Literarische blüten lesen oder blumen der freundschaft weihen? Die anthologie "Elisens und Sophiens Gedichte" und der literarische freundschaftskult im späten 18. Jahrhundert

In the context of the eighteenth century, during which the anthology became so discursively salient, the collection Elisens und Sophiens Gedichte (1790) assumes a peculiar significance. This anthology, which emerged from the circle of friends surrounding Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim in Halberstadt, is ostensibly devoted to poems by the two women writers and friends, Elisa von der Recke (1754– 1833) and Sophie Becker (1754–89). But it is not simply a showcase of these two poets. Closer examination reveals that this work directly derives from the idea of friendship in an age of sensibility, aiming to preserve the relationships among the mixed circle of friends for posterity. In so doing, the collection conflicts with a traditional model of the anthology in the eighteenth century and its aesthetic criteria. For after Sophie Becker’s death the editor decided to complete the collection with an inner anthology of poems of grief in an act of memorialisation. The present paper analyses the various tensions characterising this anthology from 1790, reconstructing its complex genesis and publication history. In closing, the following article describes a very particular and previously unknown copy of the anthology. We can read this special edition as the counterpart to the printed manuscript, and as a specific model of communication. © 2017 The Author and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.