The essay about four of FW's daughters (Wilhelmine, Charlotte, Ulrike and Amalie) as mirrored by their libraries is by Isabelle Bosch, and contains some interesting and telling tidbits, such as:
- Wilhelmine's huge library, which demonstrates a great variety of her interests, still contains not a single book connected to her Bayreuth surroundings
- in addition to being into the Romans and the Greeks (here the essay says while she did have secondary sources, like "Histoire ancienne" by Charles Rollin, she chiefly had primary sources, i.e. the Roman and Greek authors themselves, though the essay doesn't say whether in French translation, like Fritz, or in the original languages) she was very curious about China and the Chinese, and thus had books like "La Morale de Confucius, Philosophe de la Chine"
- while her "Philosophical Cabinet" was decorated with the usual suspects as portrait busts (Voltaire, Newton, Locke, Leipniz, Descartes, Maupertuis and brother Fritz - btw, Newton AND Leipniz? Orieux is right, she so would have hosted Émilie in 1743!), her library antechambre and audience room had lots of great women instead
- Charlotte, as I told you before, disagreed with Fritz about German literature and her and Amalie's visit famously triggered the publication of "De La Literature Allemande" for that reason; Bosch points out that her library contains her scholar Jerusalem's refutation of Fritz' pamphlet, but: it contains it in French; Charlotte's collection of German books is limited to those written by her librarian Lessing and a single one by Goethe
- because the Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel library was so well curate and catalogued, we know Charlotte ordered "L'Histoire d'Angleterre" to be read by her daughters before a family trip to Hannover where they'd meet G2 (How much this was helpful with G2 whose interest in l'histoire d'Angleterre was somewhat limited, though, I wonder)
- when Charlotte's old governess Montbail (mentioned by Fritz and Wilhelmine negatively in their correspondence, but as "the learned Montbail" in a letter from Fritz to AW as someone to give his regards to) died, she left Charlotte her private library containing a stunning (for a private, non-royal library) number of 852 books, which meant the Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel library added a third of hits former size as additional content
- Ulrike proves herself as the later life SD fave in book terms, too; over 70 of the books in her library were owned by SD before (and do have the letters "SD" as their ex libris signature); books also are discussed in the SD/Ulrike correspondence, and Ulrike's letters to Amalie frequently contain requests to send her books she couldn't get in Sweden
- Ulrike actually did want to hire Voltaire to write a "History of Sweden" for her, but one condition was that he should move to Sweden for the duration of the writing (this despite the fact only three years earlier a Swedish author had started a court-patronized "History of Sweden" and the first volume had been published already); presumably Voltaire, poem or not, wasn't charmed enough to spend some years in Scandinavia
- all four sisters had their personal copies (with personal dedications) of both Fritz' published work (i.e. "L'Histoire de la Maison de Brandenburg") and the "Ouuvres du Philosophe de Sanssouci" which he had printed only for a small circle of and not for the general public. When the Bayreuth town palace burns down, Wilhelmine is happy to report that the Fritzian works have survived this.
- Amalie left her books (not her musical manuscript collection, though, that was separate) to a school, the Joachimsthaler Gymnasium; today, they're part of the state archive.
Alas no*, and no quotes on the dedications, either. Oh, and I forgot to mention earlier: all four also have signed works from Voltaire, Algarotti and Maupertuis.
And strange that Charlotte didn't have more German books, quite unexpected.
It seems her pleading the cause of German literature was more a matter of theory and principle than of practical fondness, then. Otoh: this was definitely not the case for daughter Anna Amalia, who was also present during that fateful visit chez Fritz. Though it's worth pointing out that it did need Goethe's arrival in Weimar for Anna Amalia to switch from writing her personal letters in French to writing them in German. (Unless of course she was corresponding with a non-German.) But then, Anna Amalia was in her 30s when that happened. Charlotte perhaps was simply too old for her basic taste and habits to change, and at least unlike Fritz was ready to encourage German writers by patronage.)
BTW, that's another thing uncommented on in the FW anthology: that all of his children, not just Fritz, stuck with French as their primary language; FW's effort (and it was an effort for him, too, as French had been his first language as well) at making everyone speak, write and read German had exactly as much effect as his effort at making everyone into good Christians. As Fontane commented in Wanderungen about Heinrich: Fast scheint es, als ob er der deutschen Rede nicht mächtig gewesen sei, was als wunderbares Resultat einer Erziehung gelten mag, die nur das Deutsche gewollt und alles Französische verpönt hatte.
*When the pandemic times are finally over and the Eremitage is open again, I intend to visit anyway, then I'll try to both see for myself and aquire a proper catalogue.
Huh, the Maupertuis one surprised me. Possibly a result of his position as president?
By the way, speaking of women and Fritz and German literature - I recently read the entirety of Gottsched's letter, in which he describes his meetings with Fritz, and was surprised to find that Fritz repeatedly inquired after his wife and seemed almost more interested in her work than in Gottsched's! He even wanted to see some of it, which Gottsched brought with him for the next meeting, and Fritz commented that if he had more time, he would write to her. I just thought it was neat, given what you told us about her (and her love for Émilie, hee).
I guess so, plus, like Algarotti, he'd written a "explaining science to ladies" book.
Gottsched(s): that is fascinating! I only knew excerpts from this letter before, and certainly not that Fritz showed such repeated interest in die Gottschedin. Now I'm imaging how an encounter would have gone.
Fritz: So, Madame Gottsched, who among the French authors you've translated was your favourite? LG: Émilie du Chatelet. Want to read my poem to her? It's in the same volume as my Ode To MT, which contains the line "Oh MT, Princess Able To Speak Her People's Language"....
Ulrike's letter talking about getting Voltaire is dated September 25th, 1750. Presumably she thought, well, Émilie is dead, and he hasn't yet settled down for good with brother Fritz, so....
(But yeah. Madame Denis wasn't keen on Prussia; no way she'd have gone for Scandinavia!)
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Libraries
Date: 2021-04-14 02:37 pm (UTC)- Wilhelmine's huge library, which demonstrates a great variety of her interests, still contains not a single book connected to her Bayreuth surroundings
- in addition to being into the Romans and the Greeks (here the essay says while she did have secondary sources, like "Histoire ancienne" by Charles Rollin, she chiefly had primary sources, i.e. the Roman and Greek authors themselves, though the essay doesn't say whether in French translation, like Fritz, or in the original languages) she was very curious about China and the Chinese, and thus had books like "La Morale de Confucius, Philosophe de la Chine"
- while her "Philosophical Cabinet" was decorated with the usual suspects as portrait busts (Voltaire, Newton, Locke, Leipniz, Descartes, Maupertuis and brother Fritz - btw, Newton AND Leipniz? Orieux is right, she so would have hosted Émilie in 1743!), her library antechambre and audience room had lots of great women instead
- Charlotte, as I told you before, disagreed with Fritz about German literature and her and Amalie's visit famously triggered the publication of "De La Literature Allemande" for that reason; Bosch points out that her library contains her scholar Jerusalem's refutation of Fritz' pamphlet, but: it contains it in French; Charlotte's collection of German books is limited to those written by her librarian Lessing and a single one by Goethe
- because the Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel library was so well curate and catalogued, we know Charlotte ordered "L'Histoire d'Angleterre" to be read by her daughters before a family trip to Hannover where they'd meet G2 (How much this was helpful with G2 whose interest in l'histoire d'Angleterre was somewhat limited, though, I wonder)
- when Charlotte's old governess Montbail (mentioned by Fritz and Wilhelmine negatively in their correspondence, but as "the learned Montbail" in a letter from Fritz to AW as someone to give his regards to) died, she left Charlotte her private library containing a stunning (for a private, non-royal library) number of 852 books, which meant the Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel library added a third of hits former size as additional content
- Ulrike proves herself as the later life SD fave in book terms, too; over 70 of the books in her library were owned by SD before (and do have the letters "SD" as their ex libris signature); books also are discussed in the SD/Ulrike correspondence, and Ulrike's letters to Amalie frequently contain requests to send her books she couldn't get in Sweden
- Ulrike actually did want to hire Voltaire to write a "History of Sweden" for her, but one condition was that he should move to Sweden for the duration of the writing (this despite the fact only three years earlier a Swedish author had started a court-patronized "History of Sweden" and the first volume had been published already); presumably Voltaire, poem or not, wasn't charmed enough to spend some years in Scandinavia
- all four sisters had their personal copies (with personal dedications) of both Fritz' published work (i.e. "L'Histoire de la Maison de Brandenburg") and the "Ouuvres du Philosophe de Sanssouci" which he had printed only for a small circle of and not for the general public. When the Bayreuth town palace burns down, Wilhelmine is happy to report that the Fritzian works have survived this.
- Amalie left her books (not her musical manuscript collection, though, that was separate) to a school, the Joachimsthaler Gymnasium; today, they're part of the state archive.
Re: Libraries
Date: 2021-04-14 08:52 pm (UTC)Of course. :D But also, aww. (No quotes, I suppose?)
And strange that Charlotte didn't have more German books, quite unexpected.
Any details on the women displayed at Wilhelmine's?
Re: Libraries
Date: 2021-04-15 06:07 am (UTC)And strange that Charlotte didn't have more German books, quite unexpected.
It seems her pleading the cause of German literature was more a matter of theory and principle than of practical fondness, then. Otoh: this was definitely not the case for daughter Anna Amalia, who was also present during that fateful visit chez Fritz. Though it's worth pointing out that it did need Goethe's arrival in Weimar for Anna Amalia to switch from writing her personal letters in French to writing them in German. (Unless of course she was corresponding with a non-German.) But then, Anna Amalia was in her 30s when that happened. Charlotte perhaps was simply too old for her basic taste and habits to change, and at least unlike Fritz was ready to encourage German writers by patronage.)
BTW, that's another thing uncommented on in the FW anthology: that all of his children, not just Fritz, stuck with French as their primary language; FW's effort (and it was an effort for him, too, as French had been his first language as well) at making everyone speak, write and read German had exactly as much effect as his effort at making everyone into good Christians. As Fontane commented in Wanderungen about Heinrich: Fast scheint es, als ob er der deutschen Rede nicht mächtig gewesen sei, was als wunderbares Resultat einer Erziehung gelten mag, die nur das Deutsche gewollt und alles Französische verpönt hatte.
*When the pandemic times are finally over and the Eremitage is open again, I intend to visit anyway, then I'll try to both see for myself and aquire a proper catalogue.
Re: Libraries
Date: 2021-04-15 05:52 pm (UTC)By the way, speaking of women and Fritz and German literature - I recently read the entirety of Gottsched's letter, in which he describes his meetings with Fritz, and was surprised to find that Fritz repeatedly inquired after his wife and seemed almost more interested in her work than in Gottsched's! He even wanted to see some of it, which Gottsched brought with him for the next meeting, and Fritz commented that if he had more time, he would write to her. I just thought it was neat, given what you told us about her (and her love for Émilie, hee).
Re: Libraries
Date: 2021-04-16 05:15 am (UTC)I guess so, plus, like Algarotti, he'd written a "explaining science to ladies" book.
Gottsched(s): that is fascinating! I only knew excerpts from this letter before, and certainly not that Fritz showed such repeated interest in die Gottschedin. Now I'm imaging how an encounter would have gone.
Fritz: So, Madame Gottsched, who among the French authors you've translated was your favourite?
LG: Émilie du Chatelet. Want to read my poem to her? It's in the same volume as my Ode To MT, which contains the line "Oh MT, Princess Able To Speak Her People's Language"....
Re: Libraries
Date: 2021-04-16 05:43 am (UTC)Re: Libraries
Date: 2021-04-16 05:04 am (UTC)Re: Libraries
Date: 2021-04-16 05:11 am (UTC)(But yeah. Madame Denis wasn't keen on Prussia; no way she'd have gone for Scandinavia!)