selenak: Fair statement or not quite? Or "recovered and even exceeded"? You know rather more about F1's time than I do, and probably more about the Academy in Fritz's time.
At any rate, during Frederick's reign, the Academy of Sciences recovered the prestige that it had enjoyed in Leibniz's day.
I would say "recovered and even exceeded" is fair, because as far as I recall, in F1's day, there was no one else of Leibniz' calibre or international renown at the academy, whereas Fritz had a couple of international superstars (Maupertuis and Euler at least qualify, though Fritz didn't appreciate Euler enough, and of course Algarotti) who had Europe-wide name recognition, plus in whichever sense he had Voltaire.
In later years, this renown lost some of its lustre (see also: Euler not being properly appreciated, Euler accepting Catherine's offer; and then of course Fritz not wanting Moses Mendelssohn as an Academy Member despite the Marquis D'Argens telling him he was missing out on one of the most amazing minds of the day, boo, hiss), and let's not even start with the Fritzian problem of not recognizing German-writing folk in general if they didn't also publish in French. But that was diminishing the Academy's prestige during his last two decades. In his first two decades, he certainly had many of the creme de la creme and the Academy had a great international reputation.
Christian Wolff: Not among those of us who remained in Leipzig it didn't!
Thank you, Selena! As you can see, I'm implementing your suggestions on the Peter Keith bio. I have a daily quota of working on Peter at least a little bit. I still have hope of finishing this!
Christian Wolff: Not among those of us who remained in Leipzig it didn't!
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timeasmymeasure
Academy of Sciences
Date: 2024-11-20 01:42 am (UTC)At any rate, during Frederick's reign, the Academy of Sciences recovered the prestige that it had enjoyed in Leibniz's day.
Re: Academy of Sciences
Date: 2024-11-20 03:04 pm (UTC)In later years, this renown lost some of its lustre (see also: Euler not being properly appreciated, Euler accepting Catherine's offer; and then of course Fritz not wanting Moses Mendelssohn as an Academy Member despite the Marquis D'Argens telling him he was missing out on one of the most amazing minds of the day, boo, hiss), and let's not even start with the Fritzian problem of not recognizing German-writing folk in general if they didn't also publish in French. But that was diminishing the Academy's prestige during his last two decades. In his first two decades, he certainly had many of the creme de la creme and the Academy had a great international reputation.
Christian Wolff: Not among those of us who remained in Leipzig it didn't!
Re: Academy of Sciences
Date: 2024-11-20 03:14 pm (UTC)Christian Wolff: Not among those of us who remained in Leipzig it didn't!
Heee!