cahn

Starting a couple of comments earlier than usual to mention there are a couple of new salon fics! These probably both need canon knowledge.

felis ficlets on siblings!

Siblings (541 words) by felisnocturna
Chapters: 2/2
Fandom: 18th Century CE RPF
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great, Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf, August Wilhelm von Preußen | Augustus William of Prussia (1722-1758), Wilhelmine von Preußen | Wilhelmine of Prussia (1709-1758)
Summary:

Three Fills for the 2022 Three Sentence Ficathon.

Chapter One: Protective Action / Babysitting at Rheinsberg (Frederick/Fredersdorf, William+Henry+Ferdinand)
Chapter Two: Here Be Lions (Wilhelmine)

Unsent Letters fic by me:

Letters for a Dead King (1981 words) by raspberryhunter
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 18th Century CE RPF
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great & Friedrich Heinrich Ludwig von Preußen (1726-1802)
Characters: Friedrich Heinrich Ludwig von Preußen | Henry of Prussia (1726-1802)
Additional Tags: Epistolary, Love/Hate, Talking To Dead People, Canonical Character Death, Dysfunctional Family
Summary:

Just because one's king and brother is dead doesn't mean one has to stop writing to him.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

mildred_of_midgard

I'm back in the 18th century! Now with more German. So you may see more of me. But I'm still working full-time and very slow at reading German, so you won't see as much of me as I would like.

Anyway, I'm reading an article on Algarotti from the Neues Archiv für sächsische Geschichte, 1913, and found these things which were either new to me or I had forgotten about them and thus so perhaps has at least one of you, so you will forgive me the repetition.

* Algarotti dedicated his "lettere sopra la scienze militare" in 1759 to Heinrich.

selenak, this made me think of your RMSE request!

cahn, if you need chronology reminders, this is after his final estrangement from Fritz, where he left Prussia for the last time, he's living in Italy, and the Seven Years' War is on. This is the same year that Fritz loses the battle of Kunersdorf, contemplates suicide, steps down from command for a few days, and puts Heinrich in charge.

Interestingly, if I'm remembering correctly, Heinrich by this time was already commanding an army in Saxony and being substantially nicer to the populace than Mister "War Crimes" Fritz ever was. If news of this reached Algarotti, who lived in Dresden and probably had friends, good memories, etc., he might have been grateful to Heinrich on a personal level, beyond the usual networking practice of dedicating your works to someone influential.

* Voltaire was the one who recommended to Algarotti that he stop by Rheinsberg and meet Fritz in 1739? If we knew this, I had forgotten, but it makes perfect sense! This was the initial infatuation period.

* Manteuffel writing to Brühl (Saxon minister and #2 guy after the king, Cahn) in September 1740:

I have already often mentioned the famous Algarotti. I must emphasize today, how he is daily getting more and more credit and reputation with the king, who hardly lets him out of his sight (lit: go more than a step away from him). I haven't had the opportunity to get to know him, but he is depicted as a dangerous person (gefährlicher Mensch) by all who know him: he knows a great deal and speaks exquisitely, but he is free in his attitudes toward both religion and morals.

A few weeks later, Manteuffel made Algarotti's acquaintance at a court table, and confirmed that he was very charming and was a person of penetrating understanding. But, reports Manteuffel, Algarotti was annoyed with Fritz over the question of his pension.

Two things to remember: one, Algarotti, who is free in his morals, is treated for an STD in December of the same year. He must have been having fun in Berlin.

Two, as noted in the previous point, Brühl ends up being Algarotti's patron in a little over a year (Jan 1742), when Algarotti gets fed up with Fritz.

* Fritz, in May 1742, snipes at Algarotti, who has defected to Dresden, by calling him "M. l'Italien polonais," = "Monsieur the Polish Italian." Note that Poles can't get no respect in this century, so this is way more insulting than calling him Saxon, and also note Fritz's personal opinions on Poles, which as I recall were none too flattering.

Also, "Monsieur l'Italien polonais" reminds me greatly of the "YOUR FRIEND the Queen of Hungary" letter to Wilhelmine.

Oh, Fritz.

* Obligatory forward to a poem by Algarotti in which he refers to August III as Augustus and to Brühl as Maecenas, check.

ETA: And at least two more such ~~cliches~~ references in his time working for them.

* I had forgotten he went to Vienna in 1743! And I compiled a chronology of his travels from the dissertation on him and his networking. But now that I'm looking for it specifically, I see that it's mentioned in passing in a way that's very easy to miss.

Ahh, right, this is when he was trying to get stuff from the Count of Liechtenstein's collection, including the Antinous statue. August III didn't want the statue, so Liechtenstein started thinking about selling it to Fritz.

Also, the stuff August III *did* want from Liechtenstein's collection went to the King of Sardinia, who would be Victor Amadeus' II son at this point. I like that I know who's who now. :)

Author of this article: it's too bad for the Dresden antiquities collection that they passed up on the Antinuous statue, because Fritz got it and now it adorns the Berlin Museum!

* Huh, so I knew that moving through Central Europe on his way from Dresden to Italy was hard for Algarotti because of the war ~~that SOMEONE started~~, but apparently he also got stuck because of plague quarantines.

We feel your pain, Algarotti.

But fortunately not your literal pain, which he had upon arriving in Italy, because of a rheumatism attack. He's 30! These poor people with their terrible medicine.

* Some of the pieces he worked so hard to acquire during this trip were sent to Hubertusburg and disappeared after the 1760 Prussian sack of this palace, and to this day we don't know whether they were destroyed or removed. Yeah, Algarotti was probably happier with Heinrich than Fritz in 1759.

* Huh. Algarotti agreed to come back to Fritz in October 1746, and arrived in Berlin in March 1747. Then the Old Dessauer died April 7, 1747, and the Saxon envoy in Berlin reports to Brühl that now that the Dessauer's dead, there's a lot of money available, so Algarotti's going to get a good pension. I had no idea that this was where the money for Algarotti came from!

And sure enough, on April 15, Algarotti writes to Brühl, "You guys didn't appreciate me, but Fritz does, and now I get 300 Talers *and* I'm royal chamberlain [the title he'd been trying and failing to get from August III] *and* I got the pour le mérite! I've officially handed in my resignation from all Saxon titles to your ambassador."

August the Chill was apparently displeased that Algarotti resigned without like, asking, but wished him luck (and probably munched on popcorn in coming years).

Oh, lol, and then they get sarcastic at each other. (I'm liveblogging this article, if you can't tell.)

Brühl: But the king is pleased with your gratitude for the time in which you found asylum at his court.

Algarotti: Excuse you, I never needed asylum! I went to Dresden of my own free will and stayed there, despite how much you disappointed me!

Proof that Algarotti is not always the master of the amicable long-distance breakup.

* Lol, the author is convinced that things were always hunky-dory between him and Fritz after 1747, that Algarotti went to Italy the first time because of that alleged unrequited love for Barbarina, and the second time solely for health reasons. Never because Fritz was getting on his nerves or he was watching the Fritz/Voltaire explosion with horror.

I mean, that's just our theory, but there's some evidence for it! (I think his health played a role, but I also don't think Fritz was his dream boss.)

* Oh, and according to this author, anyway, where it says "Fredericus Magnus" in very large letters on Algarotti's tomb, Fritz had actually said to put "Fredericus Rex," but Algarotti's brother changed it.

* Finally, if you care more than I do about the exact details of Algarotti's artistic contributions while working for the Saxons, this article delivers. I admit I skimmed.

From:

selenak

Algarotti dedicated his "lettere sopra la scienze militare" in 1759 to Heinrich. [personal profile] selenak, this made me think of your RMSE request!

So it should, since my request was at least partly inspired by discovering Algarotti dedicated a book to Heinrich in the collection of Algarotti essays I reviewed for salon a year or so ago. :)

Brühl: also the J.R. Ewing character in Sachsens Glanz und Preußens Gloria, the trashy East German tv series from the 80s reviewed and screencaped by your faithful correspondent.

I had forgotten he went to Vienna in 1743! And I compiled a chronology of his travels from the dissertation on him and his networking. But now that I'm looking for it specifically, I see that it's mentioned in passing in a way that's very easy to miss.

Besides, the dissertation writer didn't seem to have clocked that the "Queen of Hungary" Algarotti is later producing some exquisite porcellain kitchenware for in Saxony is MT, remember? (I don't expect writers of disserations about any 18th century figure to know all of MT's many titles, but "Queen of Hungary" (and/or "Queen of Bohemia") are a must, given the Prussian use of it as a put down.

Also, "Monsieur l'Italien polonais" reminds me greatly of the "YOUR FRIEND the Queen of Hungary" letter to Wilhelmine.

LOL, so it does. "Most flighty of swans" definitely sounds nice, though I can't recall whether Fritz actually wrote this or it shows up in fanfiction.

The connection of Old Dessauer kicking the bucket, as Fredersdorf and Fritz put it in their letters, and Algarotti getting cashh is new to me, too.

Never because Fritz was getting on his nerves or he was watching the Fritz/Voltaire explosion with horror.

I mean, that's just our theory, but there's some evidence for it! (I think his health played a role, but I also don't think Fritz was his dream boss.)

There's also Voltaire's letter to him post explosion suggesting a meeting between two now free men. (Algarotti nicely said no. I don't blame him. If you're in bad health, the trip to Switzerland would have been hard, and also, I think Algarotti had even less intention of involving himself in the Fritz/Voltaire saga post break up than before.) And Algarotti's letter to his brother about the worst road leading back to Prussia, or some such.

From:

mildred_of_midgard

So it should, since my request was at least partly inspired by discovering Algarotti dedicated a book to Heinrich in the collection of Algarotti essays I reviewed for salon a year or so ago. :)

I figured you'd encountered this and remembered it better than I did!

Oh, wait, I just checked, and your write-up says "Algarotti did this during his time in Prussia," and mine is from 1759 (and since the summary says it refers to the 1759 battle of Maxen, was probably not the same thing).

So two dedications, it tentatively looks like. Slash away!

Brühl: also the J.R. Ewing character in Sachsens Glanz und Preußens Gloria, the trashy East German tv series from the 80s reviewed and screencaped by your faithful correspondent.

Yep, and I have a post on that coming up too, just a little more research required. (Rome was not built in a day, and an entire book in German was also not read by me in a day.)

Besides, the dissertation writer didn't seem to have clocked that the "Queen of Hungary" Algarotti is later producing some exquisite porcellain kitchenware for in Saxony is MT, remember?

Yep, I remember that!

LOL, so it does. "Most flighty of swans" definitely sounds nice, though I can't recall whether Fritz actually wrote this or it shows up in fanfiction.

That one's real! It goes: "Oh most fickle and lightest swan in the world."

And Algarotti's letter to his brother about the worst road leading back to Prussia, or some such.

Yes, I was thinking of that, buuuut, I don't have the full letter, just the excerpt, and I think even the dissertation author acknowledges that *might* have been a double entendre. The actual, literal roads were notoriously abysmal in/around Prussia even by the already low 18th century standards. And if Algarotti was suffering from rheumatism, he might well have been just complaining about the constant jolting. In other words, I can't, strictly speaking, take that as ambiguity about returning to Fritz. (If we had no other evidence of mixed feelings, you could just as easily take that as evidence of what he's willing to suffer to be with Fritz!)

There's also Voltaire's letter to him post explosion suggesting a meeting between two now free men.

And as for this, there's no question that *Voltaire* left because of conflicts with Fritz, and he could be projecting.

But given Algarotti's inability to stay in one place and Fritz's tendency to drive people away by being emotionally demanding and financially stingy...it's a fair hypothesis, at least.

Edited Date: 2022-06-10 08:16 pm (UTC)

From:

selenak

One dedicated book may be a polite gesture, two look like a one night stand! :)

Canonical proof of mixed feelings: on the one hand, there's Algarotti playing host for Wilhelmine when she's in Venice and praising Fritz a lot while at it. There's Algarotti greeting Fritz' initial streak of success in the 7 Years War (specifically the battle of Prague, I think) with the Caesar beating Pompey at Pharsalus. (Which must have felt really awkward with Fritz' first big defeat following none too much later.) On the other, one of the Lady Mary biographers, I forget which one, said he also wrote an MT ode just in case, and I still want that crack fic where Algarotti sends Fritz and MT by mistake the odes intended for the other.

Also, for what it's worth, there's the Marquis' d'Argens take as reported by Nicolai (and yours truly here): Algarotti, a very subtle man and very subtle politician, was pleased by Friedrich's company because the later was a King and a man of wit. The King held him in high regard and loved him very much for his good qualities; but Algarotti was more concerned with the esteem he gained by the King's friendship and did not love the King, which the later eventually realized.

Now, D'Argens with his insistence that he's the one True Intellectual Friend of Fritz who was into Fritz for Fritz and not for crude gain is hardly unbiased, and would also eventually leave Prussia. But at the same time, his being biased doesn't necessarily translate into him being entirely wrong. Fritz being emotionally exhausting and easier to love from afar seems to have been a conclusion shared by a lot of people.

From:

cahn

One dedicated book may be a polite gesture, two look like a one night stand! :)

LOLOLOLOL! Okay, I'm sold :D

and I still want that crack fic where Algarotti sends Fritz and MT by mistake the odes intended for the other.

YES PLEASE

Ah, thank you for the link back to d'Argens' take, and the explanation!

Fritz being emotionally exhausting and easier to love from afar seems to have been a conclusion shared by a lot of people.

Seems very legit!

From:

cahn

There's also Voltaire's letter to him post explosion suggesting a meeting between two now free men.

Wait whaaaaat? Oh, Voltaire. Never change.

and also, I think Algarotti had even less intention of involving himself in the Fritz/Voltaire saga post break up than before

Lolololol that would be extremely in-character!

From:

selenak

Voltaire: to quote from my review of the Algarotti essays:

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.)