Horace Mann, 1st Baronet

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Johann Zoffany The Tribuna of the Uffizi Gallery , detail, from left Mr. Gordon, Thomas Patch, Sir John Taylor, Horace Mann, seated in the foreground Felton Hervey, painted 1772 to 1777, Royal Collection

Sir Horace Mann, 1st Baronet (baptized August 25, 1706 , † November 6, 1786 in Florence ) was the longstanding ambassador of Great Britain in Florence.

Life

Horace Mann was the son of the successful London merchant Robert Mann (1677-1752), attended Eton College and studied briefly (since it was not in good health) at Cambridge University (Clare College) and then undertook one in the 1730s Cavalier tour through Europe. In 1737 he was first secretary of the British ambassador to the Tuscan Grand Duke, Charles Fane. He later became head of mission in Florence , first as Chargé d'affaires in 1738 , as envoy from 1740 to 1764, and from 1767 as envoy extraordinary and authorized minister .

In Florence he maintained an open house in his villa in the Fondaccio Santo Spirito for visitors from his homeland (especially for English travelers who completed their Grand Tour ) and other European countries and is best known today for his extensive correspondence with Horace Walpole , whom he met in 1739. He was also a protégé of the music of George Frideric Handel , whose oratorios he had performed in Florence from 1768, in collaboration with Lord George Cowper (1738–1789), who also lived in Florence. He was also an art collector with connections to many visual artists such as Raphael Mengs in Rome or the English painter Thomas Patch (1725–1782), who lived in Florence and with whom he was close friends.

Since Great Britain did not have an official ambassador to the Pope in Rome, reports from Rome and especially on the activities of the Jacobites ( Old Pretender James Francis Edward Stuart and Young Pretender Charles Edward Stuart ) were among his tasks.

In 1755 he was given the hereditary title of Baronet , of Linton Hall in the County of Kent. In 1768 he was accepted as a Knight Companion in the Bath Order .

He never married. After the death of his older brother Edward in 1775, he inherited the family seat in Linton , Kent . He handed over the family seat in Linton in 1775 in return for an annual payment to his nephew and heir Horatio (Horace) Mann, 2nd Baronet , the son of his brother Galfridus, who died in 1756. When his uncle died, he was in Florence, which he visited almost every year, and then for a few months he was a British chargé d´affaires . With him, the baronet expired in 1814, because he had only three daughters and no son.

He should not be confused with the American educator Horace Mann .

Literature and web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Among others, Johann Joachim Winckelmann and Casanova there guests. Casanova wrote in his memoir, “The Story of My Life ” (Propylaea Edition, Volume 7, p. 214) that man is the idol of Florence because of his wealth, his kindness, his artistry and good taste .
  2. ^ William Arthur Shaw: The Knights of England. Volume 1, Sherratt and Hughes, London 1906, p. 171.
  3. ^ Letters of Walpole , Volume 1, London 1840, p. VI
personal data
SURNAME Man, Horace, 1st Baronet
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH August 25, 1706
DATE OF DEATH November 6, 1786
Place of death Florence