1. Francesco Algarotti was a man of broad knowledge, an expert in Newtonianism, architecture and opera.
19 Facts About Francesco Algarotti
1. 2.
Francesco Algarotti was a friend of Frederick the Great and leading authors of his times: Voltaire, Jean-Baptiste de Boyer, Marquis d'Argens, Pierre-Louis de Maupertuis and the atheist Julien Offray de La Mettrie.
3.
Francesco Algarotti obtained a classical education; studied natural sciences and mathematics in Rome.
4.
Francesco Algarotti became embroiled in a lively bisexual love-triangle with the politician John Hervey, and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu.
5.
Francesco Algarotti had made acquaintance with Antiochus Kantemir, a Moldavian diplomat, poet and composer.
6.
Francesco Algarotti was invited to visit Russia for the wedding of Duke Anthony Ulrich of Brunswick.
7.
Francesco Algarotti was discovering "this new city", which he called the great window.
8.
Francesco Algarotti had obligations in England and came back the year after.
9.
Francesco Algarotti accompanied Frederick to Bayreuth, Kehl, Strasbourg and Moyland Castle where they met with Voltaire, who was taking baths in Kleve for his health.
10.
Francesco Algarotti did not succeed in inducing the Kingdom of Sardinia to launch a treacherous attack upon Austria.
11.
Francesco Algarotti wanted "suggetti graziosi e leggeri" from Balestra, Boucher, and Donato Creti.
12.
In 1747 Francesco Algarotti went back to Potsdam and became court chamberlain, but left to visit the archeological diggings at Herculaneum.
13.
Francesco Algarotti was involved in finishing the architectural designs of Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff who had fallen ill.
14.
In 1759 Francesco Algarotti was involved in a new opera-style in the city of Parma.
15.
Francesco Algarotti influenced Guillaume du Tillot and the Duke of Parma.
16.
Francesco Algarotti's Essay on the Opera was a major influence on the librettist Carlo Innocenzo Frugoni and the composer Tommaso Traetta, and in the development of Gluck's reformist ideology.
17.
Francesco Algarotti proposed a heavily simplified model of opera seria, with the drama pre-eminent, instead of the music, ballet or staging.
18.
In 1762 Francesco Algarotti moved to Pisa, where he died of tuberculosis.
19.
Frederick the Great, who several times had needed Francesco Algarotti for writing texts in Latin, sent in a text for a monument to his memory on the Campo Santo.