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Redrawing and publishing the graphics in Wittgenstein’s Nachlass

  • Michele Lavazza
Published/Copyright: September 1, 2025
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Wittgenstein-Studien
From the journal Wittgenstein-Studien Volume 16 Issue 1

Abstract

In 2022 – 2024, on the initiative of the Wittgenstein Archives at the University of Bergen, a project was undertaken to digitally remake all the drawings in the Nachlass. The objective was to “normalise” them in a way similar to that in which text is normalised when transcribing and editing a manuscript for publication. Thanks to a cooperation between the directors of the WAB and two graphic artists, with further input from many experts, the approximately 1000 drawings were copied from facsimiles of Wittgenstein’s manuscripts and typescripts as high-quality vector images. Before and during this process, discussions were had about technical choices as well as the philosophical role of individual items, the interpretation of which affected the way they were redrawn. The resulting visuals were embedded in the WAB’s transcriptions of the Nachlass; moreover, a dedicated Wittgenstein Nachlass Graphics website was built to make the new, freely-licenced drawings available to browse, download and search by taxonomical tags. This paper aims to give an account of the project’s history and editorial approach and to provide technical guidance on how to use the graphic files and the website through which they are made available.

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Alois Pichler and Michael Biggs for reviewing a draft of this paper and providing very valuable comments.

Bibliography

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Published Online: 2025-09-01
Published in Print: 2025-09-01

© 2025 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Titelei
  2. Inhalt
  3. Titlepages
  4. Titlepages
  5. Articles
  6. Hinweis für Leser / Note for Readers
  7. Tractarian Nonsense and Literary Language
  8. The Middle Wittgenstein on Aesthetics
  9. The Question of Linguistic Idealism in the Tractatus
  10. Waismann and Waismann’s Wittgenstein
  11. Die Grenzen welcher Sprache?
  12. Wittgenstein on Freud’s Interpretation of Dreams
  13. Wittgenstein über die Erkenntnis Anderer
  14. Shouldered In and Out of the Reality of Mortality
  15. On Deep Moral Disagreement Between Theists and Atheists
  16. Redrawing and publishing the graphics in Wittgenstein’s Nachlass
  17. Special Topic:Das erlösende Wort in dürftigen Zeiten – Wittgensteins Fortschritts-‍, Zivilisations- und Kulturkritik
  18. Einleitung
  19. Text und Kontext
  20. Wozu Philosophie und Kunst in Zeiten der Unkultur?
  21. „[I]‌ch sehe jedes Problem von einem religiösen Standpunkt.”
  22. Wittgensteins „erlösende Worte”
  23. Wittgenstein über die Bildung von Begriffen
  24. Buchbesprechungen / Book Reviews
  25. David R. Cerbone: Wittgenstein on Realism and Idealism
  26. Peter Eigner: Die Wittgensteins. Geschichte einer unglaublich reichen Familie
  27. Raimundo Henriques: Self-Understanding in the Tractatus and Wittgenstein’s Architecture: From Adolf Loos to the Resolute Reading
  28. Shunichi Takagi, Pascal F. Zambito (eds.): Wittgenstein and Nietzsche
https://doi.org/10.1515/witt-2025-0011

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Titelei
  2. Inhalt
  3. Titlepages
  4. Titlepages
  5. Articles
  6. Hinweis für Leser / Note for Readers
  7. Tractarian Nonsense and Literary Language
  8. The Middle Wittgenstein on Aesthetics
  9. The Question of Linguistic Idealism in the Tractatus
  10. Waismann and Waismann’s Wittgenstein
  11. Die Grenzen welcher Sprache?
  12. Wittgenstein on Freud’s Interpretation of Dreams
  13. Wittgenstein über die Erkenntnis Anderer
  14. Shouldered In and Out of the Reality of Mortality
  15. On Deep Moral Disagreement Between Theists and Atheists
  16. Redrawing and publishing the graphics in Wittgenstein’s Nachlass
  17. Special Topic:Das erlösende Wort in dürftigen Zeiten – Wittgensteins Fortschritts-‍, Zivilisations- und Kulturkritik
  18. Einleitung
  19. Text und Kontext
  20. Wozu Philosophie und Kunst in Zeiten der Unkultur?
  21. „[I]‌ch sehe jedes Problem von einem religiösen Standpunkt.”
  22. Wittgensteins „erlösende Worte”
  23. Wittgenstein über die Bildung von Begriffen
  24. Buchbesprechungen / Book Reviews
  25. David R. Cerbone: Wittgenstein on Realism and Idealism
  26. Peter Eigner: Die Wittgensteins. Geschichte einer unglaublich reichen Familie
  27. Raimundo Henriques: Self-Understanding in the Tractatus and Wittgenstein’s Architecture: From Adolf Loos to the Resolute Reading
  28. Shunichi Takagi, Pascal F. Zambito (eds.): Wittgenstein and Nietzsche
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