Archival note by Jonathan Smith © 2023 University of Bergen. CC BY-NC 4.0

MS 137 is a casebound account book measuring 331 x 213 mm. Wittgenstein has included dates between 2 February 1948 and 9 January 1949 in the text. The binding is red buckram quarter bound with red leather. There is a label on the front of the volume reading ‘Manuscript Volume “Band R”. February 3rd 1948 - Jan 8th 1949. Oxford’. Internally, the volume has red marbled endpapers with two card flyleaves at the front and back and 142 leaves, each ruled with 38 lines, with a double red line at the top of the page, two vertical red lines to the left and 4 to the right of the page for accounting purposes.

The pages are numbered by opening 1-143 by the printer using a stamp and foliated by another hand ff. 1-144. On the front pastedown there is a printer’s label reading ‘J L Stewart and Sons Ltd, 4 College Green, Dublin.’ Pages 49 r and 50 l have been mutilated by G.E.M. Anscombe, replacing a section with writing on both sides with a photocopy with writing on one side. The text is in German with a few coded remarks, written in pen using blue and black inks and pencil.