Frédéric-Melchior Grimm

(b Regensburg, 25 Dec 1723; d Gotha, 19 Dec 1807). German critic. He worked as a diplomat in Paris from 1749. Influenced by the Encyclopedists, he favoured the use of the Italian style in French operas (especially those of Rameau); in the Querelle des Bouffons of the 1750s he rejected all French music in favour of Rousseau, writing the satirical tract Le petit prophète de Boehmischbroda (1753) and other works. He was a friend to the visiting Mozart family, 1763-4 and 1778.

Grimm, Frédéric-Melchior, baron de (1723-1807). German man of letters who made his career in France. He was a close friend of Diderot, and the lover of Madame d'Épinay, whose part he took in her quarrel with his former friend Jean-Jacques Rousseau; Rousseau paints a black picture of him in the Confessions. In the Guerre des Bouffons, he defended the Italian cause in a pamphlet, Le Petit Prophète de Bœhmischbroda (1753). He then effectively cultivated patrons throughout Europe; it was for them that he composed the journal for which he is best remembered, the Correspondance littéraire. At the Revolution he went into exile.

[Peter France]