Description
Christoph von Schmid (1768-1854), the Augsburg Cathedral Chapter, who also worked as a teacher, successfully wrote poems, texts and stories for children. This section, "Kleinigkeiten in Reimen", dedicated to the blooming age of a larger, unbound volume written by Schmid, contains a number of shorter poems by the Augsburg writer. On sheet 19 there is the autograph text of Christoph von Schmid's Christmas carol "Ihr Kinderlein kommet", which is known worldwide today. The many corrections, deletions and changes not only on this sheet but in the entire volume prove that this must be a first original (fair copy) of the texts, which are still being edited and to which changes have been made again and again. The analysis of the Babenhausen paper's watermarks revealed a date of origin around 1803/05-1808. The historical circumstances also point to this period, in which Schmid began his literary career in Thannhausen an der Mindel and also composed other songs, which were provided with melodies by his comrades-in-arms Anton Höfer (1764-1837, from 1793 teacher in Thannhausen) and Joseph Alois Singer (1786-1848, from 1809 chaplain in Thannhausen). Since all corrections made on sheet 19 have been reproduced in the print of Schmid's "Christliche Gesänge zur öffentlichen Gottesverehrung" of 1811 – the song was still missing in the first edition of 1807 – there can be no doubt that this autograph was made around 1808/10.