Alfred von Reumont was a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 scholar and diplomat

Diplomat

A diplomat is a person appointed by a state to conduct diplomacy with another state or international organization. The main functions of diplomats revolve around the representation and protection of the interests and nationals of the sending state, as well as the promotion of information and...

ist.

Biography

He was the son of Gerhard Reumont (1765-1829), and named Alfred after the English king Alfred the Great

Alfred the Great

Alfred the Great was King of Wessex from 871 to 899.Alfred is noted for his defence of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of southern England against the Vikings, becoming the only English monarch still to be accorded the epithet "the Great". Alfred was the first King of the West Saxons to style himself...

. Educated at the universities of Bonn

University of Bonn

The University of Bonn is a public research university located in Bonn, Germany. Founded in its present form in 1818, as the linear successor of earlier academic institutions, the University of Bonn is today one of the leading universities in Germany. The University of Bonn offers a large number...

 and Heidelberg, he obtained a position in Florence through the influence of an Englishman, William Craufurd, but soon he entered the Prussian diplomatic service and was employed in Florence

Florence

Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....

, in Constantinople

Constantinople

Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...

 and in Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

. He also spent some time in the Foreign Office in Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

. From 1851 to 1860 he represented his country in Florence. Reumont was the friend and adviser of Frederick William IV

Frederick William IV of Prussia

|align=right|Upon his accession, he toned down the reactionary policies enacted by his father, easing press censorship and promising to enact a constitution at some point, but he refused to enact a popular legislative assembly, preferring to work with the aristocracy through "united committees" of...

. In 1879 he founded the Aachener Geschichtsverein, and having spent his concluding years at Bonn

Bonn

Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....

 and at Aix-la-Chapelle, he died in the latter city on 27 April 1887.

Works

Reumont's numerous writings deal mainly with Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, in which country he passed many years of his life. On the history of Florence and of Tuscany

Tuscany

Tuscany is a region in Italy. It has an area of about 23,000 square kilometres and a population of about 3.75 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence ....

 he wrote Tavole cronologiche e sincrone della storia fiorentina (1841; Supplement, 1875); Geschichte Toscanas seit dem Ende des florentinischen Freistaats (History of Toscany since the end of the Florentine freestate, Gotha, 1876-77); and a work on Lorenzo de' Medici

Lorenzo de' Medici

Lorenzo de' Medici was an Italian statesman and de facto ruler of the Florentine Republic during the Italian Renaissance. Known as Lorenzo the Magnificent by contemporary Florentines, he was a diplomat, politician and patron of scholars, artists and poets...

 (Leipzig, 1874, and again 1883). This last book has been translated into English by R Harrison (1876). He remembered his connection with Florence when he wrote Römische Briefe von einem Florentiner (Roman letters from a Florentine, Leipzig, 1840-44), and his residence in Rome was also responsible for his Geschichte der Stadt Rom (3 vols., 1867-70).

Turning his attention to the history of Naples, he wrote Die Carafa von Maddaloni Neapel unter spanischer Herrschaft (1851; Eng. trans., 1854), and more general works on Italian history are: Beiträge zur italienischen Geschichte (6 vols., Berlin, 1853-57), and Charakterbilder aus der neueren Geschichte Italiens (1886).

More strictly biographical in their nature are: Die Jugend Caterinas de' Medici (Youth of Catherine de' Medici

Catherine de' Medici

Catherine de' Medici was an Italian noblewoman who was Queen consort of France from 1547 until 1559, as the wife of King Henry II of France....

, 1854), which has been translated into French by A. Baschet (1866); Die Gräfin von Albany (1860) and a life of his close friend Capponi

Gino Capponi

Marquis Gino Capponi was an Italian statesman and historian.The Capponi family is one of the most illustrious Florentine houses, and is mentioned as early as 1250; it acquired great wealth as a mercantile and banking firm, and many of its members distinguished themselves in the service of the...

, Gino Capponi, ein Zeit- und Lebensbild (Life and Times of Gino Capponi, Gotha, 1880). His Ganganelli: Papst Clemens XIV., seine Briefe und seine Zeit (Ganganelli: Pope Clement XIV, his letters and times, Berlin, 1847) is valuable for the relations between this pope and the Jesuits.

Other works which may be mentioned are Zeitgenossen, Biografien und Charakteristichen (Berlin, 1862); Bibliografia dei lavori pubblicati in Germania sulla storia d'Italia (Berlin, 1863); Biographische Denkblätter nach personlichen Erinnerungen (Biographical memorials from personal memories, Leipzig, 1878); and Saggi di storia e letteratura (Florence, 1880). Reumont's other important work, one which he was peculiarly fitted to write, was his Aus Friedrich Wilhelms IV. gesunden und kranken Tagen (From Frederick William IV's healthy and sick days, Leipzig, 1885).