Demetrius Alekseyevich Gallitzin

Dmitri Alexeyevich Golitsyn, Russian Дмитрий Алексеевич Голицын, also Galitzine, ( born May 15, 1734 St. Petersburg, † March 17, 1803 in Braunschweig) was a Russian diplomat and mineralogist and author of the Princely House Galitzine.

1754 to 1768 he was at the Russian Embassy in Paris (from 1763 under Catherine II Messenger ), where he became a supporter of the French Enlightenment Denis Diderot and Voltaire, and he was with Voltaire and Diderot also friends. He bought in Paris and paintings for the collection of the Russian Empress and supervised in Paris, the pensioners of the Russian Academy. From 1768, he was ambassador in The Hague. He lived alternately in The Hague and Münster. Most recently, he lived in Brunswick and was also a member of the Leopoldina since 1795.

Many of his historical and scientific treatises were printed in The Hague.

He also collected minerals and described in 1787 as first Spessartin (after a Fund in Aschaffenburg ). He was a member of the Mineralogical firm in Jena.

He was since 1768 with Adelheid Amalie Schmettau that was previously at the Berlin court, married. On December 7, 1769 their daughter, Marianne, was called Mimi, was born. Her son Demetrius Augustine Gallitzin came in 1770 to the world. Since 1775, the couple lived apart.

Writings

• Lettre sur quelques objets d' Electricite, The Hague 1778 ( Russian Sankt Petersburg 1778)
• Defense de Buffon, The Hague 1793
• De l' homme, de ses facultes intellectuelles et de son education, The Hague 1772
• Histoire de la guerre entre la Russie et la Turquie, et particulierement de la campagne de 1769, Amsterdam 1773