the ocular harpsichord of louis-bertrand castel - Gewina

Castel's ocular harpsichord 31
Apparently Maillebois had offered to pay for the manufacture of the harpsichord.
Castel had received some financial assistance earlier: according to the
anonymous leaflet Explanation of the ocular harpsichord the duke of Huescar,
the Spanish ambassador, had offered him 1000 crowns in 1735, but somewhat
later Castel "refused being at the head of a company, who came to offer him ten
thousand crowns to be the chief director of it, on communicating his secret and
ideas, and obtaining an exclusive patent".^ The same source says that Maillebois
furnished 2000 ecus, or 85 louis d'or, for the instrument.^' According to
the "Journal", Castel had told Maillebois he needed 100 louis d'or. In a desperate
begging-letter to the wife of Maillebois, a draft of which has been preserved with
the "Journal", Castel wrote that he had indeed received some of the promised
sum, but that it added up to no more than 20 of the needed 100 louis. It took
him some time to come to the point, but finally he admitted: "Let me tell you
quite frankly. I need 15 louis immediately to avoid going bankrupt for my
harpsichord, that is to say, for my honour, and perhaps for [the honour of] M. le
Comte."''^ If the sum of 85 louis d'or is indeed what Maillebois spent, the
instrument cost in 1751-1752 alone several year's wages of a skilled worker in
Paris.
What becomes most clear from the "Journal" was that Castel felt he had
fallen into a trap, and filled with rancour he blamed his readers, his "public", for
this: "After this time [1735] my feet indeed slipped from underneath me: I was
led to believe that I wanted to make, and little by little that I was making the
harpsichord ... The public has taken it too seriously."^' All that was left of
Ca.stel was an old man sitting between the remnants of his models, none of
which was capable of coming anywhere near VNhat he had had in mind for the
performance of his instrument; there was nothing left for him but to "adjust and
readjust the debris of my harpsichord to the taste of the pubHc".^ From a
report he gives of a demonstration it becomes clear how completely his con-
' Explanation, pp. 7, 10.
' In fact, the gift is ascribed to the Marquis de Maillebois, Marshall of France and father of
the Comte de Maillebois, "some years after" 1735 {Explanaiion. p. 7). My suspicion is that this is a
mistake, mixing up father and son, as there is no reference at all in the "Journal" to anything
Maillebois' father might have done for the harpsichord. To be sure, Castel had discussed matters
from the art of war with the Marquis de Maillebois.
Brussels, Royal Library zMbert I, manuscript collection nr. 20754, f. 28r-29r; "Laisscs moi
vous le dire franchement. il me faudroit tout a I'heure 15 Louis pour ne pas faire banqueroute a
mon clavecin, c'est a dire a mon honncur, et peut etre a m^ le comte."
Ibid., ff. 22r resp. 3A-: "Apres cc tems il est vrai que le pied me glissa: on me fit accroire que
je voulois faire et peu a peu que je faisois le clavecin. ... le Public au bout a fait trop d'honneur a
mon affaire, il I'a pris trop au serieuse".
Ibid., f. 19v: "j'ajuste et je rajuste desormais les debris de mon clavecin au gout public."