Beethoven: A Memoir (2nd Ed.)

by Elliott Graeme

BEETHOVEN:

A Memoir.

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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTORY

Origin of the family Van Beethoven—The Electorate of Cologne—Court of Clemens August the Magnificent—Ludwig van Beethoven the Elder—Johann van Beethoven—Bonn in 1770.

owards the middle of the seventeenth century there lived in a Belgian village near Louvain a family of the name Van Beethoven. To their position in life we have no clue, unless it be that contained in the name itself (beet, root; hof, garden), which after all only indicates that the occupation of some remote progenitor was akin to that of the "grand old gardener" from whom we all claim descent. The question, however, is immaterial.