Another of the books I found in the Bayrische Staatsbibliothek ws "Francesco Algarotti: Ein philosophischer Hofmann im Jahrhundert der Aufklärung", edited by Hans Schumacher and Brunhilde Wehinger. (Brunhilde Wehinger also wrote and edited several Émilie-related essays and essay collections.) This is an anthology of essays by different authors on Algarotti's work, covering the entire spectrum - the Newton book, the poetry, the philosphical treatises, the correspondance with Fritz, the Russian travel book - and showcases what a polymath he was. Otoh, there is little biography in it; it's really focused on the work. This said, I found various interesting-to-us things to report, starting with a tiny tiny morsel to feed our crack theory of an Algarotti/Heinrich one night stand. (Or two.) Because he dedicated a book to him. Now, book dedications to nobility usually don't signify anything else than the writer hoping for a patron, or trying to keep a patron, and there are enough book dedications written by authors who never met the people in question in this and the next century. But the thing is, Algarotti did this during his time in Prussia, when he already had THE top patron (Fritz of course got a book dedicated to him, too, though technically the second edition of one), and Heinrich pre 7 Years War was not an important, influential person, nor one with financial means that he didn't derive from Fritz. I totally feel justified by canon for one particular dialogue "My brother Narcissus" now.
On to more solid info.The essay about Algarotti's poetry tells me that Algarotti in the first flush of Fritz enthusiasm kept comparing him to Augustus, and himself to Horace in his eloges. (Che se concedi a noi nominarti Augusto/ Di Flacco a me concedi il canto, e il nome.) Modesty clearly was not his problem. I still wish we had the alternate poems for Fritz and MT, depending on who'd win the war, which Lady Mary mentions, but evidently not, instead, two essays tell me that Algarotti supposedly completely bought into the Fritzian propaganda like calling the battle of Prague in May 1757 the modern "Battle of Pharsalus" (with Fritz as Caesar, of course), the decisive battle between Caesar and Pomey, which became a bit awkward when the war kept happening afterwards, not to mention Prussian defeats. Algarotti loyally kept comparing Fritz to Caesar (as in, Fritz surpassing good old Gaius Iulius) all through the war in his letters, though.
Otoh, the essay on the correspondance between Fritz and Algarotti shows him also - in a diplomatic way - from a more independently minded side, when it comes to Voltaire specifically. It also in terms of "how much into Algarotti was Fritz?" points out Algarotti had to be one of the very few not military people who was told by Fritz he'd invade Silesia before he did, in a letter from October 28th 1740 (when he's in Rheinsberg for the last time, I think):
"My dear Algarotti! I completely agree with you that my Antimachiavell contains the mistakes you list. I'm even convinced one could add or cut a great many things would improve the book as it is. However, the death of the Emperor has made me a bad proof reader. I is a fatal time for my book, and a potentially glorious time for me. (...) We act as Caesar and Mark Antony in all calm here and expect to act as them in real life soon. Now that' what one calls leisure activity. (...) I won't go to Berlin now. A little thing like the death of the Emperor doesn't demand great efforts. It's all been prepared. It's just a matter of acting on plans I've been carrying with me for a long time now."
I was also reminded that Algarotti sending Fritz broccoli is canon. ("Je prends la liberté d'envoyer à Sans-Souci des graines de brocoli", Algarotti to Fritz on November 24th 1749.)
But what intrigued me most in the essay about the correspondance was the author pointing out that despite Fritz keeping bitching about Voltaire to Algarotti (whether it's about his Antimachiavel corrections, or in 1749, i.e. when Voltair annoys him by refusing to come before Émilie hasn't given birth, complaining about his rotten character and insisting he only wants Voltaire for his elegant French, Algarotti doesn't sycophantically or sincerely agree but in one instance even cautiously defends Voltaire. This is when Fritz - he who'll later be all "Immortal poetry now! All of Europe must grieve with me for Wilhelmine!" - makes his "he's mourning so loudly that I have no doubt he doesn't mean it and he'll get over it at once" dig, and Algarotti disagrees, writing with a faint note of reproof: Je le pains réellement d'avoir perdu ce qu'il ne retrovuera peut-etre jamais; la perte d'une femme qu'on aime, et avec qui on passait sa vie, est irréparable pour ceux qui ne commandent pas des armées et ne gouvernent pas des États.
(Fritz: Freaking Émilie!)
Our essay writer also points out that correspondingly to the ongoing Fritz/Voltaire implosion, Algarotti prepares his own Frexit by increasingly mentioning his bad health in his letters to Fritz. Conversely, when he did leave Potsdam, Voltaire congratulated him, and as late as 1759 invited him for a visit to his then finally found home in Switzerland, writing, in English: "Let a free man visit a free man."
(Algarotti: no, I'm really sick now. But thanks.)
The correspondance essay furtherly points out that Algarotti kept acting as an informal art agent for Fritz in Italy, sending him architactual plans and designs of Palladio as inspiration for Potsdam, where you an indeed find distinct echoes.
Lastly, the essay about Algarotti's Viaggi di Russia I found fascinating both in terms of having recently read up on Lady Mary, and in terms of the whole "Pamela" stunt from Voltaire.
Algarotti travelled to St. Petersburg in the summer of 1739, as part of a delegation led by Lord Baltimore which G2 had sent to the wedding of Anna von Mecklenburg, niece of the Czarina Anna Ivanova, and her designated successor Anton Ulrick Prince of Brunswick-Lüneburg. En route back from St. Petersburg, he wouldn't just meet Fritz at Rheinsberg but also dine with FW (!!!) in Berlin in his capacity as Lord Baltimore's temporary sidekick. (So FW might not have met Voltaire, but he did meet another Fritzian boyfriend.) This trip resulted in:
a) A travel diary b) A first, short version of a travel book in the form of nine letters addressed to Lord Hervey, "Saggio di lettere sopra la Russia", published by Algarotti in 1760 c) an extended version which adds twelve more letters to other people drafted in 1763, and d) the final version from 1764, going into print after Algarotti's death
Like Lady Mary with her Embassy Letters, Algarotti only drew partially on his actual letters from the time for this book and mostly on his diary notes, using the basic material for letters forming a travel narrative. Again, as with Lady Mary, that means no letter repeats information the previous one contains, and the letter format is literature rather than documentation. It's also interesting that he chooses Hervey as his exclusive correspondant for the first version, because by the time he was writing/redrafting this book, Hervey had long since died (Hervey died in 1743, remember), so there was nothing to be gained in terms of patronage by this. It therefore looks like a gesture of respect/affection for the dead man, and Hervey might have been fresh on his mind again as well because he'd rekindled relationships with Lady Mary as a friendship in the later 1750s.
The comparison between the various versions of this book as well as the diary unsurprisingly reveals Algarotti edited out lots of criticism he made re: Russia, such as: The government is potentially the most arbitrary and horrible in the entire world. Al those who are nobility have to live at court against their will, and do whatever they're told. Which is why they can call themselves true slaves, and those who habve left the country feel their misery more than any others and keep complaining about it, especially when they have drunk a bit.
(Sidenote: Russian nobility, who famously owned serfs longer than anyone else in Europe, as slaves, that's... one interesting simile, Algarotti. But you're in the best tradition of Rule, Britannia here , as in "Britons never never never shall be slaves".. they'll just own them.)
There are, otoh, also a lot of vivid landscape descriptions, and it seems Algarotti came up first with the simile of Russia as a threatening white bear and St. Petersbur as "un gran finistrone" - a great window through which Russia looks west, which a lot of people, including Fritz, would adapt later. And of course some redrafts just go for a better styl; the essay here compares a description Algarotti gives of Leopold von Anhalt-Dessauer (the famous old Dessauer, pal of FW) drilling soldiers in the first version to how phrases it in the final version, and the final description is far more elegant.
Now, what all of this makes me wonder is: a) did Lady Mary read it as a work in progress, given that she herself was busy working on the Embassy letters at the same time, and/or did Algarotti read her manuscript in progress?
b) Could it be that what Voltaire at first intended to do when reworking his correspondance with Madame Denis from 1750 - 1753 was something similar in form though of course not in spirit, i.e. a "Prussia Letters" travelogue (doubling as Fritz trashing), and it became redundant when he wrote his trashy tell all memoirs instead? Because while they're called "memoirs" in English, the German title is "Über den König von Preußen", and they're not really Memoirs of Voltaire's life as such, but specifically about his life in connection with Fritz.
The essay about Algarotti as an art collector to August III. in Dresden: Algarotti didn't just shop for established classics, he commissioned a lot of new paintings from living painters!! Self: That's nice. Go Algarotti for encouraging the artists of your own time! Essay: ....which during the war were stored in Hubertsburg. Self: Err. Essay: ....where they ended up destroyed or sold when Fritz had Lentulus vandalize it.
Lastly, Mildred of course must know it already, but I'd just like to share the first enthusiastic description Algarotti gives of Fritz, in a letter to Voltaire, after having met him for the first time: En revenant j'ai été dans le troisième ciel: j'ai vu, oh me beato! ce prince adorable, disciple de Trajan, rival de Marc Aurèle.
All About Algarotti
On to more solid info.The essay about Algarotti's poetry tells me that Algarotti in the first flush of Fritz enthusiasm kept comparing him to Augustus, and himself to Horace in his eloges. (Che se concedi a noi nominarti Augusto/ Di Flacco a me concedi il canto, e il nome.) Modesty clearly was not his problem. I still wish we had the alternate poems for Fritz and MT, depending on who'd win the war, which Lady Mary mentions, but evidently not, instead, two essays tell me that Algarotti supposedly completely bought into the Fritzian propaganda like calling the battle of Prague in May 1757 the modern "Battle of Pharsalus" (with Fritz as Caesar, of course), the decisive battle between Caesar and Pomey, which became a bit awkward when the war kept happening afterwards, not to mention Prussian defeats. Algarotti loyally kept comparing Fritz to Caesar (as in, Fritz surpassing good old Gaius Iulius) all through the war in his letters, though.
Otoh, the essay on the correspondance between Fritz and Algarotti shows him also - in a diplomatic way - from a more independently minded side, when it comes to Voltaire specifically. It also in terms of "how much into Algarotti was Fritz?" points out Algarotti had to be one of the very few not military people who was told by Fritz he'd invade Silesia before he did, in a letter from October 28th 1740 (when he's in Rheinsberg for the last time, I think):
"My dear Algarotti! I completely agree with you that my Antimachiavell contains the mistakes you list. I'm even convinced one could add or cut a great many things would improve the book as it is. However, the death of the Emperor has made me a bad proof reader. I is a fatal time for my book, and a potentially glorious time for me. (...) We act as Caesar and Mark Antony in all calm here and expect to act as them in real life soon. Now that' what one calls leisure activity. (...) I won't go to Berlin now. A little thing like the death of the Emperor doesn't demand great efforts. It's all been prepared. It's just a matter of acting on plans I've been carrying with me for a long time now."
I was also reminded that Algarotti sending Fritz broccoli is canon. ("Je prends la liberté d'envoyer à Sans-Souci des graines de brocoli", Algarotti to Fritz on November 24th 1749.)
But what intrigued me most in the essay about the correspondance was the author pointing out that despite Fritz keeping bitching about Voltaire to Algarotti (whether it's about his Antimachiavel corrections, or in 1749, i.e. when Voltair annoys him by refusing to come before Émilie hasn't given birth, complaining about his rotten character and insisting he only wants Voltaire for his elegant French, Algarotti doesn't sycophantically or sincerely agree but in one instance even cautiously defends Voltaire. This is when Fritz - he who'll later be all "Immortal poetry now! All of Europe must grieve with me for Wilhelmine!" - makes his "he's mourning so loudly that I have no doubt he doesn't mean it and he'll get over it at once" dig, and Algarotti disagrees, writing with a faint note of reproof: Je le pains réellement d'avoir perdu ce qu'il ne retrovuera peut-etre jamais; la perte d'une femme qu'on aime, et avec qui on passait sa vie, est irréparable pour ceux qui ne commandent pas des armées et ne gouvernent pas des États.
(Fritz: Freaking Émilie!)
Our essay writer also points out that correspondingly to the ongoing Fritz/Voltaire implosion, Algarotti prepares his own Frexit by increasingly mentioning his bad health in his letters to Fritz. Conversely, when he did leave Potsdam, Voltaire congratulated him, and as late as 1759 invited him for a visit to his then finally found home in Switzerland, writing, in English: "Let a free man visit a free man."
(Algarotti: no, I'm really sick now. But thanks.)
The correspondance essay furtherly points out that Algarotti kept acting as an informal art agent for Fritz in Italy, sending him architactual plans and designs of Palladio as inspiration for Potsdam, where you an indeed find distinct echoes.
Lastly, the essay about Algarotti's Viaggi di Russia I found fascinating both in terms of having recently read up on Lady Mary, and in terms of the whole "Pamela" stunt from Voltaire.
Algarotti travelled to St. Petersburg in the summer of 1739, as part of a delegation led by Lord Baltimore which G2 had sent to the wedding of Anna von Mecklenburg, niece of the Czarina Anna Ivanova, and her designated successor Anton Ulrick Prince of Brunswick-Lüneburg. En route back from St. Petersburg, he wouldn't just meet Fritz at Rheinsberg but also dine with FW (!!!) in Berlin in his capacity as Lord Baltimore's temporary sidekick. (So FW might not have met Voltaire, but he did meet another Fritzian boyfriend.) This trip resulted in:
a) A travel diary
b) A first, short version of a travel book in the form of nine letters addressed to Lord Hervey, "Saggio di lettere sopra la Russia", published by Algarotti in 1760
c) an extended version which adds twelve more letters to other people drafted in 1763, and
d) the final version from 1764, going into print after Algarotti's death
Like Lady Mary with her Embassy Letters, Algarotti only drew partially on his actual letters from the time for this book and mostly on his diary notes, using the basic material for letters forming a travel narrative. Again, as with Lady Mary, that means no letter repeats information the previous one contains, and the letter format is literature rather than documentation. It's also interesting that he chooses Hervey as his exclusive correspondant for the first version, because by the time he was writing/redrafting this book, Hervey had long since died (Hervey died in 1743, remember), so there was nothing to be gained in terms of patronage by this. It therefore looks like a gesture of respect/affection for the dead man, and Hervey might have been fresh on his mind again as well because he'd rekindled relationships with Lady Mary as a friendship in the later 1750s.
The comparison between the various versions of this book as well as the diary unsurprisingly reveals Algarotti edited out lots of criticism he made re: Russia, such as: The government is potentially the most arbitrary and horrible in the entire world. Al those who are nobility have to live at court against their will, and do whatever they're told. Which is why they can call themselves true slaves, and those who habve left the country feel their misery more than any others and keep complaining about it, especially when they have drunk a bit.
(Sidenote: Russian nobility, who famously owned serfs longer than anyone else in Europe, as slaves, that's... one interesting simile, Algarotti. But you're in the best tradition of Rule, Britannia here , as in "Britons never never never shall be slaves".. they'll just own them.)
There are, otoh, also a lot of vivid landscape descriptions, and it seems Algarotti came up first with the simile of Russia as a threatening white bear and St. Petersbur as "un gran finistrone" - a great window through which Russia looks west, which a lot of people, including Fritz, would adapt later. And of course some redrafts just go for a better styl; the essay here compares a description Algarotti gives of Leopold von Anhalt-Dessauer (the famous old Dessauer, pal of FW) drilling soldiers in the first version to how phrases it in the final version, and the final description is far more elegant.
Now, what all of this makes me wonder is: a) did Lady Mary read it as a work in progress, given that she herself was busy working on the Embassy letters at the same time, and/or did Algarotti read her manuscript in progress?
b) Could it be that what Voltaire at first intended to do when reworking his correspondance with Madame Denis from 1750 - 1753 was something similar in form though of course not in spirit, i.e. a "Prussia Letters" travelogue (doubling as Fritz trashing), and it became redundant when he wrote his trashy tell all memoirs instead? Because while they're called "memoirs" in English, the German title is "Über den König von Preußen", and they're not really Memoirs of Voltaire's life as such, but specifically about his life in connection with Fritz.
The essay about Algarotti as an art collector to August III. in Dresden: Algarotti didn't just shop for established classics, he commissioned a lot of new paintings from living painters!!
Self: That's nice. Go Algarotti for encouraging the artists of your own time!
Essay: ....which during the war were stored in Hubertsburg.
Self: Err.
Essay: ....where they ended up destroyed or sold when Fritz had Lentulus vandalize it.
Lastly, Mildred of course must know it already, but I'd just like to share the first enthusiastic description Algarotti gives of Fritz, in a letter to Voltaire, after having met him for the first time: En revenant j'ai été dans le troisième ciel: j'ai vu, oh me beato! ce prince adorable, disciple de Trajan, rival de Marc Aurèle.