Frédéric Soret (12 May 1795 in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

– 18 December 1865 at

Plainpalais Plainpalais is a neighbourhood in Geneva, Switzerland, and a former Municipalities of the canton of Geneva, municipality of the Canton of Geneva. It is mentioned in Mary Shelley's ''Frankenstein''. Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges' ashes are ...

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

) was a

Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...

private scholar in

physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...

and Oriental

numismatics Numismatics is the study or collection of currency, including coins, tokens, paper money, medals, and related objects. Specialists, known as numismatists, are often characterized as students or collectors of coins, but the discipline also inclu ...

Biography

The Soret family originates from

. Frédéric Soret was born in

, where his father served as artist at the imperial court. In his youth the family returned to Geneva. There he studied physics. Between 1822 and 1836 Frédéric Soret served as princely tutor in the Grand Dukedome of

Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach () was a German state, created as a duchy in 1809 by the merger of the Ernestine duchies of Saxe-Weimar and Saxe-Eisenach, which had been in personal union since 1741. It was raised to a grand duchy in 1815 by resolutio ...

. He took care for the education of the later Grand Duke Carl Alexander, a son of the Maria Pavlovna and heir apparent. During his time in Weimar, he was a close acquaintance to

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on Western literature, literary, Polit ...

. Soret translated several of Goethe's books about natural sciences into French. After Soret's return to Geneva in 1836, he turned his attention to Islamic numismatics. The initial interest might have aroused by a coin hoard of the 9th century containing North-African

dirham The dirham, dirhem or drahm is a unit of currency and of mass. It is the name of the currencies of Moroccan dirham, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates dirham, United Arab Emirates and Armenian dram, Armenia, and is the name of a currency subdivisi ...

s of the

caliphate A caliphate ( ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with Khalifa, the title of caliph (; , ), a person considered a political–religious successor to the Islamic prophet Muhammad and a leader of ...

. This hoard was found near the close by town of Steckborn in the

Thurgau Thurgau (; ; ; ), anglicized as Thurgovia, and formally as the Canton of Thurgau, is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. It is composed of five districts. Its capital is Frauenfeld. Thurgau is part of Eastern Switzerland. I ...

. He built up the greatest private collection of Oriental coins of his time, comprising about 5,000 coins. He became one of the most prolific and outstanding private scholars of Islamic numismatics. Due to his old ties to Saxe-Weimar and Eisenach he became a close friend to Johann Gustav Stickel, another founding father of Islamic numismatics. After the death of F. Soret 1865 Johann Gustav Stickel arranged the acquisition of the famous Soret collection by the Grand Ducal house. It entered then the

Oriental Coin Cabinet Jena Oriental Coin Cabinet Jena () is a collection of oriental coins at Jena University, in Jena, Germany, founded in 1840. History In 1840, Johann Gustav Stickel, Professor for Oriental languages at Jena University, succeeded in convincing the Gr ...

References

* Favre, Édouard: Les Études Orientales à la Société d'Histoire et d'Archéologie de Genève 1838-1894, Geneve 1894 (Bibliography of F.S.). * Gosse, Louis André: bituary In: Rapport sur les travaux de la Société de Physique et d'Histoire Naturelle de Genève depuis Juillet 1865 a Juin 1866, Geneve 1866, pp. 21-26. * K ehne Bernhard von : Die Soret'sche Sammlung. In: Berliner Blätter für Münz-, Siegel- und Wappenkunde 4 (1868), pp. 88-91. * Heidemann, Stefan: Bibliothek des Großherzoglichen Orientalischen Münzkabinetts. In: Friedhilde Krause (general ed..) - Felicitas Marwinski (ed.): Handbuch der Historischen Buchbestände in Deutschland 20, Thüringen H-R, Hildesheim, Zürich, New York, pp. 162-163. (about his numismatic library). * Heidemann, Stefan: Maria Pawlowna und der Umbruch in der Orientalistik - Die Gründung des Großherzoglichen Orientalischen Münzkabinetts. In: Joachim Berger - Joachim von Puttkamer (edd.): Von Petersburg nach Weimar. Kulturelle Transfers von 1800 bis 1860 (Jenaer Beiträge zur Geschichte 9), Frankfurt a/M 2006, S. 221-259. * Wahl, Julius: Soret, Friedrich Jacob. In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie 34, Leipzig, pp. 692f.

References to his relation to Goethe and the court in Weimar

* Burkhardt, Carl August Hugo (ed.): Goethes Unterhaltungen mit Fr. Soret, Weimar 1905. * Hazard, Paul (ed.): Frédéric Soret, Un Genevois a la cour de Weimar. Journal inédit de Frédéric Soret (1795–1865), Paris 1932. * Houben, Hans Heinrich (tr. and ed.): Frédéric Soret, Zehn Jahre bei Goethe. Erinnerungen an Weimars klassische Zeit. Aus Sorets handschriftlichem Nachlaß, seinen Tage-büchern und seinem Briefwechsel, Leipzig 1929. * Uhde, Hermann (ed.): Goethe's Briefe an Soret, Stuttgart 1877.

External links

About the collection of F.S. (German)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Soret, Frederic 1795 births 1865 deaths Emigrants from the Russian Empire Swiss numismatists Scientists from Saint Petersburg Swiss orientalists Swiss Protestants