18th-Century Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 33

[cahn]

And, I mean, it doesn't have to be just 18th century characters, either!

(also, waiting for Yuletide!)

Comments

Eugenio von Savoy

[mildred_of_midgard]

I'm not planning on doing a write-up of the Eugene bio I read, but here's more detail on something we've talked about before, that I found interesting:

He was clearly never at ease with German because not a single sentence written by him in it has been found: in 1705 he confessed to Joseph that he 'was not used to writing in German.' When he wrote letters in his large bold hand, they were in French or Italian. Those written in German were dictated, sometimes with a sentence or two of his own in French, and always signed with the curious Eugenio von Savoy: this was not an attempt to sum up his life in a mixture of Italian, German and French but the result of his mistaken belief that this was the correct German form. When he signed French letters it was always as Eugene de Savoye.

I kinda wish it had been an attempt to sum up his life!

Re: Eugenio von Savoy

[selenak]

Same here!