This essay, otoh, includes the Schöning-told anecdote that Fritz was so cheap that he only had torn up shirts available at the time of his death, so in order to bury him in a new and clean one, Schöning had to donate one of his, and gives the source of this story: Caspar H: 300 Jahre Friedrich II. Schöngeist und wüste Tischsitten. Brandenburger Blätter, Historie, Natur, Gegenwart. Nr. 225, 10.08.2012.
This all goes back to Büsching's Character as well actually, the Caspar guy quotes him. Relevant part from Büsching:
Because none of the shirts of the deceased king were good, but all torn, none of them could be put on his body. But one could not take the time to have a new one made, and so the current Geheime Kriegsrat Schöning gave one of his unused shirts, which his bride had given him, and in this the body was buried. I found this credibly told fact to be true when I examined it closely.
also, endnotes: Schöning, Geheimer Kriegsrath, former Kammerhusar [...] contributed a lot to this book
Since we were talking about that in another thread, he also mentions that Schöning said the king had expressed disgust at the idea of an autopsy.
Schöning shows up quite a bit in the Schatullrechnungen - as chamber husar - between 1783 and 1786, and the index includes a note saying that there's a Schöning listed as a "barber husar" between 1771 and 1772 in the state archive, but it's unclear if that's the same guy. Among the things Schöning apparently got/payed money for are Glaubersalz, leeches ("Blutigel" :D - this shows up quite often, did they do the bleeding that way?), scissors, a wooden medicine case, enema syringes, white paint for his room, and money for poor people (quite often!).
I haven't found a copy of Schöning's own book, but a very thorough Volz review - Friedrich der Große und sein Kammerdiener Schöning. Ein Beitrag zur Anekdotenliteratur - which is almost as good. Volz doesn't just talk about Schöning, but also puts him in perspective and calls him reliable, saying that Unger for example included every absurd thing he could find, whereas Büsching owed a lot to Schöning, even has parts in his book that show up almost verbatim in Schöning's, so Büsching's "he contributed a lot" is apparently well earned and Büsching already had the manuscript that was published in 1808 and seems to have been directed mostly against Unger (and Zimmermann!).
Volz also gives some more information on Schöning: With Fritz since 1766 as a footman (so NOT a first hand witness for Glasow) and chamber husar since 1769 and - as the Schatullrechnungen corroborate as well - he seems to have been responsible for Fritz' medical care towards the end, also corresponding with Selle for example. FWII made him Geh. Kriegsrath for his loyal services. Volz says he seems to have been well educated, knew French and used Latin expressions. In his book, Schöning also included anecdotes that Fritz used to tell at the table and Volz quotes a few of those, adding extensive notes.
Finally, a quote from Schöning's book which is included in Seidel's essay about Fritz' looks: Frederick II was about 5 feet 5 inches tall. The strength of the body was appropriate for his medium size. His stature was well proportioned, the chest raised and broad, the body not at all skinny, not fat, and the head hanging a little to the right, which probably came from playing the flute. The nose was long but well built; the eyes not too big, not too small, but lively and fiery; the gait a little sloppy, but quick and proud. The king had a very good memory, a very fluent tongue, saw quite well up close, but he had to get glasses for distant objects. But he didn't need glasses to read and write.
Probably. I mean, I always tend to imagine they did it by using a knife and cups to collect the blood, but that's probably because of the movies. Leeches are more hygeniec than rokoko knives, I guess, and you don't have to wipe up the blood or pour it away afterwards. Still: ewwww.
Go you for finding the Schatullrechnungen and the Volz review! That does sound like Schöning is a good source in general (twenty years serving Fritz are nothing to sneeze at!), despite not having been present for the Glasow (and Völker) disaster himself. Presumably he did not know either guy in person (since Glasow was dead and Völker persona non grata in the King's household), but heard others (including Fritz?) talking about them.
If he was such a key source for Büsching, I assume the story about Handsome Suicidal Hussar No.2 is also from him.
Volz says he seems to have been well educated, knew French and used Latin expressions.
This is interesting because Büsching also says that nearly of of Fritz' personal servants were uneducated to illiterate near the end, because he'd gotten paranoid about being spied at. Clearly, if so, Schöning was an exception.
This is interesting because Büsching also says that nearly of of Fritz' personal servants were uneducated to illiterate near the end, because he'd gotten paranoid about being spied at. Clearly, if so, Schöning was an exception.
Oh, Fritz. Maybe if he trusted you not to spy on him, he liked the company? He was getting kind of lonely at the end, even with Lucchesini.
OK, that's rather an interesting story about the shirt. That does seem like Fritz to me, not bothering to get new shirts, lol.
Schöning said the king had expressed disgust at the idea of an autopsy.
I need to go back to the other thread (which thank you for answering my questions there!) but let me just say here that this is still fascinating to me that it's such a big deal for them, control even after death.
I'm charmed that Fritz's glasses show up in Schöning's book!
Neither have I, just a physical copy in the Munich university library (as well as various other libraries in Germany). Not sure if even post-pandemic Selena has access to that library.
Also an 1809 review, which is...somehow not in a ridiculous font??
The Munich uni library calls him Kurd von Schöning, but they seem to be confusing him with the later military history writer Kurd von Schöning who was born in 1789 and whom I turned up in my searches earlier.
Felis, do you have non-pandemic access to a physical library that I should be including in my searches?
leeches ("Blutigel" :D - this shows up quite often, did they do the bleeding that way?)
I know they did sometimes! Wikipedia tells me leeches really took off in the early 19th century, but they'd been around in the 18th as well. (They'd been *around* forever, since ancient Egypt, but were still in use in the 18C.)
But he didn't need glasses to read and write.
Huh. I thought we'd established that he did (hence that making it into my fanfic), but perhaps we extrapolated that from me (and Selena?) needing glasses to read and right. I pushed my glasses up on my head just now, and I had to increase the font size up to 300% just to be able to make out DW text with a lot of difficulty, and at 500% it was still noticeably blurry and hard to read. And 500% is as high as Chrome will take me. :P
Otoh, as I remember Selena pointing out, it was the 18th century, and everyone was holding the page up to their nose, because lighting was terrible!
Also, if he wasn't far-sighted at all by 74, that's impressive.
which is included in Seidel's essay about Fritz' looks
Additional info via Volz: this was apparently slightly edited by the 1808 editor (after Schöning's death) and is based on several things Schöning wrote - for Büsching, against Unger/Zimmermann, ... - starting right after Fritz' death. In the state archive, Volz also found a 1795 manuscript Schöning sent to one of FWII's ministers in 1795 (per request), which contains a mix of all that. The quotes that Volz gives in the article I linked above are (mostly) anecdotes from the 1795 manuscript that aren't in the published 1808 one.
The 1809 review is the one that Selena linked above, see "The reviewer..."
And yeah, I saw the Kurd von Schöning confusion as well. Volz doesn't give a first name either, and he says that we don't know much about him - I mentioned most of it - and nothing about his life before 1766. Haven't read the actual Schöning book yet, but I doubt there's more in that one, or Volz would probably have mentioned it.
Felis, do you have non-pandemic access to a physical library that I should be including in my searches?
Sadly, no.
which is included in Seidel's essay about Fritz' looks
Ooh. Where is this?
Huh, I thought I'd mentioned it before, but maybe not. Another Hohenzollern-Jahrbuch essay (truly a treasure trove), Die äußere Erscheinung Friedrichs des Großen, which I just realized is actually written by two people instead of one: first part by Koser, who collects a lot of quotes about Fritz' looks, starting with F1's comments about baby Fritz, second part by Seidel about Fritz paintings and sculptures etc.
*applauds* In the library now. And I'm adding SLUB to my list of digitized book sources to check from now on!
So now our Anecdotes folder has Zimmermann (2 works), Nicolai (2 works), Büsching, Schöning, and Unger!
I also added some Hohenzollern yearbooks (not all, maybe tomorrow) to the Articles folder.
Huh, I thought I'd mentioned it before, but maybe not.
Maybe you did! Clearly I can't even keep track of which review Selena found and whether it's the same as mine (there is too much happening too fast!). But it's not ringing a bell, so regardless--thank you!
re: Schöning, for which much thanks to felis, I'll have to do a write up with quotes, because it contains very detailed information about Fritz' day-to-day schedule, habits etc. during the last decades of his life, some of which we knew and some is new (to me), but for now, I wanted to reassure you that regular mustard in the coffee is most definitely canon, according to Schöning.
Also, the early 19th century editor with his comments is very early 19th century - this being 1808, he's suffering from the national humiliation of Prussia having been beaten by Napoleon, so thinking about the Fritzian glory days is great, but he does slightly chide Fritz for his Schöning-testified attitude towards religion, saying that the great King could not see where all this encouragement of mockery of religion would lead to, the horrible excesses from which consequences we're all suffering today. (He means the French Revolution, without which no Napoleon.)
Btw, since we've discussed Catt's claim that Fritz had an inner believer waiting to emerge and changed his mind about the immortality of the soul in his last years, Schöning says he did not, that he thought the soul was gone after death, but that he did believe in God.
Another thing where attitude of 19th century editor and attitude of 18th century citizen Schöning clash is this:
Schöning (on exceptions from Fritz' general miserliness): "Now and then the King did waste huge sums on unworthy people; his motivation shall not be mentioned here."
Editor in footnote: "Whatever motivation could be so shady that the author cannot spell it out here? Surely it can't be certain that if the sum went to unworthy people the King knew them to be unworthy? Doesn't it make more sense to assume that he misjudged them?"
Heinrich: I am very loudly not commenting on this.
Of course, we are 21st century cynics, but somehow I doubt either late 18th or early 19th century readers would have read this about "his motivation shall not be mentioned here" and then the upset editor footnoting with "what do yoiu mean UNLAUTERE MOTIVATION?!?!" just in case we missed it, and not come to a certain conclusion as to who the unworthy people must have been, or at least of which type. Especially since the book also takes care to mention Fritz had no time for women, with a very few exceptions, and considered the entire sex as a necessary evil for procreation and no more, while hating on his staff marrying or just having romances with women.
(BTW, perhaps not unimportant to mention here: Schöning was married. Not that he mentions it in this volume, but elsewhere when the story about his providing Fritz with a good clean shirt for burial is told, it's also mentioned that said shirt was a wedding present from his (Schöning's) bride.)
Seriously, the more I learn about Fritz' pretty hussars (Schöning excepted), the more I realise he and Heinrich had even more in common than I had thought. :)
Also: Deist, not Atheist. Fritz and Voltaire believed there was a God who started everything, just that the world and its people then were left to their own devices, basically. (BTW, I seem to recall some of the US Founding Fathers were Deists, too, notably Jefferson, which makes all the super Christianity of the US thereafter allied to a cult of the Founders super ironic.)
Yeah, I super remember you and mildred telling me about Voltaire being Deist and therefore believing in God but not in an afterlife -- which actually really resonated with me at the time for reasons too complex for me to go into right before my bedtime, so I'm not likely to forget that even if I wasn't (still, slowly) reading Orieux -- and I am absolutely sure you guys must have mentioned Fritz being Deist too at the time, but somehow my brain retained that Voltaire was Deist and not Fritz?? IDK, I really like Voltaire, I guess :P
BTW, I seem to recall some of the US Founding Fathers were Deists, too, notably Jefferson
Yeah, the funny thing is, like mildred I learned Jefferson was a Deist in school but they never really went into Deism very much -- I knew Deists didn't believe in organized religion but I would have assumed they believed in an afterlife until, well, last year :P
What Selena said! If you got the impression he was an atheist from my fic, that was extremely unintentional on my part. It's probably due to the fact that Deism was common in the 18th century but uncommon now, so people whose beliefs overlap with Fritz's nowadays are atheists.
But Fritz was always a Deist, as Schöning describes, believing in a prime mover but not in an afterlife. I will give Catt credit for describing that correctly: he always has Fritz professing belief in God but not immortality of the soul. The part where Catt's bias creeps in is that he adds things, like, "Well, naturally Fritz had doubts, and argued so much not because he wanted to convince me, but because he wanted me to convince him! And naturally he started coming around! He wanted to see his mother and sister, after all. And naturally he was confused and very superstitious, which is what happens when you don't have Christianity to prevent you from erring."
Remember that Diderot was unusual for his time in being a straight up atheist, and he didn't want to meet Voltaire because Voltaire was going to try to convert him, and he did not wish to be converted, and they had lots of written exchanges before they finally met. Fritz and Voltaire were on the same page about religion.
This is also the context in which Voltaire pointedly dedicates his church to "God" and says it's the only one, with the rest being dedicated to saints--that was a Deist jab at Christianity, especially Catholicism.
BTW, I seem to recall some of the US Founding Fathers were Deists, too, notably Jefferson, which makes all the super Christianity of the US thereafter allied to a cult of the Founders super ironic.
Indeed, this is where I learned about Deism in school even before I encountered it on my own, and in fact managed to be a Deist for a few months in high school. ;)
Felis, do you have non-pandemic access to a physical library that I should be including in my searches?
Sadly, no.
Just to clarify, because that was ambiguously phrased, I meant "During non-pandemic times, so hopefully sometime later this year, will you have access to a library?" and not "Do you have access to a library that's currently not closed for the pandemic?" I assume the answer to the latter is no!
Fritz' glasses: as I recall, Hahn pointed out the sheer number of them in existence (and also of the orders for glasses starting in the late 1740s), and also the increasing strengh of them. However, yes, because of the lighting, everyone reading (as opposed to having something read to them) would have held the book as close to them as possible independent of strength of sight.
Ha, I thought I'd mentioned in the same thread that I don't need glasses to read or write, but if you're more than several meters away my left eye won't be able to tell who you are at all :P (My right eye isn't nearly as bad.)
Good to have Voltaire's number more or less confirmed! I think, given the 34 years between Voltaire's figure and the end of Fritz's life, we can account for the loss of an inch or two via spinal compression, as we've discussed. (This is more probable than the 5 inches between 5'7" and 5'2" that previously needed to be accounted for!)
Furthermore, Davidson tells me that Voltaire says he himself was 5'2" in English inches, which is 5'6" in English inches.
One, this means we now have Napoleon, Fritz, and Voltaire at pretty much exactly the same height.
Two, it makes it even more likely that Voltaire's number is reasonably precise: because if you know how tall you are, and someone else is about the same height as you, you're more likely to guess within an inch, than if someone is several inches taller or shorter than you and you're eyeballing it.
Of course, if you're mad at them and writing an anonymous pamphlet *while* employed by them, you might shave off an inch or two, but it doesn't seem like Voltaire did that. ;)
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Re: Glasow: the Nicolai version
This all goes back to Büsching's Character as well actually, the Caspar guy quotes him. Relevant part from Büsching:
Because none of the shirts of the deceased king were good, but all torn, none of them could be put on his body. But one could not take the time to have a new one made, and so the current Geheime Kriegsrat Schöning gave one of his unused shirts, which his bride had given him, and in this the body was buried. I found this credibly told fact to be true when I examined it closely.
also, endnotes: Schöning, Geheimer Kriegsrath, former Kammerhusar [...] contributed a lot to this book
Since we were talking about that in another thread, he also mentions that Schöning said the king had expressed disgust at the idea of an autopsy.
Schöning shows up quite a bit in the Schatullrechnungen - as chamber husar - between 1783 and 1786, and the index includes a note saying that there's a Schöning listed as a "barber husar" between 1771 and 1772 in the state archive, but it's unclear if that's the same guy. Among the things Schöning apparently got/payed money for are Glaubersalz, leeches ("Blutigel" :D - this shows up quite often, did they do the bleeding that way?), scissors, a wooden medicine case, enema syringes, white paint for his room, and money for poor people (quite often!).
I haven't found a copy of Schöning's own book, but a very thorough Volz review - Friedrich der Große und sein Kammerdiener Schöning. Ein Beitrag zur Anekdotenliteratur - which is almost as good. Volz doesn't just talk about Schöning, but also puts him in perspective and calls him reliable, saying that Unger for example included every absurd thing he could find, whereas Büsching owed a lot to Schöning, even has parts in his book that show up almost verbatim in Schöning's, so Büsching's "he contributed a lot" is apparently well earned and Büsching already had the manuscript that was published in 1808 and seems to have been directed mostly against Unger (and Zimmermann!).
Volz also gives some more information on Schöning: With Fritz since 1766 as a footman (so NOT a first hand witness for Glasow) and chamber husar since 1769 and - as the Schatullrechnungen corroborate as well - he seems to have been responsible for Fritz' medical care towards the end, also corresponding with Selle for example. FWII made him Geh. Kriegsrath for his loyal services. Volz says he seems to have been well educated, knew French and used Latin expressions. In his book, Schöning also included anecdotes that Fritz used to tell at the table and Volz quotes a few of those, adding extensive notes.
Finally, a quote from Schöning's book which is included in Seidel's essay about Fritz' looks: Frederick II was about 5 feet 5 inches tall. The strength of the body was appropriate for his medium size. His stature was well proportioned, the chest raised and broad, the body not at all skinny, not fat, and the head hanging a little to the right, which probably came from playing the flute. The nose was long but well built; the eyes not too big, not too small, but lively and fiery; the gait a little sloppy, but quick and proud. The king had a very good memory, a very fluent tongue, saw quite well up close, but he had to get glasses for distant objects. But he didn't need glasses to read and write.
Re: Glasow: the Nicolai version
Probably. I mean, I always tend to imagine they did it by using a knife and cups to collect the blood, but that's probably because of the movies. Leeches are more hygeniec than rokoko knives, I guess, and you don't have to wipe up the blood or pour it away afterwards. Still: ewwww.
Go you for finding the Schatullrechnungen and the Volz review! That does sound like Schöning is a good source in general (twenty years serving Fritz are nothing to sneeze at!), despite not having been present for the Glasow (and Völker) disaster himself. Presumably he did not know either guy in person (since Glasow was dead and Völker persona non grata in the King's household), but heard others (including Fritz?) talking about them.
If he was such a key source for Büsching, I assume the story about Handsome Suicidal Hussar No.2 is also from him.
Volz says he seems to have been well educated, knew French and used Latin expressions.
This is interesting because Büsching also says that nearly of of Fritz' personal servants were uneducated to illiterate near the end, because he'd gotten paranoid about being spied at. Clearly, if so, Schöning was an exception.
Re: Glasow: the Nicolai version
Oh, Fritz. Maybe if he trusted you not to spy on him, he liked the company? He was getting kind of lonely at the end, even with Lucchesini.
I say again: oh, Fritz.
Re: Glasow: the Nicolai version
Schöning said the king had expressed disgust at the idea of an autopsy.
I need to go back to the other thread (which thank you for answering my questions there!) but let me just say here that this is still fascinating to me that it's such a big deal for them, control even after death.
I'm charmed that Fritz's glasses show up in Schöning's book!
Re: Glasow: the Nicolai version
I haven't found a copy of Schöning's own book
Neither have I, just a physical copy in the Munich university library (as well as various other libraries in Germany). Not sure if even post-pandemic Selena has access to that library.
Also an 1809 review, which is...somehow not in a ridiculous font??
The Munich uni library calls him Kurd von Schöning, but they seem to be confusing him with the later military history writer Kurd von Schöning who was born in 1789 and whom I turned up in my searches earlier.
Felis, do you have non-pandemic access to a physical library that I should be including in my searches?
leeches ("Blutigel" :D - this shows up quite often, did they do the bleeding that way?)
I know they did sometimes! Wikipedia tells me leeches really took off in the early 19th century, but they'd been around in the 18th as well. (They'd been *around* forever, since ancient Egypt, but were still in use in the 18C.)
But he didn't need glasses to read and write.
Huh. I thought we'd established that he did (hence that making it into my fanfic), but perhaps we extrapolated that from me (and Selena?) needing glasses to read and right. I pushed my glasses up on my head just now, and I had to increase the font size up to 300% just to be able to make out DW text with a lot of difficulty, and at 500% it was still noticeably blurry and hard to read. And 500% is as high as Chrome will take me. :P
Otoh, as I remember Selena pointing out, it was the 18th century, and everyone was holding the page up to their nose, because lighting was terrible!
Also, if he wasn't far-sighted at all by 74, that's impressive.
which is included in Seidel's essay about Fritz' looks
Ooh. Where is this?
Re: Glasow: the Nicolai version
Additional info via Volz: this was apparently slightly edited by the 1808 editor (after Schöning's death) and is based on several things Schöning wrote - for Büsching, against Unger/Zimmermann, ... - starting right after Fritz' death. In the state archive, Volz also found a 1795 manuscript Schöning sent to one of FWII's ministers in 1795 (per request), which contains a mix of all that. The quotes that Volz gives in the article I linked above are (mostly) anecdotes from the 1795 manuscript that aren't in the published 1808 one.
The 1809 review is the one that Selena linked above, see "The reviewer..."
And yeah, I saw the Kurd von Schöning confusion as well. Volz doesn't give a first name either, and he says that we don't know much about him - I mentioned most of it - and nothing about his life before 1766. Haven't read the actual Schöning book yet, but I doubt there's more in that one, or Volz would probably have mentioned it.
Felis, do you have non-pandemic access to a physical library that I should be including in my searches?
Sadly, no.
which is included in Seidel's essay about Fritz' looks
Ooh. Where is this?
Huh, I thought I'd mentioned it before, but maybe not. Another Hohenzollern-Jahrbuch essay (truly a treasure trove), Die äußere Erscheinung Friedrichs des Großen, which I just realized is actually written by two people instead of one: first part by Koser, who collects a lot of quotes about Fritz' looks, starting with F1's comments about baby Fritz, second part by Seidel about Fritz paintings and sculptures etc.
Re: Glasow: the Nicolai version
*applauds* In the library now. And I'm adding SLUB to my list of digitized book sources to check from now on!
So now our Anecdotes folder has Zimmermann (2 works), Nicolai (2 works), Büsching, Schöning, and Unger!
I also added some Hohenzollern yearbooks (not all, maybe tomorrow) to the Articles folder.
Huh, I thought I'd mentioned it before, but maybe not.
Maybe you did! Clearly I can't even keep track of which review Selena found and whether it's the same as mine (there is too much happening too fast!). But it's not ringing a bell, so regardless--thank you!
Schöning, first impressions
Also, the early 19th century editor with his comments is very early 19th century - this being 1808, he's suffering from the national humiliation of Prussia having been beaten by Napoleon, so thinking about the Fritzian glory days is great, but he does slightly chide Fritz for his Schöning-testified attitude towards religion, saying that the great King could not see where all this encouragement of mockery of religion would lead to, the horrible excesses from which consequences we're all suffering today. (He means the French Revolution, without which no Napoleon.)
Btw, since we've discussed Catt's claim that Fritz had an inner believer waiting to emerge and changed his mind about the immortality of the soul in his last years, Schöning says he did not, that he thought the soul was gone after death, but that he did believe in God.
Another thing where attitude of 19th century editor and attitude of 18th century citizen Schöning clash is this:
Schöning (on exceptions from Fritz' general miserliness): "Now and then the King did waste huge sums on unworthy people; his motivation shall not be mentioned here."
Editor in footnote: "Whatever motivation could be so shady that the author cannot spell it out here? Surely it can't be certain that if the sum went to unworthy people the King knew them to be unworthy? Doesn't it make more sense to assume that he misjudged them?"
Heinrich: I am very loudly not commenting on this.
Re: Schöning, first impressions
:DDD
But also, interesting that Schöning mentions that. (Not so interesting that he is too polite to expand on it. :P)
Re: Schöning, first impressions
(BTW, perhaps not unimportant to mention here: Schöning was married. Not that he mentions it in this volume, but elsewhere when the story about his providing Fritz with a good clean shirt for burial is told, it's also mentioned that said shirt was a wedding present from his (Schöning's) bride.)
Re: Schöning, first impressions
I thought he was an atheist? (Also probably due to Mildred's fic.) But anyway this is much more believable than Catt :PP
Heinrich: I am very loudly not commenting on this.
HEEEEE.
Re: Schöning, first impressions
Also: Deist, not Atheist. Fritz and Voltaire believed there was a God who started everything, just that the world and its people then were left to their own devices, basically. (BTW, I seem to recall some of the US Founding Fathers were Deists, too, notably Jefferson, which makes all the super Christianity of the US thereafter allied to a cult of the Founders super ironic.)
Re: Schöning, first impressions
BTW, I seem to recall some of the US Founding Fathers were Deists, too, notably Jefferson
Yeah, the funny thing is, like mildred I learned Jefferson was a Deist in school but they never really went into Deism very much -- I knew Deists didn't believe in organized religion but I would have assumed they believed in an afterlife until, well, last year :P
Re: Schöning, first impressions
But Fritz was always a Deist, as Schöning describes, believing in a prime mover but not in an afterlife. I will give Catt credit for describing that correctly: he always has Fritz professing belief in God but not immortality of the soul. The part where Catt's bias creeps in is that he adds things, like, "Well, naturally Fritz had doubts, and argued so much not because he wanted to convince me, but because he wanted me to convince him! And naturally he started coming around! He wanted to see his mother and sister, after all. And naturally he was confused and very superstitious, which is what happens when you don't have Christianity to prevent you from erring."
Remember that Diderot was unusual for his time in being a straight up atheist, and he didn't want to meet Voltaire because Voltaire was going to try to convert him, and he did not wish to be converted, and they had lots of written exchanges before they finally met. Fritz and Voltaire were on the same page about religion.
This is also the context in which Voltaire pointedly dedicates his church to "God" and says it's the only one, with the rest being dedicated to saints--that was a Deist jab at Christianity, especially Catholicism.
BTW, I seem to recall some of the US Founding Fathers were Deists, too, notably Jefferson, which makes all the super Christianity of the US thereafter allied to a cult of the Founders super ironic.
Indeed, this is where I learned about Deism in school even before I encountered it on my own, and in fact managed to be a Deist for a few months in high school. ;)
Re: Glasow: the Nicolai version
Sadly, no.
Just to clarify, because that was ambiguously phrased, I meant "During non-pandemic times, so hopefully sometime later this year, will you have access to a library?" and not "Do you have access to a library that's currently not closed for the pandemic?" I assume the answer to the latter is no!
Re: Glasow: the Nicolai version
Re: Glasow: the Nicolai version
Re: Glasow: the Nicolai version
Re: Glasow: the Nicolai version
Re: Glasow: the Nicolai version
I'm faceblind and can barely tell who you are with my glasses on. ;) Be prepared if we ever meet in person.
Heights, again
Good to have Voltaire's number more or less confirmed! I think, given the 34 years between Voltaire's figure and the end of Fritz's life, we can account for the loss of an inch or two via spinal compression, as we've discussed. (This is more probable than the 5 inches between 5'7" and 5'2" that previously needed to be accounted for!)
Furthermore, Davidson tells me that Voltaire says he himself was 5'2" in English inches, which is 5'6" in English inches.
One, this means we now have Napoleon, Fritz, and Voltaire at pretty much exactly the same height.
Two, it makes it even more likely that Voltaire's number is reasonably precise: because if you know how tall you are, and someone else is about the same height as you, you're more likely to guess within an inch, than if someone is several inches taller or shorter than you and you're eyeballing it.
Of course, if you're mad at them and writing an anonymous pamphlet *while* employed by them, you might shave off an inch or two, but it doesn't seem like Voltaire did that. ;)