Six Degrees....

[selenak]

On a lighter note: in ye olde 1990s, there used to be this party game, which became a stage play: "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon". Meaning you could connect anyone in the world to Kevin Bacon in six steps, maximum.

Well, after one year of 18th century source reading with my comrades in armys mildred_of_midgard and cahn, I have concluded that the Age of Enlightenment equivalent clearly is "Six Degrees of Francesco Algarotti". Meaning not only that you can connect anyone to Francesco Algarotti in six steps, maximum, but some of these steps probably include people who have had sex with Algarotti, or tried to habe sex with Algarotti, or wrote about other people having sex with Algarotti.

If you don't know who Francesco Algarotti was, never mind. A year ago, neither did I. But believe me: six steps. Maximum. Try me. (Or the above mentioned ladies.)

Comments

[mildred_of_midgard]

Ooh, I bet selenak, who knows one million times more about Byron than I do, will be all over this. The best I can come up with is 3 degrees, with tenuous links:

Byron -> Goethe -> Prince Henry of Prussia -> Algarotti

Googling tells me Goethe corresponded just enough with Byron that I'm going to count it unless selenak knows otherwise. That's useful, because it brings us 4 decades back. (Byron was born 24 years after Algarotti died.)

Goethe never met Frederick (fanboyed him from afar and visited his palace while he was away, walked through his bedroom and listened to his dogs bark), but he did meet Frederick's brother Henry. (Or at least, so I gather from a selenak write-up. If not, then we have to add one extra link for Goethe's BFF and Heinrich's great-nephew Carl August.)

I assume Henry must have known Algarotti, during the several years Algarotti spent as Frederick's chamberlain. selenak, in one of her wonderful fics, adopted my speculation that Henry (canonically gay) and Algarotti (canonically bi, maybe with a preference for men?), with their strong sex drives, had sex with each other. After recently discovering just how *much* Algarotti got around, we decided that was even more plausible than we'd originally thought!

At any rate, if Henry and Algarotti somehow managed to avoid meeting each other directly during all those years, which would surprise me, you can easily get a fourth link from all their mutual acquaintances, of whom Frederick is only the most obvious.

selenak, you are hereby challenged to come up with fewer and/or stronger links!

[selenak]

Goethe did correspond with Byron but never met him in person, alas. However, I could come up with a stronger link, see below!

[mildred_of_midgard]

Yeah, that's what the internet was telling me and why I figured you could come up with a better connection, which you did. Well done!