through the simplest “dogmatism”, through the “Schwärmerei” (a sort, following the equivalence with the above, of “dogmatism transcendental"), by Kant's "transcendental idealism" and by Fichte's doctrine, to, finally, his own "magical idealism." Possibly this idealism implied a surpassing of Fichte's to the extent that it dispenses with the “shock” of a Not-I and to the extent that it enhances the active participation of the I in the construction of the world. The precise understanding of the authentic nature of “magical idealism” is, however, the subject of debate.

The general theme of magic, its links with poetry, etc., is one of the points that reappear throughout the most studied set of notes from Hardenberg's late philosophical production, his well-known encyclopedia project as General draft (Allgemeines Brouillon, 1151 annotations from the years 1798-1799), and also of the last set of scientific-philosophical notes, the texts known as “Fragments and studies from 1799-1800”, 705 notes.

Scientific studies

The third fundamental branch of Novalis' production, along with the philosophical and the literary, is the scientific. His own interests, added to the needs of his profession, kept Hardenberg always very dedicated to scientific research, and, in particular, very interested in mineralogy.

Hardenberg's corpus of scientific studies can be divided, to a certain extent, into two sections: on the one hand, professional writings in which he aimed at understanding scientific issues closely linked to his tasks, to his work, and on the other hand scientific and scientific-philosophical annotations of the greatest complexity and a very high degree (more or less common for the time) of speculation.

Novalis was very interested in theories that at the time were on the border between science and pseudoscience, such as mesmerism, galvanism and alchemy, and these interests filtered into his literary work, particularly in Heinrich von Ofterdingen.

Edition and reception of your works

Faith and love was, during Novalis's lifetime, his text with the greatest repercussions. Along with this, Hardenberg only saw the following works published: Polen; a brief set of couplets and small poems called Flores (Blumen), and the Hymns to the Night. His friends Freidrich Schlegel and, above all, Ludwig Tieck, took on the task of organizing and publishing all the rest of his production. In 1802, the year after his death, the first edition of his complete works appeared. Critics detected innumerable adulterations, unjustified cuts, arbitrary rearrangements, deletions and even additions, so that the first edition of Novalis's production ended up contributing both to the dissemination of his work and to its deformation. In any case, the successive editions that this version had throughout the first half of the XIX century were the only material available to all those who dealt with Novalis' work until the late 1800s. The most notable approaches, during the 19th century, are Dilthey's essay (“Novalis”, later included in Life and Poetry) and the corresponding section of Rudolf Haym's work Die romanticische Schule, from 1870.

During this entire period, partly thanks to the distortion generated by Schlegel and Tieck's edition, and partly due to the biography of Novalis that the latter included in the third edition (from 1815), the image of Novalis was associated, with a strength that partially persists to this day, to that of a dreaming poet, tormented by the misfortunes of his personal life, mystical to the edges of madness, enemy of reason, enemy of Enlightenment, inspired by a strange blue flower which ended up becoming a symbol of Romanticism and of the Night and its transcendent mysteries. The (half-successful) revision of these commonplaces required more careful editing of his writings.

At the turn of the century, finally, new editions of his work began to appear, until reaching the historical-critical edition by Paul Kluckhohn, which appeared in 1929, which would mark a new direction, which would allow the emergence of the idea of Novalis as a serious thinker and who would provide a much more reliable overview of his complete work. Based on this edition, what is known today as HKA (Historisch-kritische Ausgabe) was prepared, mainly by Richard Samuel, from which a final volume is expected. in the immediate. This edition, of which nuclear appeared during the 1960s, became canonical and served as a starting point for subsequent research.

Also at this time, between the 1950s and 1970s, the image of Novalis underwent a decisive transformation: at the hands of specialists such as Theodor Haering, Manfred Dick and Manfred Frank, who deserve the credit of having dispersed the aura of mysticism that generally conditioned all approaches to Hardenberg's thought, the image of a philosopher Hardenberg emerged, above all. Fundamentally due to Frank's writings, a vision almost contrary to that of the mystical poet was even constructed: that of a rationalist and rigorous philosopher, thus creating a new unilateral vision. Currently, the most authoritative critics agree, in a good percentage, in pointing to a vision of Novalis that is equally separated from both extremes and that takes into account his entire production and the connections between the different branches of his work.

Bibliography

Works by Novalis

Historical-critical edition (Historisch-kritische Ausgabe: HKA)

Schriften. Die Werke Friedrich von Hardenbergs, begründet von Paul Kluckhohn und Richard Samuel; herausgegeben von Richard Samuel in Zusammenarbeit mit Hans-Joachim Mähl und Gerhard Schulz: historisch-kritische Ausgabe in vier Bänden, einem Materialienband und einem Ergänzungsband in vier Teilbänden mit dem dichterischen Jugendnachlaß und weiteren neu aufgetauchten Handschriften. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer.

[The four central volumes were published in 1960, 1965, 1968 and 1975, and reissued, with some generally minor improvements, in 1977, 1981, 1983 and 1998. A fifth volume was added to these in 1988 and a sixth, in four parts, of which, to date, three have appeared (in 1998, 1999 and 2006) and the remaining one is, presumably, very close to publication. The first volume brings together all the literary work (except for a few poems from his youth); the second and third, the philosophical work; the fourth, the diaries, letters and testimonies of contemporaries; the fifth, useful materials for research and some new discoveries; the sixth, the complete poetic work of his youth and texts from Hardenberg's professional activity].

Other previous editions

• Schriften (eds Friedrich Schlegel and Ludwig Tieck). I-II volumes. Berlin: 1802 (1805)²1815³1826⁴1837⁵). Volume III. Berlin: 1846 (eds. Ludwig Tieck and Eduard von Bülow). Berlin 1846.
• Sämmtliche Werke (ed. Carl Meißner). Volumes I-III, Firenze-Leipzig: 1898. Supplementary volume (ed. Bruno Wille). Leipzig: 1901.
• Schriften Kritische Neuausgabe auf Grund des handschriftlichen Nachlasses (ed. Ernst Heilborn). 3 volumes. Berlin: 1901.
• Schriften (ed. Jacob Minor). 4 volumes. Jena: 1907.
• Werke (ed. H. Friedemann). 2 volumes. Berlin: 1908 [reissued in three volumes in 1913].
• Sämtliche Werke (ed. Ernst Kammnitzer). 4 volumes. München: 1924.
• Schriften. Nach den Handschriften ergänzte und neugeordnete Ausgabe. (ed. Paul Kluckhohn, with the collaboration of Richard Samuel). 4 volumes. Leipzig: 1929 [this edition is the starting point of the HKA].

Spanish translations

• Novalis [Poetic anthology "The best poetry (lyrics) of the best poets X"] (Manuel de Montoliu, trad.) Barcelona: Cervantes. ca. 1920.
• Fragments (Angela Selke and Antonio Sánchez Barbudo, trads.) Mexico: New Culture. 1942.
• Germs or Fragments (Jean Gebser, trad.) Mexico: Séneca. 1942 (reed. 2006 [Sevilla: Renacimiento]).
• (1944) Intimate journal / Hymns at night / Spiritual Songs / Letters (A. Peris Villacampa). Valencia: Horizons.
• (1948) The fragments, followed by The disciples in Sais (Violeta Cané) Buenos Aires: El Ateneo.
• (1951) Enrique de Ofterdingen (Germán Bleiberg) Buenos Aires: Espasa-Calpe.
• (1953) Hymns at night / Spiritual chants (Alfredo Terzaga). Córdoba: Assandri [con Christianity or Europe (1965) Córdoba: Assandri; (2007) Córdoba: Universidad Nacional de Córdoba].
• (1971) Hymns at night / Spiritual chants / Other poems (Manuel de Montoliu). Buenos Aires: Editions del Mediodía.
• (1974) Himnos at night and other compositions (Francisco Elvira-Hernández). Madrid: Visor.
• (1975) Hymns at night / Spiritual chants (Américo Ferrari). Barcelona: Barral [(1995) Valencia: Pre-Textos; with a selection of fragments (2001) Barcelona: Gutenberg Galaxy / Lect Circle].
• (1975) Hymns at night / Enrique de Ofterdingen (Eustaquio Barjau). Madrid: Editora Nacional [(1983) Barcelona: Orbis; (1992) Madrid: Chair; (1994) Barcelona: RBA; (1996) Barcelona: Altaya; (1999) Barcelona: Folio].
• (1976) The Encyclopedia (Fernando Montes). Madrid: Foundations.
• (1977) Christianity or Europe, followed by Fragments (selection) (María Magdalena Truyol Wintrich). Madrid: Institute of Political Studies.
• (1983) Enrique de Ofterdingen (José Miguel Minimum). Barcelona: Bruguera.
• (1984) Selected writings [chuckles]Hymns at night and other poems / Dialogue VI / “Klingsohr-Märchen” / “About Goethe” and selection of fragments on poetry] (Ernst Edmund Keil & Jenaro Talens). Madrid: Visor [(1998) Barcelona: Orbis].
• (1985) Hymns at night (José Maria Valverde). Barcelona: Icaria.
• (1987) Pollen grains (Angela Selke and Antonio Sánchez Barbudo) / Hymns at night (Jorge Arturo Ojeda) / Enrique de Ofterdingen (German Bleiberg), Mexico: SEP [los Himnos: (1989) Mexico: Premià; (1995) Mexico: Coyoacán].
• (1988) The disciples in Sais (Félix de Azúa). Madrid: Hyperion.
• (1996)Faith and love or the king and the queen. Political efforts” (Goddess Conception), in Thémata. Philosophy journal, No. 16, pp. 289-320.
• (1999) Europe or Christianity / Love and faith or The King and Queen / Political efforts (Javier García-Galiano). Mexico: Umbral Books.
• (2000) Complete poetry / The disciples in Sais (Rodolfo Häsler). Barcelona: DVD.
• (2004) Sais apprentices / Symbolic count / Christianity or Europe (Julio Aramayo Perla). Lima: Pontifical Catholic University of Peru.
• (2006) Spiritual Songs (Alejandro Martín Navarro), Seville, Renaissance.
• (2007) Studies on Fichte and other writings [chuckles]Miscellaneous observations / Faith and love / Christianity or Europe / Dialogues and Monologist] (Robert Caner-Liese). Madrid: Akal.
• (2009) Christianity or Europe (Lorena Díaz González). Mexico: UNAM.
• (2011) Late Poems (Antonio Pau). Ourense: Linteo.
• The encyclopedia. Editorial Fundamentos, 1976. ISBN 978-84-245-0173-0.
• Christianity or Europe. Centre for Political and Constitutional Studies, 1977. ISBN 978-84-259-0608-4.
• Enrique de Ofterdingen. Bruguera, 1983. ISBN 978-84-02-09737-8.
• Selected writings. Visor Books, 1984. ISBN 978-84-7522-184-7.
• The disciples in Sais. Editions Hiperion, 1988. ISBN 978-84-7517-228-6.
• Hymns at night. Editorial Pre-Textos, 1995. ISBN 978-84-8191-027-8.
• Hymns at night. Pau de Damasc, 1995.
• Hymns at night; Henry of Ofterdingen. Altaya Editions, 1996. ISBN 978-84-487-0387-5.
• Selected writings. Editions Orbis, 1998. ISBN 978-84-402-2328-9.
• Complete poetry; The disciples in Sais. Dvd Ediciones, 2000. ISBN 978-84-95007-23-0.
• Hymns at night. Spiritual chants. Reader Circle, 2001. ISBN 978-84-226-8893-8.
• Spiritual Songs. Editorial Renacimiento, 2006. ISBN 978-8472-148-2.
• germs or fragments. Editorial Renacimiento, 2006. ISBN 978-84-8472-162-8.
• Studies on Fichte and other writings. Akal Editions, 2007. ISBN 978-84-460-1204-7.

About Novalis

In Spanish

• Alberti, Miguel (2018) The Monologist of Novalis. Text, commentary and considerations on their links to romantic "irony". Aesthetics Bulletin, Year XIV, No. 43, Fall 2018, pp. 6-41.
• Alberti, Miguel (2016) The passage from the locus to the mýthos. The poetic presentation of the absolute in the work of Novalis. UNLP: 2016. Available at:http://www.memoria.fahce.unlp.edu.ar/thesis/te.1318/te.1318.pdf
• Alejandro Martín Navarro (2010). The nostalgia of thinking. Novalis and the origins of German romance. Plaza and Valdés Editores. ISBN 978-84-96780-61-3.
• Antonio Pau (2010). Novalis. The nostalgia of the invisible. Editorial Trotta. ISBN 978-84-9879-092-4.
• Disandro, Carlos (2011) [1971]: Complete works, 6: Lyric of thought. Hölderlin and Novalis. La Plata: Fundación Decus [ed. original: Lyric of thought. Hölderlin and Novalis. La Plata: Universidad Nacional de la Plata, Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación].
• Modern, Rodolfo E. (1975) “Novalis and the foundations of his work”, in German literature studies. Buenos Aires: New Vision, pp. 47-68.

In other languages (mainly German)

• Berman, Antoine (1984). L'épreuve de l'étranger. Culture et traduction dans l'Allemagne romantique: Herder, Goethe, Schlegel, Novalis, Humboldt, Schleiermacher, Hölderlin. (in French). Paris: Gallimard. ISBN 978-2070700769.
• Carlsson, Anni (1938) Die Fragmente des Novalis. Basel: Helbing " Lichtenhahn.
• Dick, Manfred (1967): Die Entwicklung des Gedankens der Poesie in den Fragmenten des Novalis. Bonn: Bouvier.
• Dilthey, Wilhelm (1991) [1865]: Das Erlebnis und die Dichtung: Lessing, Goethe, Novalis, Hölderlin. Leipzig: Claim (2.a ed. revised; 1906¹) [Original: “Novalis”. Preußische Jahrbücher, 15, pp. 596-650; in Spanish: Works by Wilhelm Dilthey, IV: Life and poetry. Mexico: Economic Culture Fund, 1945].
• Frank, Manfred (1969): “Die Philosophie des sogenannten,magischen Idealismus‘”. Euphorion, 63, pp. 88-116.
• Frank, Manfred " Kurz, Gerhard (1977): “Ordo inversus. Zu einer Reflectionsfigur bei Novalis, Hölderlin, Kleist und Kafka”, in Anton, Herbert; Gajek, Bernhard & Pfaff, Peter (eds.): Geist und Zeichen. Festschrift für Arthur Henkel Zu seinem 60. Geburtstag. Heidelberg: Winter, pp. 75-92.
• Frank, Manfred (1996): “Alle Wahrheit ist relativ, alles Wissen symbolisch: Motive der Grundsatz-Skepsis in der frühen Jenaer Romantik (1796)”, Revue Internationale de Philosophie, 50, 197: pp. 403-436.
• Frank, Manfred (1998b): “Von der Grundsatz-Kritik zur freien Erfindung. Die ästhetische Wende in den Fichte-Studien und ihr konstellatorisches Umfeld”, Athenäum, 8, pp. 75-95.
• Frank, Manfred (2014): “Zur Kapitulation vor des Novalis уPhilosophischem Werk‘”, Philosophische Rundschau. Eine Zeitschrift für philosophische Kritik, 61, pp. 91-107.
• Friedell, Egon (1904): Novalis als Philosoph. München: Bruckmann.
• Gaier, Ulrich (1970): Krumme Regel. Novalis’ „Konstruktionslehre des shaffenden Geistes“ und ihre Tradition. Tübingen: Niemeyer.
• Gode-von Aesch, Alexander (1941): Natural Science in German Romanticism. New York: Columbia University Press [in Spanish: German romance and natural science (Ilse Teresa M. de Brugger). Buenos Aires: Espasa-Calpe, 1947].
• Hädecke, Wolfgang (2011): Novalis. Biographie. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.
• Haering, Theodor (1954): Novalis als Philosoph. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer.
• Hannah, Richard W. (1981): The Fichtean Dynamic of Novalis’ Poetics. Bern-Frankfurt am Main-Las Vegas: Lang.
• Haym, Rudolf (1870): Die romantische Schule: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des deutschen Geistes. Berlin: Rudolf Gaertner.
• Heilborn, Ernst (1901): Novalis, der Romantiker. Berlin: Reimer.
• Hu, Yihong (2007): Unterwegs zum Roman. Novalis’ Werdegang als Übergang von der Philosophie zur Poesie. Paderborn-München-Wien-Zürich: Schöningh.
• Jamme, Christoph (1998): “Aufklärung via Mythologie. Zum Zusammenhang von Naturbeherrschung und Naturfrömmigkeit um 1800”, in Jamme, Christoph & Kurz, Gerhard: Idealismus und Aufklärung. Kontinuität und Kritik der Aufklärung in Philosophie und Poesie um 1800. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, pp. 35-58.
• Kluckhohn, Paul (1942) [1940]: Das Ideengut der deutschen Romantik (2.a ed.). Halle/Saale: Niemeyer.
• Kluckhohn, Paul (1960) [1929]: “Friedrich von Hardenbergs Entwicklung und Dichtung”, in HKA I: 1-67 [Original: “Friedrich von Hardenbergs Entwicklung und seine Schriften” Schriften 1929].
• Kubik, Andreas (2006): Die Symboltheorie bei Novalis. Ein ideengeschichtliche Studie in ästhetischer und theologischer Absicht. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck.
• Kuhn, Hugo (1986) [1950-1951]: “Poetische Synthesis oder ein kritischer Versuch über romantische Philosophie und Poesie aus Novalis’ Fragmenten”, in Schulz, Gerhard (ed.): Novalis. Beiträge zu Werk und Persönlichkeit Friedrich von Hardenbergs (2.a ed. enlarged; 1970¹). Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, pp. 203-258 [ed. original in Zeitschrift für philosophische Forschung, 5, pp. 161-178 and 358-385; again in Kuhn (1969): Text und Theorie. Stuttgart: Metzler, pp. 246-283].
• Loheide, Bernward (2000): Fichte und Novalis: Transzendentalphilosophisches Denken im romantischen Diskurs. Amsterdam-New York: Rodopi.
• Lukács, György (1986) [1908]: “Novalis”, in Schulz, Gerhard (ed.): Novalis. Beiträge zu Werk und Persönlichkeit Friedrich von Hardenbergs (2.a ed. enlarged; 1970¹). Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, pp. 1-19 [Original edition in Hungarian (“Novalis. Jegyzetek a romantikus életfilozófiáról”) in Hungarian (“Novalis. Nyugat, 1, pp. 313-324; in German (“Zur romantischen Lebensphilosophie: Novalis”) Die Seele und die Formen. Essays (1911). Berlin: Fleischel; in Spanish: “With regard to the romantic philosophy of life (Novalis)” The soul and the forms. Theory of the novel. Mexico: Grijalbo, pp. 79-96].
• Molnár, Géza v. (1970): “Novalis’ ‘Fichte Studies’. The Foundations of his Aesthetics.” Den Haag-Paris: Mouton.
• Ritter, Heinz: Der unbekannte Novalis. Friedrich von Hardenberg im Spiegel seiner Dichtung. Göttingen: Sachse & Pohl, 1967.
• Samuel, Richard (1929): “Der berufliche Werdegang Friedrich von Hardenbergs”, in Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Geistesgeschichte, 16: Romantik- Forschungen. Halle/Saale, Niemeyer, pp. 83-112.
• Schulz, Gerhard (1959): “Der Bergbau in Novalis”, Heinrich von Ofterdingen‘. Der Anschnitt, 11, 2, pp. 9-13.
• Schulz, Gerhard (1986) [1963]: “Die Berufslaufbahn Friedrich von Hardenbergs (Novalis)”, in Schulz (ed.): Novalis. Beiträge zu Werk und Persönlichkeit Friedrich von Hardenbergs (2.a ed. enlarged; 1970¹). Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, pp. 282-356 [ed. original in Jahrbuch der Deutschen Schiller-Gesellschaft, 7, pp. 253-312].
• Schulz, Gerhard (2011): Novalis. Leben und Werk Friedrich von Hardenbergs. München: Beck.
• Simon, Heinrich (1906): Der magische Idealismus. Studien zur Philosophie des Novalis. Heidelberg: Winter.
• Striedter, Jurij (1985): Die Fragmente des Novalis als „Präfigurationen“ seiner Dichtung. München: Fink.
• Uerlings, Herbert (1990): “Novalis und die Weimarer Klassik”, Aurora, 50, pp. 27-46.
• Uerlings, Herbert (1991): Friedrich von Hardenberg, genannt Novalis. Werk und Forschung. Stuttgart: Metzler.
• Uerlings, Herbert (1997): “Tiecks Novalis-Edition”, in Schmitz, Walter (ed.): Ludwig Tieck. Literaturprogramm und Lebensinszenierung im Kontext seiner Zeit. Tübingen: Niemeyer, pp. 135-159.
• Uerlings, Herbert (ed.) (1997): Novalis und die Wissenschaften. Tübingen: Niemeyer.
• Uerlings, Herbert (2000): “Blüthenstaub.” Rezeption und Wirkung des Werkes von Novalis. Tübingen: Niemeyer.
• Vietor, Sophia (2001): Astralis von Novalis. Handschrift – Text – Werk. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann.
• Volkmann-Schluck, Karl Heinz (1967): “Novalis’ magischer Idealismus”, in Steffen, Hans (ed.): Die deutsche Romantik. Poetik, Formen und Motive. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck " Ruprecht, pp. 45-53.
• Waibel, Violetta (2006): “Filosofiren muss eine eigne Art von Denken seyn‘. Zu Hardenbergs Fichte-Studien”, in Sandkaulen, Birgit (ed.): System und Systemkritik. Beiträge zu einem Grundproblem der klassischen deutschen Philosophie. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, pp. 59-90.
• Wanning, Berbeli (1996): Novalis zur Einführung. Hamburg: Junius.