Did you know?

For most of his adult life Boswell was better known for his "Account of Corsica", which lead to the sobriquet Corsica Boswell, than for his friendship with Dr. Johnson.

Biographies

James Boswell mentioned thousands of people in his extensive journals and other writings. Read about an ever increasing number of those people, and about their relationship with Boswell, in our biographies section.

Literature

In our literature section you can read about the numerous books published by Boswell in his own lifetime, and about more than 40 other books about or related to Boswell published since his death in 1795.

Carl von Quanten

Carl Jakob von Quanten

Born Jul 11, 1734
Died Dec 25, 1789

Biography:

Swedish noble and military officer. Son of Frederik von Quanten and Elisabeth von Waalwijk. Married to Charlotte Magdalena von Scheiding, with whom he had six children.

Von Quanten's father died when Carl was nine, and Carl became a page at the court of the King of Sweden. From 1756 to 1759 he was in the military service of France, in 1759 he was a cornet in the Scanian cavalry regiment, in 1760 was promoted to the rank of Captain before in 1763 he became first major and later lieutenant-colonel in the service of the Brunswick horse guards. He returned to French service in 1771 from where he resigned in 1773.

In 1769 the publisher Johann Julius Hummel published six flute sonatas composed by von Quanten, and in 1773 was published "Tanker I Krigs-Wetenskapen", one of the first Swedish books on military science.

In 1778 Quanten established the entail of Quanteburg in the Swedish province of Dalsland.1

Life with Boswell:

Boswell met "Quanten, a Swede, an officer in the service of Brunswick" who "was kind enough to entertain [him] with some music this morning" on August 17, 1764 in Brunswick. The Swede also told Boswell about several of Boswell's kin, whose ancestors had emigrated to Sweden in the 17th century. Boswell described Quanten as follows:

"He plays delightfully on the German flute, and composes very well in a singular taste, with quick transitions from high to low notes, very hard to play. He paints too. He is a lively, genteel, brisk young man. He brought to my mind many ideas of healthy, accomplished foreign officers."

Notes:

Note 1: Sources include http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Jacob_von_Quanten