#excerpting

One of Winckelmann’s manuscripts reveals the essential importance he placed on the act of excerpting. In 1767, one year prior to his violent death, he wrote a booklet entitled Collectanea zu meinem Leben (“Collectanea on my life”), a curious form of autobiographical narrative. On a few pages he retraced his own life with the help of 67 uncommented quotations from other authors, which he borrowed from his immense store of excerpts. He described his serious youth with the words of Ovid, and he used a passage from Sallust to describe his numerous voyages. A portrait of himself emerged from this cobbling together of quotes from “others,” which is based exclusively on a succession of excerpts. The existential dimension of the art of excerpting is particularly clear in these remarkable pages. Winckelmann’s act of excerpting texts by other authors was work for his own autobiography. For him, excerpting other works was a form of writing about himself.

fandom: writing: excerpting