Still going! Still clearing Fritz's valet/chamberlain Fredersdorf's name from the calumny enshrined in wikipedia that he was dismissed for financial irregularities!
(Not quite sure why anything James Keith would end up there, though.
I have been wondering the exact same thing!
It's one of those cases where a casual comment like "who knows what's buried in some archive somewhere" suddenly becomes very real and surprising.
I know, I've been saying that for years, and thinking about contacting the Academy of Sciences to see if maybe *they* have a copy of the memoirs (since we know Formey got his hands on a copy), and I can't believe one weekend I was trying to track down some random citation and I accidentally hit a 19th century book that said, "there's a letter from Fritz to Peter in the Knyphausen family collection." I can't believe I missed it for so long and found it only by accident!
... okay, so I actually had a look at the archive just now, just in case, and are you sure it's impossible to order digital copies? Is it because of the special permission by the Knyphausens? Because they do have basically the same form as the Prussians, even including a line about ordering and paying in advance from abroad. (If you already knew this and it's indeed down to the particular Knyphausen circumstances/permission, sorry about that.)
Okay, the *impression* Prinzsorgenfrei and I had was that you could only do that for non-restricted material, and that the private collections were reading-room access only, but no, I'm not 100% sure, and given the logistical difficulties, it doesn't hurt to *ask*. Thank you for nudging me to ask! Fingers massively crossed.
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Re: Archive materials
I have been wondering the exact same thing!
It's one of those cases where a casual comment like "who knows what's buried in some archive somewhere" suddenly becomes very real and surprising.
I know, I've been saying that for years, and thinking about contacting the Academy of Sciences to see if maybe *they* have a copy of the memoirs (since we know Formey got his hands on a copy), and I can't believe one weekend I was trying to track down some random citation and I accidentally hit a 19th century book that said, "there's a letter from Fritz to Peter in the Knyphausen family collection." I can't believe I missed it for so long and found it only by accident!
... okay, so I actually had a look at the archive just now, just in case, and are you sure it's impossible to order digital copies? Is it because of the special permission by the Knyphausens? Because they do have basically the same form as the Prussians, even including a line about ordering and paying in advance from abroad. (If you already knew this and it's indeed down to the particular Knyphausen circumstances/permission, sorry about that.)
Okay, the *impression* Prinzsorgenfrei and I had was that you could only do that for non-restricted material, and that the private collections were reading-room access only, but no, I'm not 100% sure, and given the logistical difficulties, it doesn't hurt to *ask*. Thank you for nudging me to ask! Fingers massively crossed.