Lettres Du Comte Algarotti Sur La Russie: Contenant L'état Du Commerce, De La Marine, Des Revenus, & Des Forces De Cet Empire: Avec L'histoire De La Guerre De 1735 Contre Les Turcs, & Des Observations Sur La Mer Baltique, & La Mer Caspienne

LETTRES DU COMTE ALGAROTTI SUR LA RUSSIE, Contenant L'état Du Commerce, De La Marine, Des Revenus, & Des Forces De Cet Empire: Avec L'histoire De La Guerre De 1735 Contre Les Turcs, & Des Observations Sur La Mer Baltique, & La Mer Caspienne. Traduite De l'Italien. FRANCESCO ALGAROTTI. A Londres, et se trouve à Paris, Chez Merlin, 1769. (4), 337, (1) pp. 12mo, Contemporary quarter calf uncut; new contemporary lettering label. Minor repair to the top of front joint; paper floor at p313. Collection of twelve letters addressed to Lord Hervey informing him on the state of affairs in Russia. Count Francesco Algarotti (1712-1764) was a Venetian polymath, philosopher, poet, essayist, anglophile, art critic and art collector. He was "One of the first Esprits cavaliers of the age", a man of broad knowledge, an expert in Newtonianism, architecture and music and a friend of most of the 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. The son of a wealthy merchant, he became the darling of the European aristocracy. In 1733 he captured the attention of Émilie du Chatelet when he stayed with her and Voltaire. Voltaire called him his 'Cher cygne de Padoue' to write 'Il Neutonianismo Per Le Dame' which was translated into English by Elizabeth Carter. Leaving France for London, he became the paramour of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu who was ready to sacrifice her reputation and move to Italy with him. But Algarotti fled with Lord Baltimore to Russia, a trip recorded in his Viaggi in Russia (1760). Algarotti later became a constant companion to Frederic of Prussia, who ordered a monument to be erected at Pisa to the memory of Algarotti (A Dictionary of Eighteenth-Century History, Edited by Jeremy Black and Roy Porter, p. 22). Kress 6601; Higgs 4560; Conlon 69:492; Garnier, Bibliographie de la Russie, 162; Catalogue Russica, i, A450; not in Goldsmiths; not in Einaudi; not in INED; not in Mattioli.