Cosimo Alessandro Collini (Florence, 14 October 1727-Mannheim, 21 March 1806) was an Italian historian and Voltaire's secretary from 1752 to 1756.
Cosimo Alessandro Collini (Florence, 14 October 1727-Mannheim, 21 March 1806) was an Italian historian and Voltaire's secretary from 1752 to 1756.
Collini was born into a noble family and studied law.
He met Voltaire in Berlin in 1750 and was taken on as his secretary, alongside Joseph Du Fresne de Francheville (son of another Joseph Du Fresne de Francheville ), in April 1752. [1] When Voltaire left the service of Frederick the Great in 1753 Collini accompanied him, and was confined with him and Madame Denis on Frederick's orders for three weeks in Frankfurt. [2] In 1755 the young Jean-Louis Wagnière was made his assistant and, just over a year later, took his place when Collini was dismissed from Voltaire's service for insulting Madame Denis. [3]
Collini then entered the service of Charles Theodore, Elector of Bavaria as his private secretary and historiographer.
He staged Voltaire's Olympie at the Schlosstheater Schwetzingen in 1762.
In 1763 he became a member of the Palatine Academy of Sciences and director of the Mannheim Cabinet of Natural History. In 1784 he was the first person to describe the pterosaur that Georges Cuvier went on the identify, seventeen years later, as a flying reptile.
In his later years, he denounced the fanaticism of the French revolutionary wars and in 1799 he defended the collections in his cabinet from destruction, and managed to have them transferred, four years later, to Munich.
A street in Mannheim is named after him, as is the Collini-Center development in the city.
Augustin Barruel was a French journalist, intellectual, and Jesuit priest. He is now mostly known for setting forth the conspiracy theory involving the Bavarian Illuminati and the Jacobins in his book Memoirs Illustrating the History of Jacobinism published in 1797. In short, Barruel wrote that the French Revolution was planned and executed by the secret societies.
Antoine de Rivarol was a Royalist French writer and translator who lived during the Revolutionary era. He was briefly married to the translator Louisa Henrietta de Rivarol.
Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon was a French naturalist, mathematician, and cosmologist. He held the position of intendant (director) at the Jardin du Roi, now called the Jardin des plantes.
The year 1784 in science and technology involved some significant events.
François-Xavier de Feller (1735–1802) was a Belgian Jesuit who after the suppression of his order worked as a prolific and internationally influential journalist and encyclopedist who opposed radical Enlightenment ideas on politics, religion and society, sometimes under the pseudonym Flexier de Reval.
Charles Théveneau de Morande was a gutter journalist, blackmailer and French spy who lived in London in the 18th century.
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Jacques Philippe Raymond Draparnaud was a French naturalist, malacologist and botanist. He is considered the father of malacology in France. He was professor of medicine and pathology at the Faculté de Médecine de Montpellier.
Louis-Félix Guinement, chevalier de Kéralio was a French soldier, writer and academic. He married Françoise Abeille and their daughter was the feminist writer Louise-Félicité de Kéralio.
Helfrich Bernhard Wenck was a German historian and educator born in Idstein, Hesse.
Sébastien Gérardin was a French naturalist.
Antoine-Jacques Roustan was a Genevan pastor and theologian, who engaged in an extensive correspondence with Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Unlike Rousseau, he believed that a Christian republic was practical - that the Christian religion was not incompatible with patriotism or republicanism.
Élie Bertrand (1713–1797) was a Swiss geologist and naturalist.
Jean-Charles Laveaux was a French grammarian and translator.
Charles Paul Ernest of Bentheim-Steinfurt was a Count of Steinfurt.
Allium narcissiflorum is a European species of wild onion native to northwestern Italy, southwest France. It is grown in other regions as an ornamental because of its pretty flowers.
Jacques Joseph Ducarne de Blangy was a French agronomist and inventor.
Jean-Joseph Menuret, called Menuret de Chambaud was a French physician and author of a number of medical treatises. He also contributed to the Encyclopédie by Diderot and d'Alembert.
Bertrand Pelletier was an 18th-century French pharmacist and chemist.
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