Algarotti e Federico il Grande: un doppio omaggio in versi

In the summer of 1739, Francesco Algarotti returned from St. Petersburg where he had been a member of an English delegation charged with representing the King George II at the wedding celebrations of the crown prince of Russia. At Rheinsberg he met Frederick of Hohenzollern, soon to become King of Prussia, and immediately wrote an epistle in verse to celebrate his magnificence and humanity. Through appropriate comparison between this first unpublished draft and its derivative (printed in 1755), and another laudatory later poem whose detached tone reflects the disappointments that led the author to spend a long time away from his patron, the article investigates the complexity of his relations with Frederick, noting that, following a clear Horatian line, Algarotti wrote a persuasive Oratio based on the principle that sovereignty can be recognized by the poet-philosopher only when he knows that support is guaranteed for letters and the arts.