August Fryderyk Moszyński

Coat of arms of the Moszyński family

August Fryderyk Moszyński (born January 25, 1731 in Dresden , † June 11, 1786 in Padua ) was a Polish count, architect and Freemason .

family

August Fryderyk Moszyński was the son of Jan Kanty Moszyński and Friederike Alexandrine von Cosel , the daughter of King Augustus the Strong . In 1737 he lost his father and has since lived under the care of Count Heinrich von Brühl . In 1755 he married Theophila Potocka, the daughter of Stanisław Potocki (1698–1760), who was then governor of Kiev. For the wedding, King August III. from Poland him the Order of the White Eagle . The marriage was divorced in 1764. The marriage produced a son, Jan Nepomucen Moszyński.

Life

Moszyński was trained in a cadet school in Dresden. He then studied architecture with Gaetano Chiaveri and traveled to France, England and Italy. After returning from his Grand Tour , he was appointed Burg-Starost ( grodowy , sometimes translated as "Kastellan") by Inowłódz in 1750 . He was a member of the Sejm ekstraordynaryjny (Extraordinary Parliament) in Livonia . After the death of Ignatius Humiecki he received a Royal on June 6, 1752 whose title Steward (Pol .: stolnik wielki koronny ; lat .: dapifer Regni ).

Moszyński had three passions: women, alchemy and his large book collection. For this he had to sell all his property, including his offices: he sold his position as the castle starost of Inowłódz to his relative Leon Moszyński, the office of the castle starost of Dymer (Ukraine), which he assumed after the death of the castellan of Kiev, Kazimierz Stecki, he sold to Eustachy Potocki and some villages near Lemberg he sold to Stanisław Lubomirski.

The newly elected King Stanislaus August awarded him the Order of St. Stanislaus in 1765 and entrusted him with the supervision of the royal theaters, palaces and collections. Moszyński took advantage of the king's favor and founded a consortium with equity of 400,000 thalers , in which the businessman Peter Tepper, the Berlin banker Georg Wilhelm Schweiger and Baron Gartenberg were involved. On July 27 and August 1, 1765, they signed a contract with the king authorizing the consortium to mint coins with the image of the new king. As head of the mint in Krakow, Gartenberg had copper coins minted there. Moszyński had the gold and silver coins minted in Warsaw. On this occasion he was able to pursue his passion for "gold making"; he tried to make gold synthetically. Gartenberg, however, soon took over the management of the mint in Warsaw. That was the end of Moszyński's alchemical laboratory.

In recognition of his services, King Moszyński awarded several goods to Bracław , including Muszorów, Romanówka and Papuszyńce. In 1769 Moszyński became the grand master of a Masonic lodge .

Footnotes

1. ↑ ^{a b} Ewa Wyka: Collections of Experimental Natural Philosophy in Eighteenth-Century Poland . In: Jim Bennett, Sofia Talas (eds.): Cabinets of experimental philosophy in eighteenth-century Europe . Brill, Leiden 2013, ISBN 978-90-04-25296-7 , pp. 173-193, here p. 178.
2. ↑ Łukasz Gołe̜biowski: Gabinet medalów polskich oraz tych, które siȩ dziejów Polski tycza (Cabinet of Polish Medals, at the same time those that concern the history of Poland), Volume 4: Z czasów panowania Stanisława Augusta (During the reign of Stanisława Augusta ). Richter, Wrozław 1843, p. XV.
3. ^ Robert Freke Gould: A concise History of freemasonry . Gale & Polden, London 1903, p. 303.