Okay, here's the Algarotti summary! His life and his interactions with Fritz, as gleaned from a dissertation plus their correspondence. With apologies to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, who is much cooler than she comes across as in Algarotti's story.
Also, small correction to my previous comment: he is from Venice and moved to Padua. Among other places. You'll see. Intro Algarotti: *writes books, poems, essays about philosophy, art, architecture, physics, you name it* Algarotti: I will be as famous as Frederick the Great! My name will live alongside yours for all of time, Your Majesty. All of the other reindeer: You'll go down in history!
1726-1739 Algarotti: Time to find my dream job. No worries! How hard can it be? Algarotti in Venice: Ugh, too much family, always wanting me to get married and go into the family business. Moving on... Algarotti in Bologna: Can't get a job here either. Third city's the charm, right? Algarotti in Padua: Why so pedantic and conceited, everyone? Algarotti in Florence: Much better! Oh, no, everyone here is boring and pretentious. Bunch of has-beens who don't realize they haven't been All That (TM) since the Renaissance. Algarotti in Rome: I <3 Rome. Oh, shit, religion is a thing in Rome! I forgot. Algarotti in Paris: The salons! The other intellectuals! The...censorship. Dammit. Algarotti in Cirey: Voltaire! And Émilie du Châtelet! Three brilliant minds under the same roof! Living with Voltaire! *double take* Living with Voltaire? *sigh* Algarotti in London: Everyone wants to have sex with me! Who shall I choose from this embarrassment of riches? Okay, not crazy stalker lady Mary Wortley Montagu. How about the guy who's buddy-buddy with the Queen, then I'll be sure to get a job. Lord Hervey! Let's get it on. Algarotti in London: Still nothing? I thought that was a sure fire path to success! Algarotti in Milan: Why won't the Italians ever freaking hire me? Oh, right, because I'm on the Church's banned books list. Back to London, then. At least they have freedom of the press. Algarotti in Paris: Crazy stalker lady in London, you want to pay for the rest of my trip? Algarotti in London: Still not sleeping with you, crazy stalker lady. Oh, no, the Queen died. No jobs for me.
1739 St. Petersburg: I hear there's a new Tzarina! And everything is modern since Peter the Great. Algarotti in St. Petersburg: Not so modern you want to hire me. Gotcha. Algarotti on the way back to London: Let's hit every city on the way, just in case. Algarotti in Danzig, Dresden, Leipzig, Potsdam, Berlin, Hamburg, Rheinsberg: Anyone want to hire me? Anyone? I'm the second most famous intellectual in Europe! You know you want me! Algarotti in Rheinsberg: OMG, someone wants to hire me! He's my age and writes poems about how great I am and wants me to read drafts of this pamphlet he's working on--something about ruling justly and having enlightened foreign policy--and he's going to be a totally awesome intellectual king, and I think he might even want me that way too. *heart eyes* Lemme know when your dad dies and you actually have some money, Your Highness! Algarotti in London: *checking his mail every day*
1740 FW: *dies* Fritz: Come quickly, Algarotti! All the leading intellectual lights of Europe are coming to my court. It's going to be the BEST. Algarotti: *comes quickly* I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Fritz: Okay, now that everyone's here, we'll start the intellectual party as soon as I'm done conquering Silesia. Brb.
1741 Algarotti: Um? Are you done conquering yet? It's just the one province, right? Other famous intellectuals: Yeah, what he said. Fritz: Who's paying who here? I'll be done when I'm done. Algarotti: Okay, but I came here on my quest for eternal fame and glory. I don't care how many titles you give me, I'm leaving if I don't get something useful to do. Other famous intellectuals: Again, what he said. Maupertuis wants to know what happened to all the plans to make him president of the Academy of Sciences, O Enlightened Monarch. Fritz: Okay, fine. You can help me win my war, since you have, like, no patience whatsoever. Fritz: Now, Algarotti, you're the second most famous intellectual in Europe, and everybody knows you work for me. So go to Turin, SECRETLY, don't let anyone know you're there, suss out the political situation for me, SECRETLY, see if the King of Sardinia's open to an alliance with Prussia, and above all, don't let anyone know you're doing a job for me. Got it?
Secret Mission Interlude Newspapers: *report on celebrity Algarotti's every movement* Everyone in Europe: *follows Algarotti's trip from Berlin to Turin in the papers* Everyone in Europe: Algarotti seems to be hanging out in Turin a lot these days. Must be doing work for King Frederick. Probably trying to get Prussia an alliance with the King of Sardinia. Fritz: OMFG this is going to be just like the last time I tried to have a Very Secret Plan and everybody knew about it. Never mind the alliance, Algarotti, just come back to Berlin! Algarotti: I finally get entrusted with something important, he ties my hands with a set of impossible constraints, and then I'm recalled before I can actually get anything done. SO HUMILIATING. Could my year get any worse? Lady Mary Wortley Montagu: Hi! Remember me? I followed you to Italy so we could be together forever. Algarotti: What the--Do I need a restraining order? Oh, boy. Crazy stalker lady or micromanaging boss? Decisions, decisions. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu: My son is your age, but I just know we're meant to be! Algarotti: Micromanaging boss it is!
1741, back in Berlin Algarotti: Anyone else bored? I'm bored. Other famous intellectuals: I'm bored. Fritz: Seriously, everyone just sit tight. MT's going to give up this province any minute, and then I'll come home, and it'll be fun enlightenment times just like I promised when I invited you. Time: *passes* Intellectuals: *twiddle thumbs* Fritz: ANY MINUTE!
1741, Silesia Fritz: Meanwhile, I'm getting tired of just having military men to talk to. Maupertuis, come join me on campaign. I hear you're bored. Maupertuis: *gets captured by Austrians, then released* Fritz: Oops. Still bored, though? :D Maupertuis: With all due respect, sir, this is not what I signed up for. Algarotti: Oh, hell no. Dresden, here I come! The King of Saxony wants an art collector. Maupertuis: Paris for me. Algarotti and Fritz: *have a snippy exchange of letters, then silence for five years*
1742 Algarotti in Dresden: *trying to get to Italy to buy art for the King of Saxony, but it's not safe to travel because SOMEONE started a war in central Europe*
1743-1747 Algarotti in Italy: *looking for art* Algarotti in Italy: Frickin' King of Saxony. Algarotti in Italy: *looking for a better job*
1745-1747 Fritz: *finally wins the second Silesian War, builds Sanssouci, promises never to go to war again* Fritz: NOW will you all come back? I've got this lovely new palace for us. It'll be just like Rheinsberg, but with money! Intellectuals: *cautiously trickle back* Algarotti in Italy: Well, I don't like my current job and I can't find a better one here, so I guess maybe Fritz has gotten the warmongering out of his system. It was so promising in Rheinsberg, and the new job offer *is* for everything I ever wanted.
1747-1748 Algarotti: Oh, man, on the one hand I finally got my dream job, but on the other, my boss is...Fritz. Fritz, can you pay me to go to Italy? There's, um, an archaeological dig in Herculaneum that is of *great interest* to both of us that I should totally observe so I can report back to you. Fritz: You seem suspiciously eager to get back to the place you're always complaining about, but sure. Algarotti in Bologna: I can see Russia from my house Herculaneum from here. Not trying to get a job at any of the academic institutes in Bologna, pinky swear! Fritz, in a letter to Wilhelmine: He doesn't know any more about the Herculaneum digs than you or I do. He could have studied them just as well from here. (actual quote) Fritz: Get back here, Algarotti. You're not fooling anyone.
1749-1753 Algarotti in Berlin: Sorry I can't come to Potsdam, I'm really sick. I still work for you and you should still pay me, though. Algarotti everywhere else in Prussia at every possible opportunity: Sorry I can't come to Potsdam. Still sick. Still love you, though! (Would love you more if you would stop telling me what to do all the time.) Algarotti in Potsdam: *still trying to get that elusive job in Italy*
1752-1753 Voltaire in Potsdam: *happens* Fritz in Potsdam: *happens* Algarotti in Potsdam: *watches in mounting horror* Algarotti in Potsdam: Still no job prospects in Italy, but anything is better than Fritz/Voltaire. Algarotti in Potsdam: Your Majesty, I totally love you, but I have some really pressing personal affairs in Italy. Can I get a hall pass? Fritz: I think you're lying, but you did come back last time when you were lying, so sure. Bring me some marble from Herculaneum when you return, k?
1753, after the hall pass expires Fritz: *tapping foot* Algarotti still in Italy: Sorry, super sick! Fritz: You know the doctors there aren't any better than here, right? Algarotti still in Italy: I will come to you soon if it KILLS me. Which my doctors say traveling might, so please understand you might not see me for a little while.
1754 Fritz: Any day now? Algarotti still in Italy: Any day now!
1755 Algarotti still in Italy: We were really nice to your sister. Fritz: I heard! Also, I still miss you. Just putting that out there.
1756 Fritz: Well, um, there seems to be a war on here, but I'll invite you again as soon as it's done. Algarotti still in Italy: Good luck! Not sure how much help I'd be, think I'll just sit it out here. With my bad health, you know.
1756-1763 Algarotti still in Italy: Wow, you seem really busy with that war. Keep kicking butt. I'll keep reading about it in the papers, here in Italy. Fritz: It's looking like it's gonna be a while. Glad you and your countrymen are being entertained by my adventures. Lucky you, I wish I could be a spectator instead of a participant. Algarotti still in Italy: You got this. P.S. Still love you! (Plz don't have your agents arrest me outside your country like you did Voltaire.) Fritz: Not sure why you won't come back, but love you too!
1763 Algarotti still in Italy: I had to move to Pisa for the warm air. *cough cough choke hack* But I heard you won the Seven Years' War! Congrats! You're the best! Fritz: "I hope you fare as well with your lungs as we did against the Austrians." (actual quote) This doesn't mean you're never coming back to Prussia, does it? Oh, no. Please don't die. Everyone I love keeps dying.
March 9, 1764 Algarotti still in Italy: Really wish I could see you again, but, you know, my health. You understand.
June 1, 1764 Fritz: You wish you could see me? Really?! I have an idea! We have this great doctor here in Prussia, who recently cured a cough just like yours! Nothing would make me happier than if you came and got better. I have a whole list of things we could do together. P.S. I'm really worried about you.
June 12, 1764 Fritz: Dear Algarotti's friend, thank you for letting me know our mutual friend Algarotti died of tuberculosis a month before my last letter. That shaky handwriting was making me nervous, but I was still hoping to see him again someday. Please set up a marble monument to his memory, then tell me where and how much money to send you as reimbursement.
Epilogue Fritz: So, Algarotti my old friend, I heard you wanted your name to live alongside mine. Here's a grave monument in Pisa where my name is really big and yours is somewhat smaller. That should do it! Posterity: Algarotti who? Starring: Algarotti the Perpetual Job Hunter and Fritz the Jerkass Woobie.
One thing to keep in mind about all this is that the dissertation in question is specifically about networking techniques in the intellectual sphere in eighteenth-century Europe, with Algarotti as the case study. It's not a bio of Algarotti. So the whole focus is his job search. Aside from that love triangle with Hervey and Wortley Montagu, which the author depicts as a ruthless endeavor solely motivated by the need to get a good-paying position in London, you get no sense of Algarotti's personal life. So if Fritz was ever more than a paycheck to him, you're not going to get it out of this dissertation.
Another interesting point: Algarotti seems to get up to relatively little after 1753, compared to his extremely detailed and eventful career up to that point. Both the dissertation writer and various Fritz biographers are like, "Well, maybe he was as sick as he said he was. You know, he did die 11 years later. But actually we think he was just trying to get away from Fritz."
But not only does he stay the hell out of Prussia (which, granted, I'm sure his decision to be sick in Italy instead of in Potsdam was motivated by the whole Voltaire/Fritz implosion plus general Fritz-ness), but his output and activity seem to decline, and what he does produce does seem to correlate with gaps in his complaints about his health. That can't be all Fritz.
Algarotti
Also, small correction to my previous comment: he is from Venice and moved to Padua. Among other places. You'll see.
Intro
Algarotti: *writes books, poems, essays about philosophy, art, architecture, physics, you name it*
Algarotti: I will be as famous as Frederick the Great! My name will live alongside yours for all of time, Your Majesty.
All of the other reindeer: You'll go down in history!
1726-1739
Algarotti: Time to find my dream job. No worries! How hard can it be?
Algarotti in Venice: Ugh, too much family, always wanting me to get married and go into the family business. Moving on...
Algarotti in Bologna: Can't get a job here either. Third city's the charm, right?
Algarotti in Padua: Why so pedantic and conceited, everyone?
Algarotti in Florence: Much better! Oh, no, everyone here is boring and pretentious. Bunch of has-beens who don't realize they haven't been All That (TM) since the Renaissance.
Algarotti in Rome: I <3 Rome. Oh, shit, religion is a thing in Rome! I forgot.
Algarotti in Paris: The salons! The other intellectuals! The...censorship. Dammit.
Algarotti in Cirey: Voltaire! And Émilie du Châtelet! Three brilliant minds under the same roof! Living with Voltaire! *double take* Living with Voltaire? *sigh*
Algarotti in London: Everyone wants to have sex with me! Who shall I choose from this embarrassment of riches? Okay, not crazy stalker lady Mary Wortley Montagu. How about the guy who's buddy-buddy with the Queen, then I'll be sure to get a job. Lord Hervey! Let's get it on.
Algarotti in London: Still nothing? I thought that was a sure fire path to success!
Algarotti in Milan: Why won't the Italians ever freaking hire me? Oh, right, because I'm on the Church's banned books list. Back to London, then. At least they have freedom of the press.
Algarotti in Paris: Crazy stalker lady in London, you want to pay for the rest of my trip?
Algarotti in London: Still not sleeping with you, crazy stalker lady. Oh, no, the Queen died. No jobs for me.
1739
St. Petersburg: I hear there's a new Tzarina! And everything is modern since Peter the Great.
Algarotti in St. Petersburg: Not so modern you want to hire me. Gotcha.
Algarotti on the way back to London: Let's hit every city on the way, just in case.
Algarotti in Danzig, Dresden, Leipzig, Potsdam, Berlin, Hamburg, Rheinsberg: Anyone want to hire me? Anyone? I'm the second most famous intellectual in Europe! You know you want me!
Algarotti in Rheinsberg: OMG, someone wants to hire me! He's my age and writes poems about how great I am and wants me to read drafts of this pamphlet he's working on--something about ruling justly and having enlightened foreign policy--and he's going to be a totally awesome intellectual king, and I think he might even want me that way too. *heart eyes* Lemme know when your dad dies and you actually have some money, Your Highness!
Algarotti in London: *checking his mail every day*
1740
FW: *dies*
Fritz: Come quickly, Algarotti! All the leading intellectual lights of Europe are coming to my court. It's going to be the BEST.
Algarotti: *comes quickly* I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
Fritz: Okay, now that everyone's here, we'll start the intellectual party as soon as I'm done conquering Silesia. Brb.
1741
Algarotti: Um? Are you done conquering yet? It's just the one province, right?
Other famous intellectuals: Yeah, what he said.
Fritz: Who's paying who here? I'll be done when I'm done.
Algarotti: Okay, but I came here on my quest for eternal fame and glory. I don't care how many titles you give me, I'm leaving if I don't get something useful to do.
Other famous intellectuals: Again, what he said. Maupertuis wants to know what happened to all the plans to make him president of the Academy of Sciences, O Enlightened Monarch.
Fritz: Okay, fine. You can help me win my war, since you have, like, no patience whatsoever.
Fritz: Now, Algarotti, you're the second most famous intellectual in Europe, and everybody knows you work for me. So go to Turin, SECRETLY, don't let anyone know you're there, suss out the political situation for me, SECRETLY, see if the King of Sardinia's open to an alliance with Prussia, and above all, don't let anyone know you're doing a job for me. Got it?
Secret Mission Interlude
Newspapers: *report on celebrity Algarotti's every movement*
Everyone in Europe: *follows Algarotti's trip from Berlin to Turin in the papers*
Everyone in Europe: Algarotti seems to be hanging out in Turin a lot these days. Must be doing work for King Frederick. Probably trying to get Prussia an alliance with the King of Sardinia.
Fritz: OMFG this is going to be just like the last time I tried to have a Very Secret Plan and everybody knew about it. Never mind the alliance, Algarotti, just come back to Berlin!
Algarotti: I finally get entrusted with something important, he ties my hands with a set of impossible constraints, and then I'm recalled before I can actually get anything done. SO HUMILIATING. Could my year get any worse?
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu: Hi! Remember me? I followed you to Italy so we could be together forever.
Algarotti: What the--Do I need a restraining order? Oh, boy. Crazy stalker lady or micromanaging boss? Decisions, decisions.
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu: My son is your age, but I just know we're meant to be!
Algarotti: Micromanaging boss it is!
1741, back in Berlin
Algarotti: Anyone else bored? I'm bored.
Other famous intellectuals: I'm bored.
Fritz: Seriously, everyone just sit tight. MT's going to give up this province any minute, and then I'll come home, and it'll be fun enlightenment times just like I promised when I invited you.
Time: *passes*
Intellectuals: *twiddle thumbs*
Fritz: ANY MINUTE!
1741, Silesia
Fritz: Meanwhile, I'm getting tired of just having military men to talk to. Maupertuis, come join me on campaign. I hear you're bored.
Maupertuis: *gets captured by Austrians, then released*
Fritz: Oops. Still bored, though? :D
Maupertuis: With all due respect, sir, this is not what I signed up for.
Algarotti: Oh, hell no. Dresden, here I come! The King of Saxony wants an art collector.
Maupertuis: Paris for me.
Algarotti and Fritz: *have a snippy exchange of letters, then silence for five years*
1742
Algarotti in Dresden: *trying to get to Italy to buy art for the King of Saxony, but it's not safe to travel because SOMEONE started a war in central Europe*
1743-1747
Algarotti in Italy: *looking for art*
Algarotti in Italy: Frickin' King of Saxony.
Algarotti in Italy: *looking for a better job*
1745-1747
Fritz: *finally wins the second Silesian War, builds Sanssouci, promises never to go to war again*
Fritz: NOW will you all come back? I've got this lovely new palace for us. It'll be just like Rheinsberg, but with money!
Intellectuals: *cautiously trickle back*
Algarotti in Italy: Well, I don't like my current job and I can't find a better one here, so I guess maybe Fritz has gotten the warmongering out of his system. It was so promising in Rheinsberg, and the new job offer *is* for everything I ever wanted.
1747-1748
Algarotti: Oh, man, on the one hand I finally got my dream job, but on the other, my boss is...Fritz. Fritz, can you pay me to go to Italy? There's, um, an archaeological dig in Herculaneum that is of *great interest* to both of us that I should totally observe so I can report back to you.
Fritz: You seem suspiciously eager to get back to the place you're always complaining about, but sure.
Algarotti in Bologna: I can see
Russia from my houseHerculaneum from here. Not trying to get a job at any of the academic institutes in Bologna, pinky swear!Fritz, in a letter to Wilhelmine: He doesn't know any more about the Herculaneum digs than you or I do. He could have studied them just as well from here. (actual quote)
Fritz: Get back here, Algarotti. You're not fooling anyone.
1749-1753
Algarotti in Berlin: Sorry I can't come to Potsdam, I'm really sick. I still work for you and you should still pay me, though.
Algarotti everywhere else in Prussia at every possible opportunity: Sorry I can't come to Potsdam. Still sick. Still love you, though! (Would love you more if you would stop telling me what to do all the time.)
Algarotti in Potsdam: *still trying to get that elusive job in Italy*
1752-1753
Voltaire in Potsdam: *happens*
Fritz in Potsdam: *happens*
Algarotti in Potsdam: *watches in mounting horror*
Algarotti in Potsdam: Still no job prospects in Italy, but anything is better than Fritz/Voltaire.
Algarotti in Potsdam: Your Majesty, I totally love you, but I have some really pressing personal affairs in Italy. Can I get a hall pass?
Fritz: I think you're lying, but you did come back last time when you were lying, so sure. Bring me some marble from Herculaneum when you return, k?
1753, after the hall pass expires
Fritz: *tapping foot*
Algarotti still in Italy: Sorry, super sick!
Fritz: You know the doctors there aren't any better than here, right?
Algarotti still in Italy: I will come to you soon if it KILLS me. Which my doctors say traveling might, so please understand you might not see me for a little while.
1754
Fritz: Any day now?
Algarotti still in Italy: Any day now!
1755
Algarotti still in Italy: We were really nice to your sister.
Fritz: I heard! Also, I still miss you. Just putting that out there.
1756
Fritz: Well, um, there seems to be a war on here, but I'll invite you again as soon as it's done.
Algarotti still in Italy: Good luck! Not sure how much help I'd be, think I'll just sit it out here. With my bad health, you know.
1756-1763
Algarotti still in Italy: Wow, you seem really busy with that war. Keep kicking butt. I'll keep reading about it in the papers, here in Italy.
Fritz: It's looking like it's gonna be a while. Glad you and your countrymen are being entertained by my adventures. Lucky you, I wish I could be a spectator instead of a participant.
Algarotti still in Italy: You got this. P.S. Still love you! (Plz don't have your agents arrest me outside your country like you did Voltaire.)
Fritz: Not sure why you won't come back, but love you too!
1763
Algarotti still in Italy: I had to move to Pisa for the warm air. *cough cough choke hack* But I heard you won the Seven Years' War! Congrats! You're the best!
Fritz: "I hope you fare as well with your lungs as we did against the Austrians." (actual quote) This doesn't mean you're never coming back to Prussia, does it? Oh, no. Please don't die. Everyone I love keeps dying.
March 9, 1764
Algarotti still in Italy: Really wish I could see you again, but, you know, my health. You understand.
June 1, 1764
Fritz: You wish you could see me? Really?! I have an idea! We have this great doctor here in Prussia, who recently cured a cough just like yours! Nothing would make me happier than if you came and got better. I have a whole list of things we could do together. P.S. I'm really worried about you.
June 12, 1764
Fritz: Dear Algarotti's friend, thank you for letting me know our mutual friend Algarotti died of tuberculosis a month before my last letter. That shaky handwriting was making me nervous, but I was still hoping to see him again someday. Please set up a marble monument to his memory, then tell me where and how much money to send you as reimbursement.
Epilogue
Fritz: So, Algarotti my old friend, I heard you wanted your name to live alongside mine. Here's a grave monument in Pisa where my name is really big and yours is somewhat smaller. That should do it!
Posterity: Algarotti who?
Starring: Algarotti the Perpetual Job Hunter and Fritz the Jerkass Woobie.
One thing to keep in mind about all this is that the dissertation in question is specifically about networking techniques in the intellectual sphere in eighteenth-century Europe, with Algarotti as the case study. It's not a bio of Algarotti. So the whole focus is his job search. Aside from that love triangle with Hervey and Wortley Montagu, which the author depicts as a ruthless endeavor solely motivated by the need to get a good-paying position in London, you get no sense of Algarotti's personal life. So if Fritz was ever more than a paycheck to him, you're not going to get it out of this dissertation.
Another interesting point: Algarotti seems to get up to relatively little after 1753, compared to his extremely detailed and eventful career up to that point. Both the dissertation writer and various Fritz biographers are like, "Well, maybe he was as sick as he said he was. You know, he did die 11 years later. But actually we think he was just trying to get away from Fritz."
But not only does he stay the hell out of Prussia (which, granted, I'm sure his decision to be sick in Italy instead of in Potsdam was motivated by the whole Voltaire/Fritz implosion plus general Fritz-ness), but his output and activity seem to decline, and what he does produce does seem to correlate with gaps in his complaints about his health. That can't be all Fritz.
Poor everybody. /o\