Cosimo Alessandro Collini

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Cosimo Alessandro Collini

Cosimo Alessandro Collini (born October 14, 1727 in Florence , † March 21, 1806 in Mannheim ) came from a noble Florentine family, was Voltaire's secretary for five years and from 1760 became court historian and head of the natural history cabinet at the Mannheim court.

Life

Cosimo Alessandro Collini came from a noble Florentine family. After studying law, he came to Prussia via Chur more because of private entanglements than on purpose . There he met Voltaire in Berlin in 1750 , who employed him as a reader and secretary between 1751 and 1756. After the rift between Voltaire and Frederick the Great, Voltaire, his niece and Collini fled to Frankfurt am Main in 1753, where they were initially arrested on the basis of a petition by the Prussian King. While still in Frankfurt, Collini received an invitation from Elector Carl Theodors to the Palatinate . Collini was described as grouchy and constantly arguing with Voltaire's niece, Madame Denis. The falling out with Voltaire occurred after a search of Collini's private room on the accusation that Collini had withheld a manuscript by Voltaire. The relationship with Voltaire improved again soon after his release. In 1761 Collini published his "Discours sur l´histoire d´Allemagne", in which he made use of material that he had collected as Voltaire's secretary for his "Annales de l´empire". Voltaire expressed his appreciation for this in a letter. In 1763, Collini first published Voltaire's play "Olympie". Collini described the time together with Voltaire in the posthumously published book "Mon séjour auprès de Voltaire" in 1807.

Elector Carl Theodor hired Collini as a "real secret secretary" in 1760 and appointed him a historiographer on the basis of his first historical work and in 1763 a full member of the newly founded Electoral Palatinate Academy of Sciences . In the Acta Academiae Theodoro-Palatinae , Collini published numerous articles.

Collini made lasting merits as director of the natural history cabinet . He described 1784 first discovered pterosaur , the Georges Cuvier could interpret 17 years later as a flying reptile. In 1802 the find came to the Bavarian State Collection for Paleontology and Geology of the Paleontological Museum in Munich .

After Carl Theodor accepted the Bavarian succession in 1778 and the associated relocation of the residence to Munich, he led a withdrawn scholarly existence. From the 1980s onwards, private strokes of fate followed, connected with the decline of the Mannheim court.

Collini lamented fanaticism during the revolutionary wars in Europe. In 1799 he saved the natural history cabinet from destruction, but four years later it was transported to Munich.

Honors

A street in Mannheim and the Collini Center on this street are named after Collini .

Works

Pterodactylus antiquus. Engraving by Egid Verhelst in Collini's description of 1784
Pterodactylus antiquus. Photograph of the holotype described by Collini

Books

  • Discours sur l'histoire d'Allemagne - Treatise on the history of Germany. Koch and Esslinger, Frankfurt, 1761, 242 pp.
  • Précis de L'histoire du Palatinat du Rhin…. Frankfurt and Leipzig, 1763, (12), LXVII, 244 pp.
  • Eloge du Charles-Theodor, Electeur Palatine. 1764, 10 pp.
  • Dissertation Historique et Critique sur le prétendu Cartel, au Lettre de défi envoyée par Charles - Louis Electeur au Vicomte de Turenne. Mannheim, 1767.
  • Solution of the problem of the cavalier au jeu des échecs. Loeffler, Mannheim 1773.
  • Journal d'un voyage qui contient différentes observations minéralogiques, particulièrement sur les agates et le basalte. Avec a detail on the manière de travailler les agates. Schwann, Mannheim, 1776, XII, 384 pp.
  • Journal d´un voyage qui contient differentes observations mineralogiques, Schwan, Mannheim, 1777, 8 ° (7), 583, (1), XV p.
  • Considerarations sur les montagnes volcaniques, without printer, Mannheim, 1781, - Observations on the volcanic mountains, without printer, Dresden 1783
  • Voyage en Allemagne, dans une suite de Lettres, Par M. le Baron de Riesbeck; Traduites de l'Anglois; Avec Portraits, Plans & Cartes en Taille-douce, Buisson, Paris 1788, 3 volumes, 8 °, II, 332, (2), 312, (2), 350, (2) pp.
  • Discours, lu dans une séance de cet institut littéraire le 16 Avril 1799 à l'occasion de la mort de Charles Théodore, Electeur palatin, Mannheim 1799
  • Remarques su la pierre élastique de Brésil, Mannheim, 1805
  • Mon séjour auprès de Voltaire et lettres inédites ..., Paris, 1807

Articles in the Acta Academiae Theodoro-Palatinae:

  • Description of the physique et économique de la ville de Mannheim. Vol. 1, Mannheim 1766, p. 440
  • Sur l'incertitude de l'histoire naturelle. Vol. 2, Mannheim 1770, p. 497
  • Description de quelques encrinités de cabinet d´histoire naturelle de SAS Mgr. L´électeur palatin. Vol. 3 Phys., Mannheim 1775, p. 69
  • Sur quelques zoolithes du cabinet d'histoire naturelle de SASE palatine et de Baviere, à Mannheim. Vol. 5 Phys., Mannheim 1784, p. 58
  • Pensées sur la Transmutation des Substances de Regne Minéral. Vol. 5 Phys., Mannheim 1784, p. 104
  • Sur le Tarentisme. Vol. 5 Phys., Mannheim 1784, p. 364
  • Description of the deux jumelles adhérentes l'une a l'autre, venues au monde dans le Palatinat du Rhin. Vol. 5 Phys., Mannheim 1784, p. 389
  • Coup d'oeil sur la chaine graduelle des étres naturels. Vol. 6 Phys., Mannheim 1790, p. 267
  • Sur les inondations du Necker prés de Mannheim, avec preuves et éclaircissemens. Vol. 6 Phys., Mannheim 1790, p. 282 with 1 folding card
  • Relation d'un effet causé par le grand froid de l'année 1789. Vol. 6 Phys., Mannheim 1790, p. 304

literature

  • Peter Fuchs:  Collini, Cosimo Alessandro. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 3, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1957, ISBN 3-428-00184-2 , p. 324 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Jörg Kreutz: Cosimo Alessandro Collini (1727-1806). A European scout at the court in the Electoral Palatinate. Mannheim Antiquities Association from 1859 - Gesellschaft d. Friends of Mannheim and the former Electoral Palatinate; Reiss-Engelhorn-Museums Mannheim; City Archives - Institute f. City history Mannheim (Ed.). Mannheimer historical writings Vol. 3, Verlag Regionalkultur, 2009, ISBN 978-3-89735-597-2

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Collini, Cosimo Alessandro
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian natural historian and Secretary to Voltaire
DATE OF BIRTH October 14, 1727
PLACE OF BIRTH Florence , Italy
DATE OF DEATH March 21, 1806
Place of death Mannheim