Johann Heinrich Samuel Formey

Johann Heinrich Samuel Formey (31 May 1711 – 7 March 1797) was a German author who wrote in French. Besides his activities as a journalist or editor, he contributed to the French Encyclopédie. He was born and died in Berlin.

Formey was born in Berlin, Brandenburg, as the son of immigrant Huguenots. His mother died when he was three years old, and Samuel was brought up by two of his aunts. He was educated for the ministry, and at the age of twenty became pastor of the French Protestant church at Brandenburg. Having in 1736 accepted the invitation of a congregation in Berlin, he was in the following year chosen professor of rhetoric in the Collège Français there, and in 1739 professor of philosophy. His pupils included Louis de Beausobre, who was to become a philosopher and political economist of some standing in his own right.

On the reorganization of the Academy of Berlin in 1744, during Frederick the Great's reign, Formey was named a member, and in 1748 its perpetual secretary. The language between the scientists of the Academy, Latin, was changed into French. In 1750 he was appointed as a member of the Royal Society.

Between 1741 and 1753, successive publishers in The Hague brought out the six volumes of Formey's La bell Wolfienne, which was his effort to explain the philosophy of Christian Wolff to women. This series began as a popularization of Wolff's philosophy in the form of a philosophical romance, but by the end of the 4th volume, Formey abandoned fiction for a paraphrase and abridgement of Wolff's metaphysical works. These books made Wolff more known in France.

Formey wrote during his life more than 17.000 letters, and corresponded several years with Francesco Algarotti, who in 1737 had published a book on Newtonianism for ladies. L'Anti-Sans-Souci, où la folie des Nouveaux philosophes (1760), which denied Frederick's authorship of the Oeuvres and stressed the king's piety is attributed to Formey, who did write the preface.

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