Named in memory of Friedrich Melchior Baron von Grimm (1723–1807). After studying at the University of Leipzig he went to France, as delegate of the young Prince of Saxe-Gotha. There he became associated with writers of the Encyclopédie such as Rousseau, Voltaire and dálembert {see, respectively, planets  (2950),  (5676) and  (5956)}, but especially with Diderot {see planet  (5351)}, for whom he felt great affection. The 17 volumes of his Correspondance littéraire, philosophique et critique, published a few years after his death, show that no eighteenth-century foreigner in France has known the country, its people and its language better than him. This correspondence, characterized by a dry and skeptical philosophy, remains an inexhaustible mine of anecdotes and judgements on men and their works. (M 27332) _ _.