Wolfradine-Auguste-Luise von Minutoli

Minutoli, Wolfradine-Auguste-Luise von (baroness) née Gräfin von der Schulenburg, previously Von Watzdorff, 1794—1868

by Benjamin Colbert

Wolfradine Auguste Luise von Minutoli, née Gräfin von der Schulenburg (1794-1868) was the daughter of Adolph Friedrich Werner Graf von der Schulenburg (1759-1825) and Wolfradine von der Schulenburg, née von Kampen (1773-94).

Her first husband, baron Von Watzdorff (d. 1815), was killed in the battle of Waterloo. In 1820, she married at Triest a Swiss Savoyard general in the Prussian army, Heinrich Menu von Minutoli (1772-1846). Soon after they embarked on a two-year scientific expedition to Egypt under Prussian royal patronage. After parting company with her husband in Alexandria, Wolfradine von Minutoli returned to Germany late in 1821; his travels ended sometime in 1822.

Her husband subsequently published an account of his travels focused on the descriptions, measurements, and history of the antiquities he encountered (Reise zum Temple des Jupiter Ammon in der libyschen Wüste und nach Ober Aegypten [1825]; Wolfradine von Minutoli, no less an Egyptologist, chose a more personal register and wrote in French, for her a second language, but one that allowed her book to be published in Paris and reach a wider audience. The 1826 French edition was corrected and edited by Désiré Raoul-Rochette; Susette Harriet Lloyd translated it into English in 1827; and at last a German edition appeared in 1829.

Sources:

Deutsche Biographie. Bavarian Academy of Sciences. Web. 21 Dec. 2017.

Lieber, Francis, ed. Encyclopaedia Americana. New ed. Vol. 8. Philadelphia, 1840. Print.

Stamm, Ulrike. ‘A German Expedition to Egypt in 1821: Between Scientific Endeavor and Literary Vivification’. European Romantic Review 28.1 (2017): 65-80. Print.

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