In the past I had to translate this through Google Translate but now it is translated automatically for me I guess. Nice!
begin quote from:
Count of Saint-Germain
Count of Saint-Germain
The Count of St. Germain, etching Nicolas Thomas
1783, after a lost paint belonging
to the marquise d'Urfé 1 , preserved in Louvre 2 .
1783, after a lost paint belonging
to the marquise d'Urfé 1 , preserved in Louvre 2 .
| County |
|---|
| Birth | Around 1691 Unknown location |
|---|---|
| Death | (about 93 years old) Eckernförde |
| Birth name |
Rákóczi Lipót György (?)
|
| Activity | Adventurer Alchemist Musician Painter |
| Father |
| instruments |
|---|
The Count of Saint-Germain , probably born between 1690 and 1710 (in 1691 according to legend) and died onin Eckernförde , is an adventurer of the xviii th century, musician , painter and polyglot , famous alchemist .
A mysterious character surrounded by legends, the alchemical tradition attributes to him the paternity of the esoteric work La Très Sainte Trinosophie . Renowned immortal , he has inspired many literary and artistic works to this day.
Summary
Theories about its origins [ edit | change the code ]
Descending hidden some royal personality [ change | change the code ]
His birth could only be conjectured on the basis of a few scattered accounts, including that of his friend Prince Frederick II of Hesse-Cassel , which suggests that he was the illegitimate child, born in 1696, of Prince Francis II Rákóczi of Transylvania 3 and of the Princess Violante-Béatrice of Bavaria , of the house of Wittelsbach , widow (widow in 1713) of Ferdinand de Médicis, prince of Florence and who was raised in Florence by the Grand Duke of Tuscany Jean-Gaston de Médicis , brother-in-law of the second 4. Be that as it may, some saw in him the hidden descendant of some royal personality, and in this supposed lineage the reason for his intimacy with King Louis XV . Thus we have also been able to recognize in him the natural child of the Queen of Spain Marie-Anne of Neubourg , and of a nobleman, the Count of Melgar . These kinship ties, none of which are proven, would explain the easy lifestyle he has always led, his education and culture. In fact, besides some knowledge in chemistry, Saint-Germain is recognized by his contemporaries as a man of great knowledge, skilled musician and painter quality 5 .
Jewish origins [ edit | change the code ]
According to the Marquis of Créquy , St. Germain was an Alsatian Jew named "Simon Wolff," born in Strasbourg in late xvii th early xviii th century 6 . Others associated him with a Portuguese Jew from Bordeaux 7 .
An alchemy lab in Chambord castle [ change | change the code ]
Lives in London, where he shines in the salons as a musician, Saint-Germain is arrested as a spy Jacobite, in 1743 8 . He left the British capital in 1746, and lost his track for 12 years. For some, he retired to Germany where he devoted himself to his chemical and alchemical research. For others, he travels to India and Tibet : no proof of these journeys is advanced, but it is found later, in fact, that the count has a deep knowledge of the East. Arrived in Paris at the beginning of 1758, at the instance of Marshal Belle-Isle , enthusiastic follower of his elixir of long life 7 , he wrote immediately to MarignyDirector of the King's Buildings, declaring: "I have made the richest and rarest discovery in my land yet. I made it work with an assiduity, a constancy, a patience that perhaps have no example, for almost twenty years. He concludes with this request accompanied by a promise: "The object of so much care obtained, I have voluntarily come to offer the profit to the King, my only expenses deducted, without asking him anything other than the free disposition of one of the royal houses, able to establish the people I brought from Germany for my service "whereupon Marigny assigns the chateau de Chambord , then uninhabited 9 . Saint-Germain installs his assistants, his workmen and his laboratory in the communes. Yet, he is more often than notParis to Chambord . He is presented to the Marquise de Pompadour , who introduces him to the king, Louis XV. It appreciates the brilliant character immediately, which quickly became one of his familiar 10 .
Louis XV liked and hated Choiseul [ change | change the code ]
If the count attracted the sympathy of the king, he has however alienated the powerful Duke de Choiseul, Louis XV's chief minister , who will launch a campaign to discredit him. Choiseul pays an entertainer named Gauve to imitate the Comte de Saint-Germain and pretend to be him. Gauve runs salons under the identity of Saint-Germain and tell the most incredible stories: he would have drunk with Alexander the Great , he would have known Jesus and predicted he would have a horrible end 11 .
Quickly, the deception is unveiled and Gauve recognized. Contrary to what Choiseul expects, the true Saint-Germain does not come out ridiculed, but grown up.
The the King, wishing to put an end to the ruinous Seven Years' War , sends him, with the full powers and authorization of Marshal Belle-Isle, Minister of War, to the Netherlands to begin peace talks and to negotiate a loan of thirty million guilders for France 12 . Choiseul manages to intercept letters are the Earl and convince the king that he is a spy in the service of Prussia 13 . On the point of being arrested and sent back to France, he fled to England , taking refuge for three months in London, where he was informed that he was not welcome. From there, he moved to The Hague, then in Nijmegen, near the German border, where he bought a large estate 12, and embarked on research on pigments and colors, which he increased the brightness with the addition of mother-of-pearl 14 . In April 1762, at the invitation of Count Peter Rotari, he went to Russia, where he became a close friend of Earl Orlov and played a role in the coup d'etat perpetrated by the Orlov brothers against Peter III 12 , for install Catherine II to ascend the throne 7 . In 1770, he appeared in Livorno uniformed Russian general 12 .
Alleged interview of Saint-Germain with Queen Marie Antoinette [ change | change the code ]
Saint-Germain is also mentioned in the Souvenirs sur Marie Antoinette . The book is published, in 1836, by the forger Etienne Lamothe-Langon Leon , who then claims that it constitutes the authentic memoirs of Gabrielle Pauline Bouthillier de Chavigny , Countess of Adhemar, lady of the palace of Queen Marie Antoinette 15 .
The book relates, among other things, the demonstration of transmutation of a piece of silver made by Saint-Germain in front of his first husband, the Marquis de Valbelle. In another chapter, the Countess of Adhémar recounts the visit of Saint-Germain (he is then called Monsieur de Saint-Noel), who wants to warn King Louis XVI of the future misfortunes of the French Revolution :"This reign will be fatal to him [to Louis XVI] ... There is a gigantic conspiracy that has not yet a visible leader, but it will appear shortly. One tends to nothing less than to overthrow what exists, except to rebuild it on a new level. We want the royal family, the clergy, the nobility, the judiciary. However, it is time again to thwart the plot: later it would be impossible . She discreetly introduced him to Queen Marie-Antoinette (no doubt in 1774) and witnessed her astonishing revelations to the Queen: "The encyclopedist party wants power, it will only obtain it by the total lowering of the clergy and to achieve this result he will upset the monarchy . " He predicts the role ofDuke of Chartres and his fatal end: "they will propose the crown of France, and the scaffold will take place instead of throne" , as well as a civil war and "an eager republic whose scepter will be the ax of the executioner" . The interview with King Louis XVI, in order to give him more complete revelations, will not take place, because the Count de Maurepas , his minister, will want to arrest Saint-Germain. The latter, the presentiment, will disappear.
The Countess of Adhemar and enter this amazing interview: "The queen thought again sometimes, but she gradually lost the memory 16 . "
Death [ edit | change the code ]
In 1766 he put himself under the protection of King Frederick II of Prussia , but left him the following year. For a while, he managed to hold sway over the Margrave of Ansbach , who took her everywhere with him 12 . He finally arrives at Gottrop, on the Baltic , where he is hosted by the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel . He died on February 27, 1784 in Eckernförde , Schleswig , 93 years old, according to his host, who was probably also his main confidant 12 : 470-1 .
The legend [ edit | change the code ]
Saint Germain, an exceptional character who, amused by rumors, has never denied them, remains in history because he symbolizes the dream of immortality .
He was dressed in clothes covered jewelry 7 , absorbed only pills, bread and oatmeal, but not fed or never drank in public 7 . He spoke and wrote French, English, Italian, Sanskrit, Arabic, Chinese 3 , Greek, Latin, German, Portuguese and Spanish 7 . He was a painter and, virtuoso on the harpsichord and the violin 7 , he also composed music. He would have been very versed in chemistry and alchemy . The people of the day believed that he had accomplished the Great Work Alchemical, which brings immortality. He is credited with the work of alchemy La Très Sainte Trinosophiebut this is not proven and often contested 12 : 475 . He had a great passion for precious stones, of which he always had large quantities, 7 often of extraordinary size, and claimed to have a secret which made it possible to remove the defects of diamonds.
The popular beliefs lent him the memory of his previous lives and a corresponding wisdom: he would have had an elixir giving him a very long life, from two to four thousand years, it was supposed, which allowed him to tell the wedding. of Cana or the intrigues of the court of Babylon 17 . In a letter fromto Frederick II , Voltaire said of him "It is a man who does not die, and who knows everything" and Frederick II called him "the man who can not die". He himself seems to have been more moderate on this point since he would have only said that he was three hundred years old 18 and his servant, questioned on this point, would have merely replied: "I can not tell you that he 'are a hundred years I'm at his service 19 . "
The composer Rameau remembered having seen Saint-Germain in 1701. Cergy countess had seen in Venice , where she was an ambassador, 50 years earlier 20 .
These are actually ways and originality of Saint-Germain, particularly his way of telling the history of France as if he had known the protagonists ( François I er et al), which earned him, in 1750s, some favors from some representatives of the court, starting with Madame de Pompadour . Several excerpts from Casanova's Memoirs 21 corroborate the idea that the count "testified" with realism very realistically of the most remote epochs (an anecdote is given in which the count suggests his presence at the Council of Trent). Saint-Germain is also presented by Casanova as "scholar, [speaking] perfectly most languages; great musician, great chemist, of a pleasant figure. " His interest in finding ways to increase the length of human life also had the effect of increasing the rumors already running about its longevity supposed out of the ordinary.
It should also be emphasized that Count's enemies hired an actor, Gauve (aka "Lord Gor," or "Gower," or "Qoys"), to impersonate him in the working-class neighborhoods. of Paris, in building the legend, that the posing crazy 20 . The latter, which describes in, details and persuasion supposedly interviews with Christ , assistance with entry of Alexander the Great in Babylon or during hunting parties with Charlemagne or François I er , which contributed greatly at the birth and amplification of the rumor of immortality 20. Jean-Pierre-Louis de Luchet, inventor, in his Memoirs authentic to serve the story of Count Cagliostro (Berlin, 1785), a meeting as baroque as phantasmagorical between St. Germain and Cagliostro , also mentions Lord Gor, or Gauve, whom he abusively assimilates to the count.
Forced to flee France in 1760, under the pressure of dark affairs, 22 the latter traveled to Prussia, Russia, Italy, England, and Austria (where he was often seen in Vienna, "headquarters of the Rosicrucians ") and finally stopped at the court of the landgrave of Schleswig-Holstein , fervent alchemist.
Hypotheses have circulated about his espionage actions, but for whose benefit? It would at least triple agent, while various allegations relate his attachment to the monarchical principle or even the German hegemony Rosicrucian 23 .
According to the Marquise de Créquy it soutira hundred thousand crowns in four years to Madame d'Urfe to the cabal and the Philosopher's Stone 24 .
Casanova recounted his interview in The Hague with the count, dressed in an Armenian costume, the same as the wandering Jew 7 , another incarnation of the myth of perpetual longevity, myth appeared, incidentally, in the seventeenth century. century. But Casanova suspected Count legerdemain and imposture 25 .
He provided essential elements in Faust of Goethe 26 . Napoleon III , initiated to carbonarism , interested in the Count of Saint-Germain, charged the police to gather at the Tuileries all possible clues concerning him. This record would have burned during the fire that destroyed the palace in Paris in 1871, making it almost no trace of actual or alleged identity of Saint-Germain 27 .
Several authors will soon play a role in the spread of a legend that will soon exceed the historical reality. Etteilla asserts in particular, when the newspapers announce the death of the count, that there was confusion about the real identity of the deceased, that the true Count of Saint-Germain, his direct master for twenty years, true cabalist and hermetic magician, author of The Entrance to the King's Closed Palace (1645), 28 is still alive, living in America, and doing well. In 1939, an American airman whose aircraft had crashed near a Tibetan monastery, said that he had met the monks from a man who claimed to be the Count of St. Germain 29 . Some assertions of thewill later maintain the legend on the immortality of Saint-Germain, after mastery of metempsychosis 30 . Mademoiselle Lenormand 31 nevertheless supports the idea of her survival during the First Empire, and the Baron de Gleichen, in his Souvenirs ( Denkwürdigkeiten , 1847) 32 , will defend the idea of a Count of Saint-Germain who has lived since Antiquity.
In the 1970s , a French adventurer named Richard Chanfray enjoyed media notoriety by claiming to be the Earl of Saint-Germain, then becoming the companion of singer Dalida 33 , 34 . He committed suicide in 1983 35 , 36 .
Putative work [ edit | change the code ]
- The Most Holy Trinosophia , esoteric work of the late xviii th century attributed to the Comte de Saint-Germain.
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