Algarotti, Francesco (Algaro`tti, Francesco) , a clever Italian author, born at Venice, whom, for his wit, Frederick the Great was attached to and patronised, “one of the first beaux esprits of the age,” according to Wilhelmina, Frederick's sister. Except his wit, it does not appear Frederick got much good out of him, for the want of the due practical faculty, all the faculty he had having evaporated in talk (1712-1764).
Definition taken from The Nuttall Encyclopædia, edited by the Reverend James Wood (1907)
Algar`di * Algar`ve