“Die deutsche Grammatica ... von Charmyntes” (Berlin, 1713): Creation, Author and Readers

Received: 13.09.2020. Accepted: 26.05.2021 Copyright © 2021 Natalia V. Kareva, Evgeny G. Pivovarov. Published by Vilnius University Press. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.


Introduction. Few extant copies
The first printed German language grammar created for Russians "Die deutsche Grammatica, Aus Unterschiedenen Autoribus zusammen gebracht / Und Der in Deutschland Studierenden Rußischen Nation zum besten / In einem Compendio herausgegeben von Charmyntes" [Charmyntes 1713] was published in Berlin, in 1713. The book's overall print run and circulation aerial have not been specified. Little is known about the audience of "Die deutsche Grammatica" within the kingdom and beyond its borders.
Only a few copies of the book have survived: two -in St. Petersburg, and one -in Rostock [Glück, Pörzgen 2009, 164]. 1 An item from the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin was lost during the war [Ibid.]. We may only guess, how and when it was brought there, but acquisition reasoning is quite obvious, -the Royal Library was storing an edition, published in the capital of the country. A Brandenburg historian and educator Georg Gottfried Küster owned one more copy [Küster 1777, 115], but its fate remains unclear.
The duplicate from the Universitätsbibliothek Rostock could have been purchased after Duke Karl Leopold of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Catherine Ivanovna's marriage in 1716. The Duke allied his wife's uncle, and the Duchy was occupied by Russian troops. Peter I dreamt of using its ports for regular trans-Baltic trade. So, the oldest university of the region might wish to have "Die deutsche Grammatica" on its book shelves.
A prima facie question is -how and when did two other editions arrive to Saint Petersburg? Regrettably, the variant from the Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences has been severely exposed to fire in 1988. The "Chamber catalog" evidences, that the manual came to Russia before 1742 [Bibl. Imp. Petr. 1742, 233, 246].
The item from the Russian National Library is especially remarkable, because unlike its twins it contains translations of the original text into Russian. The notes were made on the blank sheets, and woven into the book. The flyleaf also keeps French and Russian minutes. Different handwritings and inks are clearly distinguished even nowadays. Their masters tried to create Russian variants of Latin terms: e. g. pomoshchnyye glagoly for Verbi Auxiliares [Charmyntes 1713, 41;Kareva, Pivovarov 2019, 42]. The term pomoshchnyye glagoly was also used by Johann Werner Paus in his "Manuductio ad linguam Germanicam sive Teutonicam in commodum juventutis Slavono Rossicae studio" (1706) 2 . Supposingly, it appeared within early oral school tradition, cultivated in the "German school" in Moscow.
The book's masters neither used Russian parlance, introduced in Lomonosov's "Russian Grammar" (1757), nor analogues of German terms, proposed by Martin Schwanwitz and Wassili Jewdokimowitsch Adodurow in 1730 and 1734 editions of "Die Teutsche Grammatica". Therefore, we may guess, that the book had been read in the 1720s. The volume was damaged by the water. The owner's red pencil inscription on the first page cannot be deciphered. According to the "Register for books, maps, plans, notes, prints and manuscripts recording" 3 , it was donated to the Imperial Public Library by Nikolai Fyodorovich Findeizen in 1893. Ergo, he was just the last proprietor of the copy.

Alleged Charmyntes
The issue circumstances of "Die deutsche Grammatica" are still rather obscure. The foreword was signed by two initials "S. C.", while the title page specified, that the book "was compiled from different authors" for "Russian students in Germany" by "Charmyntes", an odd and quite unexpected pseudonym to hide behind. There have been few assumptions about the authorship [Kareva, Pivovarov 2020, 490-492]. In the mid-18 th century, Elias Caspar Reichard noted, that the anonymous compiler was "Juncker, a chamber councilor, who, in his youth, studied at Schulpforta with experienced teachers" 4 . Some later scholars shared his assumption [Adelung 1787[Adelung , 2346Holzman, Bohatta 1903, 263]. Though Reichard indicated only the surname, title and education, such data pointed to Gottlob Friedrich Wilhelm Juncker (1703-1746), a gifted poet who came to Saint-Petersburg in 1731 and soon was appointed to the Academy of Sciences [Alekseeva 2002, 19]. If we were to assume, that he was Charmyntes, the book would have been created by a ten-year-old child. This version seems dubious.
His origin -his grandfather was his first teacher of Greek, and education -protestant pastors had to be familiar with Biblical tongues and Holy landscapes, predetermined his entire career. Later, during his fruitful Berlin period, Frisch's understanding of antiquity was ubiquitously acknowledged.
He authored, compiled or reissued a number of popular volumes. Only few "Latin" titles were among them: "Grammatica Marchica" [Frisch 1718], widespread in Europe and Russia, and "Teutsch-Lateinisches Wörter-Buch" [Frisch 1741], fruit of his perennial, Leibnitz-inspired efforts. Frisch's numerous books about Greek, French and Slavic languages were popular and regularly republished.
Charmyntes was also aware of various grammar traditions; he lavishly illustrated the text with hybrid borrowings and elaborate allegories. Even, excogitating his nom de plume, he might thus refer to a fragment from "Etymologiae sive Origines libri XX", in which Isidore of Seville wrote about the nymph Carmenta, having introduced Latin letters to Italy 7 . Constructing a male analogue of her name, he changed gender endings, e.g. in "Die deutsche Grammatica": "Johannes, Johanna, Philippus, Phillipina <…> Carolus, Charlotta" [Сharmyntes 1713, 11], hinting what his work would mean for Russia.
Frisch's life-lasting passion for Nature was inspired by his professor of mathematics -Erhard Weigel, an "intellectual forefather of a long tradition of mathematicians and mathematical physicists" 8 , emphatically beginning with Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz. Besides philological surveys, he left behind impressive entomological, ornithological and parasitological treatises, and, in addition, was engaged in silk and "Berliner Blau" manufacturing [Kraft 2018]. His Leopoldina "akademischer Beiname" Vegetius [Büchner 1755, 497] also manifested his contemporaries' attitude to their comrade-in-arms -a certain polymath.
After university, Frisch earned his living, serving in French noble families, as a private teacher. It gradually became his professional credo: teaching students in order to learn their native tongues. On arriving back to his native city, he passed the required exams to become adjunct of a preacher. Howbeit, the restive clergyman did not stay long in Nuremberg. In 1691, he passed through Vienna and northern Hungary to Neusohl, today Banská Bystrica in central Slovakia. The local community did not support his harsh exhortation, and he left the town to become a translator for the royal corps, fighting against the Turks 9 . Getting through the Serbian territories, he might have learned the dalmatica lingua (see his book [Frisch, 1730]), and, only in 1693, he returned to Germany [Noak, Splett 2000, 146].
The spiritual quest of the author of "Die deutsche Grammatica" particularly affected the section "Wort = Fügung / Syntaxis". While several examples were typical everyday phrases for textbooks: e.g., "Ich bin deiner Gesundheit froh"; "Ich esse des Brods / und trincke des Weins" [Charmyntes 1713, 74, 87]. Five years later, Frisch started a new journey -to the Netherlands. According to his first biographer, J. J. Wippel, Frisch wanted to "understand the mindsets of the fanatics, chiliasts and people there, to whom rumor attributed the glory of the prophets" [Wippel 1744, 10]. In Amsterdam he got acquainted with Johann Georg Gichtel, the leader of a tiny mystic sect, the "Brethren of the Angels", participated in Quakers' worships [Noak, Splett 2000, 146]. Besides, he learnt about Quirinus Kuhlmann's legacy and fate, -he went to Moscow, and there was arrested for heresy and burned at the stake [Collis 2012, 1-5]. Public attention to the distant lands was evidently nourished by the "Grand Embassy". The Russian mission, led by Peter the Great, had recently left the country for England.
We omit Frisch's further wanderings and misadventures. Finally, he became a Berlin resident. The Kurfürst willingly welcomed variegated groups of religious dissidents, able to replenish his treasury. There, he was offered a position at the prestigious "Gymnasium to the Greyfriars Monastery" (Gymnasium zum Grauen Kloster) and gradually rose to its headmaster. Leibniz recommended him to the Royal Prussian Society of Sciences 10 . Finally, since the early 1730s, Frisch headed its historical-philological German division.

The "Moscowitischen Prinzen oder Knaesen"
Peter I's westernization plans implied quick reception of European culture by Russian aristocracy. While, predominantly, the "fathers" perceived it perfunctorily and outwardly, their heirs were continuously studying and living in Germany, France, England, or the Netherlands. The "Gymnasium to the Greyfriars Monastery" was soon incorporated in the network of different institutions, educating Russian "blue blood" youngsters. Later, most of his "Muscovites" archived top ranks in the newly-born Empire's hierarchy. Teaching German, Frisch simultaneously improved his skills in Slavic languages. In 1705, he supervised 11 two sons of puissant Gavriil Ivanovich Golovkin [Koch 2002, 219], the future first Russian grand-chancellor. The eldest son Ivan (1687-1734) became an ambassador to Holland, where he patronized Vasily Kirillovich Trediakovsky 12 . While the younger one, Alexander (1689-1760) was appointed a Russian assignee to several European courts, including the Prussian one. He was one of the first Russian dignitaries, married to a noble foreigner; and, moreover, finally, in The Hague, converted to Protestantism [Anisimov 2012, 67].
Perhaps, such desire began shaping under his Berlin teacher's personality. Their relationships were far closer and warmer than just mentor-pupil's ones. Together they translated into Russian John Amos Comenius's "Vestibulum linguae Latinae" 13 [Eichler 1967, 20]. Frisch was not going to print the book in Russian. He clearly intended to type the Cyrillic text, using Latin letters 14 .
In 1706, he began composing the German version of Peter Mohyła's "Great Catechism" [Noak, Splett 2000, 148]. Though "Liber Symbolicus Russorum" was published only twenty years later, it was dedicated to Alexander. The author stressed, -he owed his knowledge of Russian and Church Slavonic to the Golovkins. The foreword also indicated, that the youngest of them sent books to his teacher, e. g. a "trilingual lexicon" by Fedor Polikarpov-Orlov [Mohyła 1727, 12].
12 Trediakovsky was familiar with Frisch's works. In his "Conversation on Orthography", the first study of the phonetic structure of the Russian language, he contested some inferences from "Berlin Gymnasium Rector"'s books [Trediakovskij 1849: 18-24].
Newly published editions soon arrived to Saint Petersburg. In February of 1739, Schwanwitz, the Gymnasium Rector, ordered the dictionary from the Academy bookstore for his wards [MAN 1887, 18]. A copy of "Historiae linguae Sclavonicae" [Frisch 1730], having been used by Lomonosov, is still kept in the Rare Books Department of the Russian Academy of Sciences Library [Samarin 2011, 17-19]. Some of those items could be presented by the author to the scholars from Russia, visiting him. In his "History the Imperial Academy of Sciences <…>" Gerhard Friedrich Müller (1705Müller ( -1783, recalling his stay in Berlin in 1731, wrote: "I had to examine the rich birds' collection of so benevolent to me Rector <…> Frisch. It was one of Berlin landmarks, though mostly this collection contained only the birds of Prussia" [Müller 2006, 614].
Alexander Golovkin apparently fostered his mentor, introducing him to the Russian Upper class. On September 6, 1716, he informed Leibnitz about his meeting with the "tsar's sister" 15 and "princess Cherkasskaya" 16 . The letter acknowledges Frisch's constant contacts with Russia and shows how information about his investigations achieved the distant land: in Petersburg bekannt, und hoffe ich, durch diese gelegenheit eine quantität dahin zu bringen" [Fischer 1896, 47].
Three years later, the intrigued travelers visited him again and offered assistance in "delivering his things" to the Russian capital. The note, made on September 19, 1719, stated, that Frisch had not known Russian well enough to talk to them without an interpreter:  [Fischer 1896, 48].
General Anikita Ivanovich Repnin's children managed to show inevitable "ups and downs" of rapid and mandatory Europeanization. After Berlin, Vassili (1696-1748) and Yuriy (1701-1744) went on studying in Europe, but led such an "indecent life", that "Prince Anikita" begged the sovereign for "the great mercy, so that his children could be taken away and given to him for their debauchery" [Kovrigina 1998, 360]. The Repnins were not alone. Riotous and luxuriant behavior of the young Russians astonished Amsterdam, Paris, London, and other western capitals [Pavlenko 1985, 241-243].
Although, "S.C." clearly stated his initial desire to write a bilingual manual, the target could not be achieved. He hurried to accomplish the grammar, probably, anticipating the arrival of new "Knaesen", but faced the same problem, that had occurred with Frisch's translation of Comenius. By that time, Berlin had not possessed any printing facilities, holding Russian types. The nearest one was, as the author insisted, in Amsterdam. He meant Elias Kopijewitz and Jahn Tessing's enterprise, having been printing Cyrillic books in the Netherlands in the turn of two centuries 20 . For some reason, the scholar did not consider Halle [Koch 2002, 220], though its printing house with Russian letters was closer to Berlin 21 . The book was finally published without specifying the issuing typography.
Such anonymity again causes doubt. We do not know, who and why ordered and sponsored the book. We may only suggest, by mischance, without proving, a couple of hypotheses.
Both his new king's counselors and Russian "Berliners" avoided disclosing their covert negotiations during 1713, the year momentous for Prussian foreign affairs. Friedrich Wilhelm I was establishing allied relations with Peter I. The country gradually waded into the Great Northern War against Sweden. So, Charmyntes could not reveal his encouragers: Muscovite acquaintances or German patrons.