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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 December 2009
Until the publication of the first volume of Derek Beales's biography of Joseph II in 1976, what scholars ‘universally regarded as the best account of the emperor's work’ (in Beales's own words) was the two-volume study by the Russian Paul von Mitrofanov, published in German translation by C. W. Stern of Vienna and Leipzig in 1910. The original Russian edition had appeared three years earlier in a single volume. Although the translation was given a different title – ‘Joseph II, his political and cultural activity’, as opposed to ‘The political activity of Joseph II, his supporters and his enemies (1780–1790)’ – a comparison of the two texts shows that the translator was entirely loyal to the original version. The historiographical domination established by this remarkable work for most of this century is a tribute both to its quality and to the intractability of the problems posed by its subject. In the introduction to his own book, Beales ruefully conceded:
I know that this is a foolhardy undertaking on many counts. First, Mitrofanov's book, though nearly eighty years old, is by no means easy to rival. He says that it took him eight years to write, and it is remarkable that he accomplished the task so quickly. He was not one of Chekhov's feckless, unproductive Russian professors. The two volumes are vigorous, intelligent, wide-ranging, and based for the most part on unimpeachable sources.
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