The polemical essay “On the Genealogy of Morals” was conceived as an appendix to “Beyond Good and Evil.” The external reason for its writing was the wave of misunderstandings that befell the author in connection with his previous work, so that it was a matter of ex post facto anticipation of the main text of a kind of “Prolegomena”. Nietzsche, already after the publication of the book, even noted the possibility of repeating the title of the previous book and adding a subtitle to it: “Addition. Three considerations." Written in 20 days (between July 10 and 30, 1887), the manuscript was published in November of that year by C. G. Nauman; the costs of publication had to be paid by the author. When creating the cover, a fragment of the image of Arno Breker's sculpture "Readiness" was used