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Frederick the Great discussion post 12
Every time I am amazed and enchanted that this is still going on! Truly DW is the Earthly Paradise!
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rheinsberg :)
All the good stuff continues to be archived at
rheinsberg :)
Re: Lucchessini, Catt and Fredersdorf, oh, my
Literally none. Fritz' correspondence on E-Enlightenment is not comprehensive at all. Right now, it is mostly focused around Voltaire; as in, the letters he sent directly to Voltaire, the letters to his friends concerning Voltaire, etc. Because Project Voltaire is all about making the most comprehensive collection of correspondence for Voltaire, straight from the manuscripts where possible. There's never been any large-scale effort like that for Fritz. Katrin Kohl, Fellow and Tutor in German and Professor of German Literature at Oxford, notes that there are probably loads of his letters in libraries across Europe that have never been digitized. And that's not including the letters that have been digitized but possibly censored, and that MULTITUDES of letters that have not been transcribed, but have had all spelling and grammar corrected (aka all of Preuss). She started a Frederick the Great E-Enlightenment project to compliment the Voltaire Project on the 300th anniversary of his birth (2012), but only the first half(?) of the beginnings of the project was completed. Which included this letter from 1732 that had never been published before cause it was stuck in the Bodelian library:
My very dear Brother,
I was most sorry to learn from your ensign Full that you were ill my very dear Brother, I fear it may be some kind of venereal disease and as you can count on my friendship and on my discretion I beg you to let me know I will make sure you have all the necessary medicine from Dr Miraux of Potsdam no-one will know a word, and I assure you that you can confide your secret to me, I am going to Potsdam on Tuesday, and to Berlin on Wednesday if you have some order to give to the Whores of Berlin you have only to let me know I am keeping ful until tomorrow I hope you will not take it amiss in consideration of the esteem and of the perfect friendship with which I am,
My very dear Brother
Your most faithful
brother and servant
Frederick [in French]
I have received a recruit from your garrison. Just ask Fuhl about this. [in German]
Context: a fellow officer in Fritz' regiment has venereal disease from a brothel - editor's note: "Frederick’s concern to provide medical advice is characteristic of a lifelong interest in diseases and their cures". He spells the name of the ensign three different ways in the same letter (Full, ful, Fuhl) :/
Of course the project is pretty much dead at this point.
I do wish there was a bit of funding or interest to go through and digitize at least the correspondence to and between his siblings.
I could have sworn that I read in a biography or something that after Fredersdorf died, Friedrich sent a letter to his widow asking for their correspondence to be returned. His widow returned most of the letters, which were burned, but secretly kept some for herself, which now survive in the archives. I can't remember where that information comes from or if it's accurate? Any ideas?
Maybe there's more correspondence in here? Or not?
Re: Lucchessini, Catt and Fredersdorf, oh, my
Ah, okay, didn't realize it was so Voltaire-focused.
have had all spelling and grammar corrected (aka all of Preuss)
You know, I should have guessed this. It's too regular. Well, thanks, I guess, Preuss? On principle, I prefer diplomatic editions, but seeing as how we're relying on Google translate, silent corrections have probably been a godsend.
I do wish there was a bit of funding or interest to go through and digitize at least the correspondence to and between his siblings.
So say we all!
I could have sworn that I read in a biography or something that after Fredersdorf died, Friedrich sent a letter to his widow asking for their correspondence to be returned. His widow returned most of the letters, which were burned, but secretly kept some for herself, which now survive in the archives. I can't remember where that information comes from or if it's accurate? Any ideas?
Yep, that came up in our discussion here!
We've obtained the Richter correspondence from 1926, which was "lightly censored", and an additional letter in Burchardt, and that's all. Too bad E-Enlightenment doesn't have more.
Maybe there's more correspondence in here? Or not?
I've actually been meaning to ask
Next question for your gracious self,
Re: Lucchessini, Catt and Fredersdorf, oh, my
It does not - it has about 20 letters from her. You can find her complete correspondence on Oxford Scholarly Editions Online here. Well, to be more exact, here. I can access it! Are there any particular letters you're interested in?
Re: Lucchessini, Catt and Fredersdorf, oh, my
Thank you kindly for your offer, but sadly, I don't have particular letters in mind (I've already scanned the Algarotti ones), and was just hoping to be able to read, because from what I saw when skimming through the volumes at the time I had them checked out (for Algarotti), she looked pretty interesting. But alas, it looks like I'm waiting until I can spend $150 on physical copies and then scan them so I can read them.