Friedrich Melchior Grimm (revisited)
The man carrying this name, who shaped modern european philosophy, art, society and geography, was infact born Gioachino Cocchi, musician. He is mostly known today-eversince 1745-as comte de Saint Germain but also used a few other interesting names (yet unknown, or at least never publicized by Saint Germain's authors and authorities until now).
Readers are advised to first read-through relative study at.....
http://www.online-literature.com/for...ad.php?t=15023
....and then return here, say late August next, for more on "Melchior Grimm" and his fascinating true life story.
Until then.
Why "late August", why not sooner?
The discovery that "Melchior Grimm" never truly existed, that he was another face of le comte de Saint Germain, could perhaps be labelled "of major importance" or even "extremely radical" in what concerns modern history, philosophy and society as well as the corresponding "scholarly sources" or lack of.
Faced with the immense amount of online info on M.Grimm, yourstruly could not really make up his mind on his next course, how to handle the matter alltogether, and was more or less inclined towards simply proving his "grimm discovery" by presenting herein his evidence in a convincing "scholarly" manner, hence he granted himself the appropriate time, till late August, to prepare, also allowing for a few days by the sea.
Things did not turn out as he planned however: Soon after starting his "Melchior Grimm tour" another stranger appeared on his screen, le chevalier de Chastellux, insisting that his " Voyage dans l'Amérique septentrionale, dans les années 1780, 1781 et 1782" provided the answer to the alleged visits of mythical "comte Saint Germain" to the USA. .
Washington's, Jefferson's and Franklin's correspondent, le chevalier or marquis de Chastellux was yet another important alias of Saint Germain. The relative pile of webinfo, added to the corresponding "Grimm" pile, made life extremely unpleasant for yourstruly with his long formed and expressed opinion and "esteem" for the particular quality of scolarly truth and it's veil, carefully covering Saint Germain and everyone related to him:.
'Your "two hudred years of Poe scholarship" reminded me of Mr Bean clumsily trying to repair the portrait he accidentally damaged, finally destroying it! ' was his wicked response, 2 June 2008, to Wiki's "Poe expert" rejecting his Al Aarraf contribution, this same conclusion now further strengthened by his last discoveries.
When Gioachino Cocchi (as Saint Germain, Grimm AND Chastellux) is placed alongside his cousin Charles Nicholas Cochin(fils), 1750-1788, the need to rewrite History is certainly evident but not yourstruly's beer.
Counting resources he decided to limit himself to the bare essentials. "Everybody but me is a liar" was an egoistic statement, he knew well, but in his particular case there was no other option: He had to prove his truth, to do it, he had to prove the others "false"-when applicable-not least among them Saint Germain himself.
To follow:
Presentation of sufficient evidence to prove that Melchior Grimm and Le chevalier de Chastellux were in fact aliases of Gioachino Cocchi/Augustin Henry Cochin aka le comte de Saint Germain
Presentation of sufficient evidence
Part I
The remarkably common lack of any family or other personal life details on the online biographies/tales on Saint Germain, Cocchi, Grimm and Chastellux cannot on its own be considered either proof of their common identity, or evidence of an artfully planned conspiracy to hide the fact .
The same applies for the thousand or so unanswered questions with regard to "their" common talents (opera buffa, theater, botanology, chemistry) philosophical viewpoints, friends etc etc. ("How did "german Grimm" learn french so quickly? Why did he support italian opera buffa? How did he manage to conquer french literature? etc etc)
When a detailed timeline however is prepared, including enough details concerning their presences or absences to various parts of the world- excepting "largely unknowns" Cocchi and Cochin*(footnote), the others are all labelled today as great travellers- the lack of any overlap, the harmonious coincidence of their arrivals, stays and departures is such evidence and much more than that.
It's the confirmation of Saint Germain's myth, it is the basis for a true study of his unique character.
With "Grimm"-last alias to survive- tactically withdrawing and covering up-in his "Correpondence Litteraires, anecdotiques..."-his other main aliases (Chastellux, Saint Germain and "Claude Louis, comte de Saint Germain") and with his Cochin-Caussin descendants returning to Paris ready to continue their under cover "Mercer dynasty" in -their friend**- Napoleon's regime, one can easily understand the reluctance of many of their later friends and associates, like Chateaubriand (on Grimm (http://tkline.pgcc.net/PITBR/Chateau...hatindexG.htm), "Mme de Crecqy"-Cousin de Chourchamp- (On a naughty comte de Saint Germain making a fool of le chevalier de Chastellux http://penelope.uchicago.edu/crequy/index.shtml) and naturally earlier friends and authors like Voltaire and Rousseau, fully under Cochin "influence".
It was "Grimm" in fact who first established "Saint-Germain, Claude Louis, comte de" (Mémoires de M. le comte de St. Germain ... éscrits par lui-même. Amsterdam, M. M. Rey, 1779. MiU (Amsterdam, 1779...London, 1781). (http://www.history.uiuc.edu/people/j...de/part2/18th/)
Because it was he who later published in his "Correspondence", first ever, the letters of "his" comte de Saint Germain, war minister of France, establishing his presence in Copenhagen in an article by an unknown author who went as far as to claim that le comte de Saint Germain was in fact Rousseau***(NOTE), the attrocious claim immediately rejected then with horror by the know-all editor "Grimm-Saint Germain" (Correspondance littéraire, philosophique et critique ... p.548)
It was "Grimm" who kept a close eye with regard to his Chastellux alias as well, almost revealing his aliases nomdeplume sole existence.....
"Nom qui portait encore l'auteur, il y a deux ans." (about le marquis de Chastellux in 1785)
p. 517 "Correspondance littéraire, philosophique et critique ..."
books.google.gr/books?id=Qz00AAAAMAAJ...
...and it was he who labelled George Washington "Chastellux's God" writing to his friend Diderot
«C'est le Dieu de Chastellux», écrivait Grimm à Diderot._Correspondance_, X, 471
http://www.ihaystack.com/authors/b/t...erique_pendant
Footnotes
*the copy/copyright protected site..... http://g.alhinc.free.fr/Epinay..... lists about 14 presences and 4-highly enlightening- absences (marriages or deaths of his children in his absence) of Augustin Henry Cochin from his "seigneury", all highly revealing.
** See a)marriage of : May 1778 Augustin Henry Cochin's daughter, Marie Henriette, 19years old, to Claude Joseph Gabrielle de Vaulx, father and mother of the bride present.(Viscount de Vaulx, +1809, Marshal of France)
see b) Napoleon/s acceptence in the school of war in 1784, while "Comte Saint Germain", who renovated and opened the school shortly before, was in control of France (to be verified lateron) .
HOWEVER:
Saint Germain's post 1784 actions (as Al.Serg. Stroganov -as discovered further down this thread) , the assasination of Paul I and Stroganov descendants military participation against N (russian campaign), indicate that their friendship did not last. Did Napoleon attack "Stroganov's" Russia? That's a good question for the historian of the future to answer!
*** The "parallel lifes" of all Saint Germain's aliases to Rousseau's have been studied in the meantime in detail (along with the "other similarities" -mainly between the works of "La Dixmerie" and Rousseau and the common talents of Cocchi/Gluck/Chastellux and Rousseau): Yourstruly hesitates to phrase his attrocious conclusion at this stage!
Everything is possible with music!
Two hundred years after his loss, it is perhaps time to say a few words to the memory of the man who, among others, also “managed” european music and, practically, all music masters of the second half of the 18th century!
As the lighter of other issues arising out of our revelation, music is our “next post” choice, the goal still being to persuade our readers of the soundness of our findings.
Gioachino Cocchi, an accomplished composer and stage manager already, Paris 1752, as “german Grimm”, started, with his “Le petit prophète de Boehmisch-Broda”, the “war of the buffoons” favouring italian Music to Rameau’s and, shortly before his appointment to the French Ministry of War(as Claude Louis comte de Saint Germain) concluded the next debate, “gluckists vs piccininists”, favouring his old friend , the “bohemian” Gluck, as “Chastellux” (a name first used by him in Vienna. See Metastasio’s letter to chevalier de Chastellux, 15 July 1756 :
“Your Highness ... I have made every effort to restore music to its true role of serving the poetry by means of its powers of expression...” )
...by not just anonymously translating to French Algarotti’s “Essai sur l’Opera”, published in Paris 1773, but also by translating and performing by Mme d’Epinay’s at La Chevrette and at Mme Genlis’s theatre in Chaussee d”Antin, Gluck’s Iphigénie en Aulide (1774) and propably “…en Tauride” as well (1776).
Gluck, Vienna’s court maestro before -and with many visits to London-a friend of J.C.Bach-who replaced Cocchi in London, around 1754-certainly knew him well and so did propably Rousseau (who did enjoy Gluck’s Paris performances as above at the time, a mystery today for music researchers, how he, “their" choice for buffonist leader, deviated from his earlier beliefs!)
....and...
....shortly before his trip (as Chastellux) to America, 1778, his hosting (as “Grimm” living with Mme d’Epinay then) of Mozart junior to Paris, their intended cooperation gone sour because of Mozart’s youth and singularity of character and his host’s “other duties” and personal problems all accumulating then. Yet we have as a result Mozart’s precious correspondence to his father providing us with details of our hero’s life at the time.
He knew**- and was of the same age with-Gluck (and Rousseau too and who is to say who the real composer of his "Devin" was) from their common stay in Naples and Venice, was propably impressed by and attacked him ironically as the “petit prophet from Bohemia"*-see note below- in 1752 but his choice for “Melchior Grimm” certainly came from a book:
“Der abenteuerliche Simplicissimus Teutsch, d.h. die Beschreibung des Lebens eines seltsamen Vaganten, genannt Melchior Sternfels von Fuchsheim” ....the greatest German novel of the 17th century by Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen.
His main task was indeed grim from then on and that's why Cocchi stopped producing opera pieces soon thereafter!
But, as stated, music has been the least of our concerns: The past few days the “parallel lifes” of “Chastellux”, “Grimm” and Cocchi have been examined in detail via his evergrowing timeline (some 80 pages A4 by now) and as it turns out, our multifaced hero’s cv is in fact so “dense”, so full, so important, fundamental and fascinating, as to distract the coolest of researchers.
It was therefore with great difficulty yourstruly could supress his emotions, keep his wits together and then dare separate relevant music personalities from others, even greater in their fields (political, philosophical, military).
Such must-and do-go, in real life, together but then, if this job, to keep them apart, is taken from our dear scholars, what would they do to earn a living?
Note *In 1752 Gluck was in Naples, where he had been called to compose an opera for the Teatro San Carlo. Although it was not originally intended for him, the libretto he decided to set was Metastasio’s La clemenza di Tito (copypasted from the web). 1750-51 Cocchi staged his operas in Venice and Metastasio was closely linked to him and family!
Note ** Following completion of this thread, yourstruly has realised that "Christoph Willibald Gluck" is, most propably,yet another persona of Cocchi, something that can easily be verified by those who have access to the text of "Le petit prophet" and enough interest in classical music (enough to call Romain Rolland-among others- a liar!). Among other relative evidence also see: Vitt-Maucher, Gisela. "E. T. A. Hoffmanns "Ritter Gluck" und E. A. Poe's "The Man of the Crowd": Eine Gegenuberstellung," The German Quarterly, 43 (1970), 35-46.
addendum to note**: In the meantime part of Le petite Prophete (first published 1744) has appeared online (Music & Culture in Eighteenth-century Europe by Enrico Fubini, Bonnie J. Blackburn, Wolfgang Freis, Lisa Gasbarrone, Michael Louis etc-THANKS). The text confirms imo that "Gluck" IS young Cocchi (aka Grimm, Chastellux, Dixmerie, Rousseau etc) and IS Saint Germain (a demonstration of tremendous self confidence and unlimited "Bourbon support" at the time)!!!
Next: Two minor discrepancies discovered in Cocchi’s timeline.
Two minor discrepancies discovered in Gioachino Cocchi’s timeline.
In short:
Our hero’s task, from 1752 to 1784, was not just to manage,control and censor muses, literary arts and sciences (alongside with cousin Charles Nicholas Cochin responsible for the secondary arts):
His main duty was what one would call today “Ministry of Culture” or in those Days “Propaganda fide”: To promote France’s interests worldwide.
Many worked for him but he also personaly undertook “frontline” assignments such as his travels to Russia and America.
He worked as a double agent within France as well: Monmorency,where “Epinay sur Seine” and La Chevrette are located, was Duc d’Orleans territory.
He lived in constant danger consequently and had to use multiple identities, had to lie, had to use other people’s identities when needed and, occasionally, have others appear propably as “Saint Germain”.
He was a planner, a stage manager, a protagonist, an actor, a liar…
….BUT….
He (as Grimm, Chastellux or Saint Germain) NEVER(*note) once mentioned the family name, in any form, in his (their) works, he NEVER revealed the family secret!
In his later years he himself tried to “correct” parts of his “other lifes” realising that “Chastellux” and “Grimm” at least would be scrutinised by historians and his main “lie” would leak, he therefore collected and send to his trusted friend Catherine not just her correspondence to him but Voltaire’s library, including her letters to Voltaire, Galiani’s, Diderot’s archives and anything else of relevance propably as well.
His correspondence to Mme d’Epinay is lost, what she, and other “salonieres” published , he controlled to begin with.
Rousseau’s “Confessions”-see JJRousseau's indicatory wiki bio: The work was "partly published", 1782, after Mme d'Epinay "stopped" him writing. "Grimm" was , understandably, absent(!)-remind the reader too much of their comic opera to be taken seriously historically!
On top of all that: His literary work was subsequent censored, modified and falsified by his eager biographers, friends and foes alike, the former to protect the Bourbons, the others to diminish him.
As such very little written on (or by) him is “dependable”.
Having double checked his “pile of piles” of a timeline, the following two “minor discrepancies” -only(!)-were found concerning his trips to Russia (late 1774-mid 1775) and America (1780-1782 as per his book), ie his two most important foreign diplomatic assignments by far.
A.With regard to the latter (first discrepancy):
He did not arrive to America with Rochambeau’s force-as often written-but later on in the year: He is registered present in his seigneury Epinay sur Orge on 17/06/1780 (at http://g.alhinc.free.fr/Epinay/Annees/1780) accompanied by his wife “Germain Marie Louise Elisabeth(F), reside a Paris, epouse du Parrain” ....
.....to be then welcomed by Rochambeau ….
...September 20, 1780 (Wednesday) Rochambeau and Chastellux made a round trip through Bolton during the trip to the Hartford Conference. They stayed at the White Tavern on Hutchinson Road, now Andover. (Bib 1 note 17 on pg. 25)
Back in France, his place (at Epinay sur Orge) is taken by a cousin of his “Cochin Henry” Conseiller d’etat seigneur d’epinay, (2/09/1780 ), who later declares himself as Cochin Henry avocat -garde archives de Lorraine**.
This happens 18/8/1782 at the funeral of his (Cochin-Cocchi-Chastellux's etc) daughter Marie Henriette’s (23 ans), also witnessed by Lambert Jean Philippe conseiller dy roi but not by either parent of unfortunate Marie!
As such, data of the Epinay sur Orge registry (site online) are trustworthy, something to remember while examining the second “discrepancy” in next post.
*Note: highly indicative that Chastellux even ommits astronomer Cassini from his books.
** Definitely another person, despite the name likeness: A branch of the family did live in Lorraine and was indeed in control of the Lorraine archive whereas our heroe's duties are registered (in same site) differently (councelor of the King, intendant of finances etc).
Turning Pb into Au and v.v.
Part 1
The closing question of last post, dear reader, kept me (“yourstruly”tires me) in meditation the last couple of days:
Not that I was for one moment unsure on the correctness of my findings and relevant statements made- the mind always knows better than the pen-but imagine what my virtual “scholarly opponent” would have made out of my hero’s “last discrepancy” at his Epinay (sur Orge) precious register!!
He falsified it and, like the historian he was, left his mark behind.
There is a clear message in the words he selected:
Grospost, Scholastique,Ballon,defferant:
No matter how the words are reordered, the message is
this is a gross lie, an empty message created out of neccessity by someone who cares for the detail,….
In addition:
Munitionaire des vivres:
An official position in French military, guardian of live munition (gun powder, explosives), “varatario” in Italian, the word already mentioned in “Poe Announcement”, a post held in Hydra by his cousin, Lazarus Cocchini*(Note below).
See also: p42 “Documents Illustrative of the Canadian Constitution” (Article 23, The capitulation of Montreal)!
rue des 4 fils :
Housing today the “fonds” of the pre-Revolutionary Academy of Art:
(Fonds de l'acadιmie : Archives nationals (rue des 4 fils).
http://byc.ch/hga/ressources.html it propably housed the Academy itself back then!
Thus his message should now read as above plus …. an artist at war
At the time he was all of that and more (In following part 2)
*Note: Not just Hydra: Recent research indicates that "Saint Germain" (under an alias-initials P.S.K.- still existing in Russia, hence not to be revealed) was captain of the guards of Saint Petersburg, 1774-5, and owned a house in the ammunition yard next to Catherine's Palace
"Avaunt! avaunt! from fiends below, the indignant ghost is riven…"
The glory of a nation and an age is always the work of a few great persons, and it dissappears with them .....
.....wrote Cocchi-“Grimm”, allegedly from Gotha-Weishaupt’s last refuge-to then conclude...
....My writing will kill me!
Following his wishes to the letter, French historians, including- even headed by-his French cousins, decided to assist him vanish, killing and burying him along with their national pride and self respect,after loosing what he had accomplished for France.
Two centuries from his death, it’s not just the hired scholars we saw “researching” him indefinitely, it’s the others too, those particular “willing individuals” driven by the very same “dark forces”, his enemies, that continue the big lie, calling him names, a “charlatan comte de Saint Germain” who “sided with Weishaupt’s Illuminati and Cagliostro”!
Thanks to the web, this will end and he will be reinstated...
…from grief and groan, to a golden throne, beside the King of Heaven!
Afterall he did side with Rome as well in 1775!
…to a golden throne, beside the King of Heaven…
…possibly, but perhaps not: Who knows what’s on the other side?
He never pretended he did know, he remained to the end a sceptic …and an enlightened monarchist as well!
His last years were spent in great wealth, among art treasures he had ammased throughout his life, in his Palace in Saint Petersburg and died in full years, 1811.
Count Alexander Sergeievitch Stroganoff, Cocchi-Saint Germain’s last alias!
(To be sufficiently documented in next)
