Baron Karl von Moll to Thomas Jefferson, 22 July 1812
From Baron Karl von Moll
Munic. ce 22 Juillet, 1812.
La société agronomique de la Bavière s’occupe du perfectionnement de l’agriculture pratique du Royaume & de celui des arts et metiers avec les quels celle-ci a des rapports plus immediats. Elle s’est fait un principe de suivre un plan différent de celui adopté par les sociétés savantes, et en consequence elle n’admet ni membres etrangers ni correspondants.
Elle croit cependant pouvoir, sans déroger à ses principes, accorder les sentimens patriotiques, qui l’animent avec l’hommage dû aux hommes qui se livrent chez l’étranger, d’une maniere distinguée a la theorie ou à la pratique de l’art agricole; et elle se plait à voir figurer dans ses annales des noms illustres & rèvérés dans l’histoire de l’agriculture. Les travaux agricoles et les heureux résultats, que vous avéz obtenu n’etant ignorés de notre société et les membres, qui la composent, se faisant un devoir de reconnoitre publiquement les services importants, que Votre Excellence à rendu au plus utile des arts, vous prient d’un voeu unanime d’accepter le diplome ci-joint, et se flattent de posséder Monsieur Jefferson comme membre honoraire.
Dans les pièces ci-jointes Votre Excellence trouvera les Statuts, et l’Etat actuel de la société. La purete de ses vues, le zèle et le desintéressement, avec le quel elle marche à son but, sauront gagner votre approbation. Elle croira recêvoir des gages bien précieux de cette approbation, si Votre Excellence daigne lui communiquer de tems en tems quelques uns des résultats importans obtenus dans le cours de vos travaux. Votre activité et l’esprit d’observation, dont Vous êtes doué, joints à votre savoir profond, et aux circonstances favorables ou Vous Vous trouvés, produisent chaque jour de nouvelles conceptions et de nouvelles découvertes.
Je ne suis que l’Organe de la Société, en vous exprimant ces sentimens, pour moi en particulier je me trouve heureux de pouvoir dans cette occasion, vous temoigner le profond respect, avec le quel j’ai l’honneur d’être,
le Baron de Moll.
Editors’ Translation
Munich. 22 July 1812
The Agricultural Society of Bavaria is involved in perfecting the practical agriculture of the kingdom and improving the arts and crafts with which the society is most immediately concerned. Its organizing principle is different from that adopted by learned societies, and consequently it accepts neither foreign members nor correspondents.
However, the society believes that it can, without departing from its principles, reconcile the patriotic sentiments that motivate it with the homage due to men who devote themselves abroad, in a distinguished manner, to the theory or practice of the art of agriculture; and it would please the society to see in its annals some illustrious names that are revered in the history of agriculture. The agricultural work you have done, and the happy results you have obtained, are not unknown to our society and its members, and they find it their duty to recognize publicly the important services Your Excellency has rendered to the most useful of the arts, and unanimously wish you to accept the enclosed diploma, and they congratulate themselves on being able to have Mr. Jefferson as an honorary member.
In the enclosed papers Your Excellency will find the statutes and the current condition of the society. The purity of its vision and the zeal and disinterestedness with which it strives toward its goal will gain your approbation. The society will believe that it is receiving very precious tokens of that approbation, should Your Excellency be kind enough to communicate to it from time to time some of the important results obtained in the course of your work. Your activity and the observing mind with which you are gifted, joined to your profound knowledge and the favorable circumstances in which you find yourself, produce new concepts and new discoveries every day.
While I am only the society’s mouthpiece in expressing these sentiments, on this occasion I am also happy to attest for myself to the profound respect with which I have the honor to be,
Baron de Moll.
RC (MHi); dateline adjacent to closing; in a clerk’s hand, signed by Moll; at head of text in clerk’s hand: “A Son Excellence Monsieur Jefferson le Baron de Moll, conseiller privé de S. M. le Roi de Bavière Secretaire de l’Academie des sciences pour la classe des sciences mathematiques et physiques & de la société agronomique de Bavière”; endorsed by TJ as received 26 June 1814 and so recorded in SJL. Translation by Dr. Genevieve Moene. Membership diploma printed below; other enclosures not found.
Baron Karl Marie Ehrenbert von Moll (1760–1838), mineralogist and public official, was born in Thalgau, near Salzburg, and attended the Kremsmünster Knights’ Academy before receiving a law degree from the University of Salzburg in 1780. He collaborated with Franz de Paula von Schrank on a work of natural history, Naturhistorische Briefe über Österreich, Salzburg, Passau und Berchtesgaden, 2 vols. (Salzburg, 1785). Moll was appointed finance minister of the Salzburg province about 1790, and the following year he became the director of the salt, mint, and mining office in Salzburg, where he instituted important reforms. Four years later he was elected to the German Leopoldine Academy of Sciences. In 1797 Moll established an influential mineralogical and geological journal, the Jahrbuch für Berg- und Hüttenkunde, which he published (with variant titles) until 1826. In 1800 he became a privy counsellor for the archbishop of Salzburg, and he subsequently sat on the state government council, 1801–03. The following year Moll moved to Munich, where he was was secretary of the mathematical and physical section of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, 1807–32. He amassed a large collection of botanical and mineral specimens and a library of some eighty thousand volumes. Moll published his autobiography and correspondence in four volumes, 1829–35, and died in Augsburg (Walther Killy and Rudolf Vierhaus, eds., Deutsche Biographische Enzyklopädie [1995–2003], 7:190; Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie [1875–1912], 22:111–5).
The Agricultural Society of Bavaria was founded in 1810 and remained active throughout the nineteenth century (Stefanie Harrecker, Der Landwirtschaftliche Verein in Bayern, 1810–1870/71 [2006]).
Index Entries
- Agricultural Society of Bavaria; membership conferred on TJ search
- French language; letters in, from; K. von Moll search
- Moll, Karl Marie Ehrenbert von, baron; and Agricultural Society of Bavaria search
- Moll, Karl Marie Ehrenbert von, baron; identified search
- Moll, Karl Marie Ehrenbert von, baron; letters from search