A catalogue with all the texts exhibited and 20 full-page illustrations is also available. Not finding the support he was looking for Goethe embarked on the monumental work all on his own. It appeared in 1810 and ran to no fewer than 1400 pages. A volume of illustrations closes the work. Three showcases in the exhibition hall of the library are designed to illustrate Goethe's conception of light as a living, spiritual and active principle.
Colours are the deeds of light, deeds and sufferings.
Among the exhibits are a Merian Bible, Leonardo da Vinci's Trattato sulla Pittura, Goethe's works on optics and the first edition of the Theory of Colour, the first edition of Otto Runge's Farbenkugel and an edition of Plato from the 15th century. Goethe's interest in colour was not merely poetical. It made a major contribution to the development of the microscope by Carl Zeiss and Ernst Abbe in Jena. Martin Rozumek, Gerhard Jaehnichen and Prof. Dr. Peter Brix. Also on show at the exhibition are works by artists living in Heidelberg.