Johann Heinrich Samuel Formey

A founding member of the Berlin Academy, he wrote thousands of letters, popularized scientific and philosophical ideas, and also contributed to Diderot's Encyclopédie.

He was educated for the ministry, and at the age of twenty became pastor of the French Protestant church at Brandenburg.

On the reorganisation of the Academy of Berlin in 1744, during Frederick the Great's reign, Formey was named a member, and in 1748 its perpetual secretary.

Between 1741 and 1753, successive publishers in The Hague brought out the six volumes of Formey's La belle Wolfienne, which was his effort to explain the philosophy of Christian Wolff to women.

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[4] is attributed to Formey, who did write the preface.