Oblong folio. German, French, English etc. handwriting on paper. 98 (2 of which repeated) signatures (several pasted) and 3 pasted picture postcards and photographs on 83 pp. (on a total of 94 ff.). Contemporary cloth with stamped and sparely gilt covers. Silk endpapers. - Includes 4 ff. of letters and album leaves by Pope Pius IX (with autogr. date and signature) and the Societé des gens de lettres (copy with facsimile signatures by Georges Sand, Victor Hugo, Ludovic Halévy, Champfleury, Jules Claretie, etc.), as well as by 2 unidentified writers. Impressive autograph album compiled by the biographically unrecorded composer Wilhelmina Simson. Among the most significant contributors to this unique item are Alessandro Manzoni (Brusuglio, 7. X. 1865; f. 14v), Franz Grillparzer (pasted AQS, Vienna, 13. X. 1865; f. 16r), Henrik Ibsen (Dresden, 8. VI. 1873; f. 28r), Friedrich Frh. von Flotow (pasted AQS, Vienna, 12. X. 1865; f. 31v), Henri Vieuxtemps (pasted MusQS, Vienna, 28. I. 1854; f. 33r), Giacomo Meyerbeer (pasted ALS to an unnamed recipient, 1 p., 8vo, n. p. o. d.; f. 34v), Alexander Frh. von Humboldt (pasted fragment of an ALS to an unidentified recipient; 24. VII. 1853; f. 35r), Désirée Clary, Queen of Sweden (pasted QS with 5 autogr. lines; f. 38v), Joséphine, Queen of Sweden and Norway, née Duchess of Leuchtenberg (pasted QS; f. 39r), Daniel Auber (pasted AMusQS, Paris, 25. VIII. 1861, 1 p., oblong 8vo; f. 43v), Hector Berlioz (pasted AMusQS with autogr. dedication "pour l'album de Mr. Lang", Bade [?], 12. VIII. 1862, oblong 8vo; f. 45r), Ivan Turgeniev (19. VII. 1873; f. 48v), and Adolph Menzel (pasted fragment of a LS, f. 77v). - Apart from these, the album contains a twenty-line poem by the writer and translator Julie Ruhkopf (b. 1799; Dresden, 23. IX. 1864, f. 3r), a twelve-line poem by the anatomist Karl Aberle (1818-92; Salzburg, 3. X. 1864, f. 3v), a twelve-line poem by the actress Clara Jahn (1825-82; Dresden, 20. X. 1865; f. 9v), a four-line poem by the playwright Friedrich Halm (pasted AQS, Vienna, 13. X. 1865; f. 16v), 5 autogr. lines by L. A. Frankl Ritter von Hochwart (pasted AQS, Vienna, 13. X. 1865; f. 30v), 8 autogr. lines by the writer and musical scholar Arvid August Afzelius (pasted AQS, f. 46r), and an eight-line moral dictum by the writer Gustav von Moser (pasted AQS, Karlsbad, 2. VI. 1876; f. 51r). - In addition, the album contains dedications by the art critic and painter Agostino Gallo (1790-1872; Palermo, 11. IV. 1863, f. 6r), the writer Ciro Marzullo (f. 6v), the physicist and philosopher Pietro Blaserna (1836-1918; f. 7r), the anatomist and zoologist Carl Gustav Carus (1789-1869; Dresden, 20. X. 1865; f. 15r), the writer Salomon Hermann Ritter von Mosenthal (1821-1877; pasted AQS, Vienna, 13. X. 1865, f. 15v), the painter Raffaello Politi (May 1865; f. 19r), the composer Pietro Romani (pasted AQS, f. 22v), the writer Friedrich Ritter von Hackländer (pasted QS, f. 24r), the painter Salvadore Politi the Elder (with full-page drawing of a Medusa bust, 2. VII. 1865; f. 54r), the classical scholar J. J. Schubring (b. 1839; ff. 62r and 63r), the archaeologist and painter Saverio Francesco Cavallari (1809-96; pasted QS with autogr. sketch on f. 61v and pasted AQS with autogr. dedication on f. 62v), the painter Egron Sellif Lundgren (pasted ALS to an unidentified recipient; f. 65r), the composer Friedrich Pacius (1809-91; pasted QS; f. 65v), the musician Joseph Hellmesberger the Elder (1828-93; pasted QS, Vienna, 12. X. 1865; f. 66r), as well as signatures by Gustav Klemm (art historian, 1802-67; Dresden, 23. IX. 1864, f. 2r), Johan Bravo (consul and painter, 1796-1876; 3. XII. 1864, f. 4r), Maria Vinzenz Süß (archaeologist and founder of the Salzburg Museum Carolino Augusteum, 1802-68; pasted AQS, f. 5r), Bror Emil Hildebrand (archaeologist and historian, 1806-84; f. 38r), Ludwig Ettmüller (literary historian, 1802-77; f. 53v), and Amalia Lindegren (painter, 1814-91). - Two not fully identified entries are by "His Excellency Herr von Bülow" (f. 46v) and by a member of the Manteuffel family (f. 47r). - As several of the entries within the album reveal, Wilhelmina Simson was herself active as a composer. Altogether well preserved, in spite of a loosened front cover.
