Among other things, he financed the reprint in Prussia of not one but two anti-Voltaire pamphlets from Voltaire's arch enemies back home in France.
OOOOH, I didn't know this!
Fritz: I write my own anti-Voltaire pamphlets, thank you very much. :P
several books by Joachim Lange, aka Wolff's arch enemy mainly responsible for his banishment
I remind everyone that Lange as an enemy of Wolff has made an appearance in passing before, in the "Mimi burns Wolff" anecdote:
Our wits maintain that the monkey wanted to study the Metaphysics and, being unable to construe a word, put it to the flame. Others aver that Lange had corrupted her, and that she played that turn from motives of zeal inspired by the prig. Finally, others said that Mimi was annoyed at the number of prerogatives which Wolff accords to man over beast, and offered up to Vulcan a book which denigrated her race. (Translation MacDonogh's, with the exception of making Mimi female, as Fritz said she was.)
Mantteuffel's own argument is of the psychological type, using period sexism very effectively; if Wolff now attempts, one has to assume that he was "un homme absulement gouverné par sa femme et qui par consequent n'est grand Philosophe". That does it. Wolff says of course he's the boss in his marriage and yeah, no accepting of FW's offer, promise.
Sigh.
One of the main arguments is the langugage: Wolff says that while he can read French, he can't understand it when it's spoken out loud and so quickly (I emphatize), let alone speak it, and Fritz has just nixed the previous Academy language, which was Latin, and which Wolff could speak, and won't accept German.
Huh, I didn't know that either. And lol to his opinions of the other scholars!
Louise Gottsched (remember her? Émilie fan and translator?)
Yes, thanks to you!
who points out to him in a letter even before the Silesian invasion that this Roi Philosophe dedication to Fritz and the whole Roi Philosophe concept is a mistake because she knows of not a few princes who had a great education and knew damm well what they were doing and did it anyway. Philosophy does not keep them from this.
Ding ding ding we have a winner! Even as a kid, even with my terrible education, I always had the Nazis held up to me as prime examples of how educated people commit atrocities too. Good for her for noticing!
Dechamps. Manteuffel protegé Dechamps in 1736 managed to score a double employment - he became Fritz' official court preacher at Rheinsberg (if you're surprised Fritz had an official court preacher at Rheinsberg, remember FW being alive and making surprise visits)
He is mentioned in a footnote by the English translator of the Suhm letters (which I am still reading almost as slowly as cahn is reading Orieux!), who has this to say:
Jean Deschamps, second brother to him who died Minister at Berlin, in 17852 was attached to the service of the church at Reinsberg, as candidate, and having preached before the Court, he assumed the title of Chaplain. - The Prince Royal never attended his sermons. - M. Deschamps having been one of Wolff's disciples at Marbourg, translated first, his German Logic into French, the translation was well received by the public.-- He afterwards published an entire course of Wolf's philosophy, in a series of letters addressed to one of his friends, a young Theologian, called Cabrit, who died in 1741, Minister of the church at Francfort upon the Oder.
The editor then tells roughtly the same story of the literary war between Fritz and Deschamp, and his flight to Kassel and London. No idea how accurate the details are, but this is what 1787 guy says!
How does Dechamps find out? From little Ferdinand.
Who has always shown Fritz friendship!
he does get to be an academy member (and a good thing, too, or Mildred would never have read his obituary for Peter
Indeed! Though, now I'm wondering: were the obituaries on the initiative of the Academy or Formey? IOW, did they continue after Formey, and would we still have them if Formey hadn't taken it upon himself to write them?
Speaking of the Academy, new findings in the library. In 1900, Harnack published a three volume (but like the seventh Harry Potter movie, the first one is split in two, and also there's a supplementary volume with documents, bless 19th century scholars) history of the Academy of Sciences, in excruciating detail (~600 pages per volume). In the interests of space, only the first volume (from the founding under F1 up to the death of Fritz) and the Urkunden volume are in the library, but I have the others if we need them for something.
Searching "Keith" (natch) in the first volume, I see that the author says that the post of Curator, which I've always been wondering what its specific duties were, meant almost nothing already in 1747 (when Peter was appointed), and nothing at all in 1753. They didn't even bother replacing curators when they died (Peter was the first to go :(), so that when Fritz died, there was only one left of the original four.
And speaking of the library, Dantal is now under memoirs and diaries, and Morgenstern under biographies. Good finds, felis!
Bronisch: yeah, I know. Even the idea that Wolff would have admired Lessing doesn't fit, never mind Fritz. But I still wanted to tell you the story.
Lol, well, we sympathize.
One more thing: Fritz totally named Sanssouci after Manteuffel's Sanssouci, and it wasn't because he was looking for his grave, it was because he was pining for the happy time with his mentor in the mid 1730s. So there. The end.
I love how this matters SO much to Bronisch. I see nothing incompatible with declaring that Rheinsberg was the only happy time of your life, that you'll never be happy again as long as you live, and longing for both the time before your current unhappy life and the time to come after it aka death.
Fritz: I write my own anti-Voltaire pamphlets, thank you very much. :P
No kidding, though who would have known that then? :)
Wolff: his statement re: French and his opinion on the other scholars also makes into both books. BTW, the Manteuffel/Wolff correspondence is bilingual, in that Manteuffel writes French and Wolff writes German, so I think we can take Wolff at his word - he oould read and understand French in written form well enough, but wasn't comfortable enough with it to write, let alone talk in the language. I can see why, even aside from everything else, this would make you balk at joining an instutition where the King has just decreed all conversation and all writing must be in French.
The editor then tells roughtly the same story of the literary war between Fritz and Deschamp, and his flight to Kassel and London. No idea how accurate the details are, but this is what 1787 guy says!
Well, Dechamps is another who later wrote a vengeful memoir, so I assume that was the common source for both this editor and Bronisch.
How does Dechamps find out? From little Ferdinand.
Who has always shown Fritz friendship!
LOL. I had a quick gander in the Bielfeld letter where he writes about taking over Ferdinand's education, and he says that while ten years old F's education clearly had been somewhat neglected so far, what with Ferd only showing enthusiasm for hunting (don't do it, Ferdinand, your aim is terrible!) and the military, NOW that Bielfeld has taken over, the scholarly bug has bit him. I note - as several biographers before me - that Fritz was on to something re: his brothers' education having been neglected under FW, but again I say: if you're a teacher and have seen how Fritz' teachers have faired, what would you do?
I love how this matters SO much to Bronisch.
So much that it's even included in the blurb printed on the back of the "Kampf um Kronprinz Friedrich" book - ...(Bronisch) solves the mystery of the naming of "Sanssouci"....
BTW, the Manteuffel/Wolff correspondence is bilingual, in that Manteuffel writes French and Wolff writes German
And as noted, this is what I would have naively assumed Fredersdorf and Fritz would start doing, so the fact that Fritz keeps writing (bad) German to him to the end is very touching.
again I say: if you're a teacher and have seen how Fritz' teachers have faired, what would you do?
I'm with you on this!
So much that it's even included in the blurb printed on the back of the "Kampf um Kronprinz Friedrich" book - ...(Bronisch) solves the mystery of the naming of "Sanssouci"....
*spittake*
Was he really the first person who published this? You mentioned it to us back in January 2020, but I'm not sure what your source was.
But, Bronisch, have you solved the *real* mystery, aka the mystery of the comma in "sans, souci.", which has been bugging people for centuries?
cahn, if you're not familiar, this picture shows the way Fritz had the phrase engraved on his palace.
Was he really the first person who published this? You mentioned it to us back in January 2020, but I'm not sure what your source was.
Wikipedia. (German version) Which names both of Bronisch's books in as its sources, so that figures. Mind you, that entry says that a historical novel "Der Meister von Sanssouci" (which is actually about Knobelsdorff the architect) by Martin Stade from 1971 - thus predating Bronsich's doctoral theses by decades - already includes a scene where Manteuffel tells someone else Fritz plagiarized the name. So Bronisch is not the first one to come up with that theory. Martin Stade also wrote a novel "Der König und sein Narr" about Gundling which is credited with changing a part of the reading public's mind about Gundling and which I've been meaning to read for a while.
- thus predating Bronsich's doctoral theses by decades - already includes a scene where Manteuffel tells someone else Fritz plagiarized the name. So Bronisch is not the first one to come up with that theory.
Ha!
Ooh, yes, you should read both those books (when time permits) and tell us about them!
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Re: His Name is Diable. Le Diable: Bad Times
OOOOH, I didn't know this!
Fritz: I write my own anti-Voltaire pamphlets, thank you very much. :P
several books by Joachim Lange, aka Wolff's arch enemy mainly responsible for his banishment
I remind everyone that Lange as an enemy of Wolff has made an appearance in passing before, in the "Mimi burns Wolff" anecdote:
Our wits maintain that the monkey wanted to study the Metaphysics and, being unable to construe a word, put it to the flame. Others aver that Lange had corrupted her, and that she played that turn from motives of zeal inspired by the prig. Finally, others said that Mimi was annoyed at the number of prerogatives which Wolff accords to man over beast, and offered up to Vulcan a book which denigrated her race. (Translation MacDonogh's, with the exception of making Mimi female, as Fritz said she was.)
Mantteuffel's own argument is of the psychological type, using period sexism very effectively; if Wolff now attempts, one has to assume that he was "un homme absulement gouverné par sa femme et qui par consequent n'est grand Philosophe". That does it. Wolff says of course he's the boss in his marriage and yeah, no accepting of FW's offer, promise.
Sigh.
One of the main arguments is the langugage: Wolff says that while he can read French, he can't understand it when it's spoken out loud and so quickly (I emphatize), let alone speak it, and Fritz has just nixed the previous Academy language, which was Latin, and which Wolff could speak, and won't accept German.
Huh, I didn't know that either. And lol to his opinions of the other scholars!
Louise Gottsched (remember her? Émilie fan and translator?)
Yes, thanks to you!
who points out to him in a letter even before the Silesian invasion that this Roi Philosophe dedication to Fritz and the whole Roi Philosophe concept is a mistake because she knows of not a few princes who had a great education and knew damm well what they were doing and did it anyway. Philosophy does not keep them from this.
Ding ding ding we have a winner! Even as a kid, even with my terrible education, I always had the Nazis held up to me as prime examples of how educated people commit atrocities too. Good for her for noticing!
Dechamps. Manteuffel protegé Dechamps in 1736 managed to score a double employment - he became Fritz' official court preacher at Rheinsberg (if you're surprised Fritz had an official court preacher at Rheinsberg, remember FW being alive and making surprise visits)
He is mentioned in a footnote by the English translator of the Suhm letters (which I am still reading almost as slowly as cahn is reading Orieux!), who has this to say:
Jean Deschamps, second brother to him who died Minister at Berlin, in 17852 was attached to the service of the church at Reinsberg, as candidate, and having preached before the Court, he assumed the title of Chaplain. - The Prince Royal never attended his sermons. - M. Deschamps having been one of Wolff's disciples at Marbourg, translated first, his German Logic into French, the translation was well received by the public.-- He afterwards published an entire course of Wolf's philosophy, in a series of letters addressed to one of his friends, a young Theologian, called Cabrit, who died in 1741, Minister of the church at Francfort upon the Oder.
The editor then tells roughtly the same story of the literary war between Fritz and Deschamp, and his flight to Kassel and London. No idea how accurate the details are, but this is what 1787 guy says!
How does Dechamps find out? From little Ferdinand.
Who has always shown Fritz friendship!
he does get to be an academy member (and a good thing, too, or Mildred would never have read his obituary for Peter
Indeed! Though, now I'm wondering: were the obituaries on the initiative of the Academy or Formey? IOW, did they continue after Formey, and would we still have them if Formey hadn't taken it upon himself to write them?
Speaking of the Academy, new findings in the library. In 1900, Harnack published a three volume (but like the seventh Harry Potter movie, the first one is split in two, and also there's a supplementary volume with documents, bless 19th century scholars) history of the Academy of Sciences, in excruciating detail (~600 pages per volume). In the interests of space, only the first volume (from the founding under F1 up to the death of Fritz) and the Urkunden volume are in the library, but I have the others if we need them for something.
Searching "Keith" (natch) in the first volume, I see that the author says that the post of Curator, which I've always been wondering what its specific duties were, meant almost nothing already in 1747 (when Peter was appointed), and nothing at all in 1753. They didn't even bother replacing curators when they died (Peter was the first to go :(), so that when Fritz died, there was only one left of the original four.
And speaking of the library, Dantal is now under memoirs and diaries, and Morgenstern under biographies. Good finds,
Bronisch: yeah, I know. Even the idea that Wolff would have admired Lessing doesn't fit, never mind Fritz. But I still wanted to tell you the story.
Lol, well, we sympathize.
One more thing: Fritz totally named Sanssouci after Manteuffel's Sanssouci, and it wasn't because he was looking for his grave, it was because he was pining for the happy time with his mentor in the mid 1730s. So there. The end.
I love how this matters SO much to Bronisch. I see nothing incompatible with declaring that Rheinsberg was the only happy time of your life, that you'll never be happy again as long as you live, and longing for both the time before your current unhappy life and the time to come after it aka death.
Re: His Name is Diable. Le Diable: Bad Times
Fritz: I write my own anti-Voltaire pamphlets, thank you very much. :P
No kidding, though who would have known that then? :)
Wolff: his statement re: French and his opinion on the other scholars also makes into both books. BTW, the Manteuffel/Wolff correspondence is bilingual, in that Manteuffel writes French and Wolff writes German, so I think we can take Wolff at his word - he oould read and understand French in written form well enough, but wasn't comfortable enough with it to write, let alone talk in the language. I can see why, even aside from everything else, this would make you balk at joining an instutition where the King has just decreed all conversation and all writing must be in French.
The editor then tells roughtly the same story of the literary war between Fritz and Deschamp, and his flight to Kassel and London. No idea how accurate the details are, but this is what 1787 guy says!
Well, Dechamps is another who later wrote a vengeful memoir, so I assume that was the common source for both this editor and Bronisch.
How does Dechamps find out? From little Ferdinand.
Who has always shown Fritz friendship!
LOL. I had a quick gander in the Bielfeld letter where he writes about taking over Ferdinand's education, and he says that while ten years old F's education clearly had been somewhat neglected so far, what with Ferd only showing enthusiasm for hunting (don't do it, Ferdinand, your aim is terrible!) and the military, NOW that Bielfeld has taken over, the scholarly bug has bit him. I note - as several biographers before me - that Fritz was on to something re: his brothers' education having been neglected under FW, but again I say: if you're a teacher and have seen how Fritz' teachers have faired, what would you do?
I love how this matters SO much to Bronisch.
So much that it's even included in the blurb printed on the back of the "Kampf um Kronprinz Friedrich" book - ...(Bronisch) solves the mystery of the naming of "Sanssouci"....
Re: His Name is Diable. Le Diable: Bad Times
And as noted, this is what I would have naively assumed Fredersdorf and Fritz would start doing, so the fact that Fritz keeps writing (bad) German to him to the end is very touching.
again I say: if you're a teacher and have seen how Fritz' teachers have faired, what would you do?
I'm with you on this!
So much that it's even included in the blurb printed on the back of the "Kampf um Kronprinz Friedrich" book - ...(Bronisch) solves the mystery of the naming of "Sanssouci"....
*spittake*
Was he really the first person who published this? You mentioned it to us back in January 2020, but I'm not sure what your source was.
But, Bronisch, have you solved the *real* mystery, aka the mystery of the comma in "sans, souci.", which has been bugging people for centuries?
Re: His Name is Diable. Le Diable: Bad Times
Wikipedia. (German version) Which names both of Bronisch's books in as its sources, so that figures. Mind you, that entry says that a historical novel "Der Meister von Sanssouci" (which is actually about Knobelsdorff the architect) by Martin Stade from 1971 - thus predating Bronsich's doctoral theses by decades - already includes a scene where Manteuffel tells someone else Fritz plagiarized the name. So Bronisch is not the first one to come up with that theory. Martin Stade also wrote a novel "Der König und sein Narr" about Gundling which is credited with changing a part of the reading public's mind about Gundling and which I've been meaning to read for a while.
Re: His Name is Diable. Le Diable: Bad Times
Ha!
Ooh, yes, you should read both those books (when time permits) and tell us about them!
Re: His Name is Diable. Le Diable: Bad Times
Re: His Name is Diable. Le Diable: Bad Times
Who has always shown Fritz friendship!
Heeeee I laughed. I think that will just always be funny :D