L’ARISTOCRATE CHEZ LE SAGE
THE ARISTOCRATE VISITING THE INTELECTUAL

Summary/Abstract: The visite of the Aristocrate at the Wise. On the 6th of March, 1761 count József Teleki together with Duvoisin the protestant priest from the Dutch embassy visited the renowned writer in Montmorency. The starting point of their meeting was the Hungarian count’s apologetic book, Essai sur la foiblesse des Esprits forts (Amsterdam, 1761). Rousseau doesn’t mention the count’s name in his Confessions, but the correspondence between Teleki and Duvoisin and Teleki’s Hungarian diary (printed only in the 20th century) hold important information regarding the contemporary fame of the citoyen de Genève and his lifestyle and home in Montmorency. The study points out that the Hungarian count’s mentality was shaped significantly by the (in the period not so unique) « visite », which on Rousseau’s account was only another manifestation of the mental pilgrimage that came towards him.

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