Cosima's Diaries

Diary Entry of July 12, 1873

Overview

Practical obligations dominate, with the mortgage signed and work resumed. A social visit proves uncomfortable, so solace comes instead from reading about Roman religion and social divisions. The entry contrasts financial responsibility and social friction with the refuge of scholarly absorption.

Content

Saturday, July 12:

Signing of the mortgage, by me too, then R. goes to work.

In the evening to the Feustels’, not at all pleasant; R. recuperates by prolonged reading of a monograph about the religion of patricians and plebeians in Rome. It was written by an Italian, Pellegrino, who is studying philology in Germany and now writes in German.