Frédéric de Castillon

Frédéric de Castillon (born September 22, 1747 in Lausanne , † January 27, 1814 in Berlin ), German Friedrich (Adolf Maximilian) Gustav (von) Castillon, was a scientist, translator and professor of philosophy at the later Knight Academy in Berlin as well as a Freemasons .

origin

Frederic de Castillon was the son of Giovanni Francesco Mauro Melchiore Salvemini (1708-1791), one of the Tuscany originating mathematicians and philosophers with the name of your choice Jean Castillon and his first wife, Elizabeth du Fresne (died 1757). Nothing is known about Frédéric's childhood ; he came to Berlin with his father in 1763.

Act

Castillon s first major work was the translation of Euclid's elements from Greek into French (published 1767). Another extensive translation was that of the five-volume work by garden theorist Christian Cay Lorenz Hirschfeld , which appeared as Théorie de l'art des jardins in Leipzig between 1779 and 1785 at the same time as the German edition. The philosopher Johann Georg Sulzer (1720–1779) is said to have contributed to the work.

He stood out in scholarly journals with essays on logic and musicological topics. In 1780 and 1782 he won two prizes on scientific issues. In 1787 he was appointed professor of philosophy at the aristocratic military academy and artillery academy (later the knight academy) in Berlin, and in 1786 he was accepted as a full member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences , and in 1800 he was appointed director of the academy's philosophy class.

As a Freemason, Castillon was a member of several lodges (1772, " Pegase ", Berlin), also a founder ("Pilgrim", Master of the Chair ) and from 1782 as a state grandmaster in a leading position (" Great State Lodge of the Freemasons of Germany ", 1782–1789 and 1799-1814). In 1810 Castillon was involved in founding the "Freemasons' Association of the Three Grand Lodges in Berlin".

Castillon tried to build on the scientific success of his father, but he did not manage to achieve a position comparable to this. He was the only one of three children to survive his father.

Fonts (selection)

In the Mémoires de l'Académie royale des sciences et belles-lettres depuis l'avènement de Frédéric Guillaume III au trône published by Frédéric de Castillon :

• Réflexions sur la logique (year 1802, pp. 29–49; published 1804)
• Mémoire sur un nouvel algorithme logique (year 1803, pp. 3–24; published 1805)
• Recherches sur le principe du beau et sur son application à la musique (year 1804, pp. 3-19; published 1807)

literature

• Joseph Marie Quérard : La France littéraire, ou Dictionnaire bibliographique des savants, historiens, et gens de lettres de la France. Volume 2. Firmin Didot père et fils , Paris 1828, p. 80.
• Eugen Lennhoff, Oskar Posner: Internationales Freemasonic Lexicon . Amalthea, Zurich 1932, col. 260-261.
• Christian Thiel: Castillon , Friedrich Adolf Maximilian Gustav von . In: Encyclopedia Philosophy and Philosophy of Science, edited by Jürgen Mittelstraß . Second edition. Volume 2. Metzler, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-476-02101-7 , p. 30.

The following sources are partially incorrect:

• The learned Teutschland or lexicon of the German writers living now, founded by Georg Christoph Hamberger , continued by Johann Georg Meusel . 5th edition. Meyer, Lemgo. - Volume 1. 1796, pp. 565-566; Volume 9. 1801, p. 188; Volume 13. 1808, p. 225; Volume 17. 1820, p. 320.
• Fétis, François Joseph : Biography universelle des musiciens et bibliographie générale de la musique . Second edition. Volume 2. Firmin Didot frères , Paris 1867, p. 268.

Web link

• Entry in the membership directory of the Prussian Academy of Sciences