Stefano Zannowich

Anonymous engraver: Stefano Zannowich, copperplate engraving around 1780

Stefano Zannowich ( pseudonym Prince Castriotto of Albania ; * 18 February 1751 in Budva in the Veneto province of Albania; †  25. May 1786 in Amsterdam ) was a writer , Freemasons, players, adventurers, swindlers, currency counterfeiters and highly talented con man , the many high nobles , Magistrates and financiers fell victim. Stefano Zannowich is proficient in numerous languages ​​and has written texts and books in Latin, Italian, German and French.

Life

youth

Antonio Zannowich, Stefano Zannowich's father, was a Serbian-born shopkeeper and cardsharps from the Paštrovići clan near Budva, who in 1766 had made too much money but little reputation in Venice until his expulsion. From his profits he bought lands in Dalmatia and the village of Paštrovići . He made it possible for his two older sons Przemislaus and Stefano to study in Padua . Stefano turned out to be a highly intelligent rhetorically gifted student who acquired knowledge of the most important European languages ​​and learned courtly manners and manners from noble students.

to travel

After finishing his studies Stefano stayed with his brother Przemislaus in 1769 in Vienna , Venice and Treviso . In the latter cities, they were expelled for having false papers. Then Stefano went to Montenegro . There he successfully presented himself as Tsar Peter III, who had escaped the attacks of his wife . out. According to another source, he worked as a leader of brigands . Since there was little to be had in Montenegro, Stefano Zannowich traveled on to Florence where he met his brother Przemislaus, who pretended to be Count Zannowich. The young Henry Pelham-Clinton, 9th Earl of Lincoln , was not up to the Zannowich'schen gambling skills and lost 28,000 Zechinen to Stefano, after Casanova it was 12,000 pounds sterling, who accepted the change to the London banker of the Earl. In December 1771 he was expelled from Florence on the orders of the Grand Duke. Casanova was present at the coup, which he described in detail in the 12th volume of his memoirs, but without naming Stefano's role. As with the Amsterdam fraud, Stefano worked hand in hand with his brother Przemislaus.

In 1772 Stefano Zannowich appeared in Poland under the name Wârtâ . He confided to Polish nobles that he was traveling incognito. He is the Albanian Prince Castriota or Castriotto, a grandson of Skanderbeg and expects a lot of money. With ample credit taken out, Stefano Zannowich traveled through Germany and France to London , where he moved in the earl's bill. In Amsterdam, as Count Zannowich, he got hold of 27,000 guilders with letters of recommendation from the gullible Venetian ambassador Cavalli and forged bills of exchange from the Chomel and Jordan banks and tried to steal an insurance sum of 150.00 guilders with a fictitious shipwreck.

As an exotic and wealthy personality, he gained access to the higher circles and, in France, probably also to the encyclopedists. He is said to have met d'Alembert , Marmontel and Rousseau . Talented in literature, he published his first literary works in Paris and Milan in 1772 and 1773 . He corresponded with the hippest greats of the time, including Gluck , Metastasio , Rousseau and Voltaire . In May 1774 he stayed in Montenegro again. Possibly he tried to take advantage of the unstable situation in Montenegro after the death of Šćepan Mali . In the same year he traveled in the company of Petar I. over Rijeka again over Vienna, Strasbourg and Frankfurt to Poland. There he managed to cup Michael Kasimir Oginski . In 1775 he stayed in Dresden , where he published his works and the Lettere Turche with Georg Conrad Walther . In 1776 he tried unsuccessfully in Potsdam under the alias Hospodar of Albania to gain the favor of Friedrich II . However, he succeeded in establishing relationships with Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia and Elector Friedrich August of Saxony . A German translation of the Lettere Turche was published in Berlin . A review in the Göttinger Gelehrtenanzeiger pointed to the ambiguity of the author and contained inconsistencies. At the beginning of 1777 he was expelled. He then stayed in Hamburg in 1777, but was expelled for an unnatural sexual crime. In 1778 he was imprisoned in Zweibrücken and expelled. After a stay in Alsace and Lorraine, Stefano Zannowich traveled on to Rome.

There he began a liaison with the infamous bigamist Elizabeth Pierrepont, Duchess of Kingston-upon-Hull, 30 years her senior . The couple sailed from Calais to St. Petersburg and tried to gain power in Estonia on credit . The project and the partnership failed for unknown reasons. Via Berlin he traveled again to Vienna, where he was caught fraudulent and arrested. He was released on the highest protection and went to Rome under his alias Wârtâ , who was already related to him earlier, with the identity of a clergyman. After returning and staying in Amsterdam under the identity of a Father Zeratubladas , Stefano Zannowich decided to move to Belgium around 1783. There he pretended to be an Albanian prince again. In 1783 he was a member of the Union, the third Masonic Lodge in Brussels . Stefano Zannowich appeared in Munich in August 1784. He intended to enter a monastery and distributed donations. At the end of 1784 he offered the States General facing the civil war an army of 10,000 to 20,000 Montenegrins. The States General accepted his offer benevolently with a letter of December 28, 1784 without cash benefits. Supported by the government's letter and recommendations from Charles Joseph de Ligne , Zannowich tried again to take out loans from the Amsterdam banks. To this end, he demanded 80,000 guilders from the government as compensation for the effort made. The papers, securities and correspondence presented were forgeries from Brother Przemislaus.

death

Despite cleverly forged bills of exchange and ship's papers, Zannowich was discovered and taken into custody. In his hopeless situation, he opened his wrists in the Amsterdam prison on the night of May 25th. His body was thrown on the Schindanger next to the Amsterdam gallows, a final favor at the request of his patrons. Initially, the body was sentenced to be cremated.

Literary afterlife

Stefano Zannowich and the betrayal of Henry Pelham-Clinton, Earl of Lincoln (1750–1778) is described in detail in Volume 12 of Casanova's memoir. Alfred Döblin dealt with Zannowich's life in the first book of his novel Berlin Alexanderplatz . Milo Dor wrote in his novel All my brothers about the life and deeds of Zannowich from the perspective of the youngest brother who stayed at home.

Fonts

• La Didone, scena drammatica , Rotterdam, 1772 online
• Opere diverse del Conte Stefano de Zannowich ... Esatta edizione. Tomo primo. , Paris, 1772
• Pigmalione, opera , Paris, 1773 online
• Riflessioni filosofiche-morali , Paris, Didot, 1773
• Lettere turche , Dresden, 1776, German translation: Turkish letters from the Prince of Montenegro , Berlin, 1777 online
• Lettera dell'autore delle lettere Turche a SSS Greca-Ortodossa Sava Petrowich ... , without imprint, 1776
• Stiepan-Annibale d'Albanie and Frederic-Guillaume de Prusse. Epitre pathetique, philosophique, historique, (etc.) ou L'Alcoran des princes destines au trone , Berlin, 1777
• Le Grand Castriotto d'Albanie , Paris (recte Frankfurt am Main), 1779
• La poésie et la philosophie d'un turc a 81 queues, a 3 plumes de héron, a 2 aigrettes, et a 1 collier d'emeraudes. : Avec le portrait caracteristique de l'auteur par M. de Voltaire. , Abaniopolis (recte Frankfurt am Main), 1779
• L'Horoscope politique de la Pologne, de la Prusse, de l'Angleterre, etc. , Pastor-Vecchio (recte Den Haag), 1779,

literature

• Histoire de la vie et des aventures de la Duchesse de Kingston: Nouvelle édition, a laquelle on a joint une notice curieuse sur Stefano Zannowich, prétendu Prince Castriotto d'Albanie, avec les portraits de ces deux célebres personnages , London, 1789.
• Constantin von Wurzbach : Zannovich, Stephan . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 59th part. Kaiserlich-Königliche Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1890, p. 169 ( digitized version ).
• Helmut Watzlawick: Bio-bibliographie de Stefano Zannowich , H. Watzlawick, 1999, 149 pp.
• Roland Mortier: Le "Prince d'Albanie": un aventurier au Siècle des Lumières , Honoré Champion, 2000, 190 pp.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Historical portfolio: for knowledge of the present and the past, Volume 4, Issues 1–6, Hausen, 1785, p. 61.
2. ^ Giacomo Casanova. Story of my life, Volume 12, Berlin, Propylaen, pp. 130–135.
3. ↑ Historical Portfolio: Knowledge of the Present and Past, Volume 7, p. 61.
4. ↑ Niederelbisches historical-political-literary magazine: first to sixth monthly piece. First volume first volume, volume 1, 1787, note p. 327.
5. ↑ Constantin von Wurzbach : Zannovich, Stephan . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 59th part. Kaiserlich-Königliche Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1890, p. 169 ( digitized version ).