Interest in physics: may be been especially vivid in 1739 because that was when he met Algarotti whose main claim to fame at that point was Newtonian in nature, too.
Interesting, didn't know that about Algarotti. I think the chronology doesn't quite match up, though, since Algarotti showed up at Rheinsberg in September I think, and the letter is from February. Émilie sent Fritz her work on fire in November 1938, and the whole Émilie/Voltaire/Paris Academy competition was right before that, so I was wondering if that was what got him interested.
The other physical Fritzian gesture re: Heinrich in the 7 Years War years that struck observers, in this case not Lehndorff but Heinrich's AD Henckel von Donnersmarck, was the post- defeat at Kolin meltdown complete with hug, kiss and "I want to die" outburst, where you have Henckel in his diary going "WTF? Did he ever kiss him before? How screwed are we?"
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Re: Early Fritz letter to Voltaire / Random Thoughts
Date: 2020-10-10 12:45 pm (UTC)Interest in physics: may be been especially vivid in 1739 because that was when he met Algarotti whose main claim to fame at that point was Newtonian in nature, too.
Interesting, didn't know that about Algarotti. I think the chronology doesn't quite match up, though, since Algarotti showed up at Rheinsberg in September I think, and the letter is from February. Émilie sent Fritz her work on fire in November 1938, and the whole Émilie/Voltaire/Paris Academy competition was right before that, so I was wondering if that was what got him interested.
The other physical Fritzian gesture re: Heinrich in the 7 Years War years that struck observers, in this case not Lehndorff but Heinrich's AD Henckel von Donnersmarck, was the post- defeat at Kolin meltdown complete with hug, kiss and "I want to die" outburst, where you have Henckel in his diary going "WTF? Did he ever kiss him before? How screwed are we?"
Ohhh, I hadn't heard of that one yet. Damn.