The Arcades Project - Operi

Translators' Notes
Abbreviations
GS Walter Belamin, Gesammelte Schriflen, 7 vals. (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1972-1989).
J.L. Jean Lacoste, translator of the pa-JJagen-Werk into French: Paris, capitale tilt XIX!' siecle
(PaJ:is: Editions elu Cerf, 1989).
R.T. Rolf Tiedemann, editor of the Passagen-Werk, GS, vol. 5 (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1982).
SW Walter Benjamin, Selected Writings. Volume 1: 1913-1926 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
University Press, 1996). Vohune 2: 1927-1934 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University
Press, 1999).
Previously published translations have been modified, where necessaty, to accord with the passages
cited by Benjamin.
Expose of 1935
Ibis synopsis of The Arcades Prqject, titled "Paris, die Hauptstadt des XIX.Jahrhunderts"
(GS, vol. 5, pp. 45-59), was Wlitten by Benjamin in May 1935 at the request of Friedrich
Pollock, codirector of the Institute of Social Research in New York. It was first published
in Walter Belarnin, Sdmjten, 2 vals. (Frankfurt: Suln'kamp, 1955). The translators are
indebted to the previous English translations by Q\lintin Hoare (1968) and Edmund
Jephcott (1978).
1. The magasin de nouvcautes offered a complete selection of goods in one or another
specialized line of business; it had many rooms and several stories, widl a large staff
of employees. The first such store, Pygmalion, opened in Paris in 1793. The word
JlOllveaute means "newness" or "novelty" ; in the plural, it means "fancy goods:'
2. Honore de Balzac, "Histoire et physiolgie des boulevards de Paris;' in George Sand,
Honore de Balzac, Eugene Sue, et al., Ie Diable ([ Pan's, vol. 2 (Paris, 1846), p. 91.
[R.T] See Al,4 in the Convolutes.
3. Karl Boetticher, "Das Prinzip der Hellenischen und Germanischen Bauweise hinsichtlich
der Obertragung in die Bauweise unserer lage" (address of March 13,
1846), in ZUni hundertjiihrigen Geburtstag Karl Bottichers (Berlin, 1906), p. 46. [R.T]
See Fl,l in the Convolutes.
4. Sigfried Giedion, Batlen in Fra nkreich (Leipzig, 1928), p. 3. [R.T]
5. Paul Scheerbart, Glasarellitekt"r (Berlin, 1914). [R.T] In English, Glass Architecture,
trans. James Palmes (New York: Praeger, 1972).