GRIMM, FREDERICH MELcurou, Baron, an eminent critic of the last c., who, during his long residence in Paris, was on terms of intimacy with the most celebrated personages of the dav,• was b. at Regensburg, Dec. 25, 1723. Having completed his studies, he accompanied the young count de Sch6nberg to the university at Leipsic, and afterwards to Paris. Here he became reader to the crown-prince of Saxe-Gotha, but the situation proved more honorable than remunerative, and Grimm was in very straitened circumstances when he became acquainted with Rousseau. The latter intro duced him to Diderot. baron Holbach, Madame d'Epinay, and other persons distin• visited by birth and talents, and he soon became a general favorite. His connection with the encyclopmdists (q.v.), and his multifarious acquirements and versatility of mind soon opened to him a brilliant career. He became secretary to the duke of Orleans, and now began to write his literary bulletins for several German princes, contain ing the ablest analysis of all the most important French works. In the composition of
these notices, he is believed to have been assisted by the Abbe. Raynal and Diderat. In 1776 he was raised by the duke of Gotha to the rank of baron, and appointed minister plenipotentiary at the French court. On the breaking out of the revolution, he with drew to Gotha, and in 1795 thy empress of Russia appointed him her minister-pleni potentiary at Hamburg, a post which he retained till ill-health obliged him to relinquish it lie returned to Gotha, where he died Dec. 19, 1807. IIis Correvondance Litterairc, Philosophique et Critique, was published after his death in 16 vols. A supplement to this is the Correspondance inedite de Grimm et _Diderot (Paris, 1829). It contains a com plete history of French literature from 1753 to 1790, and is remarkable for its brilliant and piquant criticism.