Nachträge zu dem Briefwechsel Friedrichs des Grossen mit Maupertuis und Voltaire : Nebst Verwandten Stücken
Leipzig: Verlag von S. Hirzel, 1917.
Hardcover. Good+ with no dust jacket. Item #9152
Toned, UNDERLINING with some notes, owner's signature on front paste-down, otherwise light wear. Solid hardcover. ; Ownership signature on front paste-down of George R Havens, noted scholar of the French Enlightenment and Ohio State professor. French language letters; Vorwort, Anhang and footnotes in German language. Correspondence of King Frederick the Great of Prussia with Maupertuis and Voltaire. "Pierre-Louis Moreau de Maupertuis was a French mathematician, philosopher and man of letters. He became the Director of the Académie des Sciences, and the first President of the Prussian Academy of Science, at the invitation of Frederick the Great." - Wikipedia. Voltaire "moved to Potsdam to join Frederick the Great, a close friend and admirer. The king had repeatedly invited him to his palace, and now gave him a salary of 20,000 francs a year. Though life went well at first—in 1752 he wrote Micromégas, perhaps the first piece of science fiction involving ambassadors from another planet witnessing the follies of humankind—his relationship with Frederick the Great began to deteriorate and he encountered other difficulties. An argument with Maupertuis, the president of the Berlin Academy of Science, provoked Voltaire's "Diatribe du docteur Akakia" ("Diatribe of Doctor Akakia"), which satirized some of Maupertuis' theories and his abuse of power in his persecutions of a mutual acquaintance, Samuel König. This greatly angered Frederick, who had all copies of the document burned and Voltaire arrested at an inn where he was staying along his journey home." - Wikipedia. Documentation from the Prussian archives of Friedrich's correspondence with the principals of this significant incident of 18th century intellectual history, from the library of an outstanding scholar of the period. ; Publikationen aus den K. Preussischen Staatsarchiven; Vol. 90; vii, 119 pages.
Price: $99.95