Biography

Giovanni Federico Corsica. (-) (aka. Johann Friedrich Corsica)

Sometime restaurateur. In 1764 he founded a garden restaurant in the Tiergarten in Berlin. (Link)

According to GT1, quoting the diary of Count E. A. H. Lehndorff, "A burgher of Berlin by the name of Corsica has bought the garden of Oemcken the bankrupt [in the Tiergarten], and serves supper there for all comers with great neatness of table-furnishing and china. All the people of superior rank go, and the rich burghers as well." The garden and restaurant was still operated by Corsica in 1785, when the publisher and bookseller Friedrich Nicolai is reported to have celebrated his silver wedding there.

I have been unable to find any further information on Corsica, although I've come across August C. Casino Corsica (b. 1760) and Ernestine Elisabeth Corsica (b. 1751), both born in Berlin. They are in all likelyhood close relatives (children?) of the restaurateur mentioned by Boswell.

Obviously, this Corsica had absolutely nothing to do with Boswell's later interest in the island of that name.

Life with James Boswell:

On July 26, 1764, Boswell went with F. L. Kircheisen and C. F. Hübner to "the Garden of Corsica, a kind of little Vauxhall, and indeed a very little one. We supped and drank cherry wine, which I found delicious."

This article was last updated at December 15 2007 23:58:35 CET

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