Friedrich Melchior, Baron von Grimm

Friedrich Melchior, Baron von Grimm was a German-born French-language journalist, art critic, diplomat and contributor to the Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers. In 1765 Grimm wrote Poème lyrique, an influential article for the Encyclopédie on lyric and opera librettos. Like Christoph Willibald Gluck and Ranieri de' Calzabigi, Grimm became interested in opera reform. According to Martin Fontius, a German literary theorist, "sooner or later a book entitled The Aesthetic Ideas of Grimm will have to be written."

26 December 1723

Born on the same birth day (26 December): Ceylan Ertem • Craig Wing • Dermot Murnaghan • John Page (planter) • John Severin • Karel Rüütli • Mao Zedong • Marius Canard • Mark Starr • Pablo Canavosio • Phil Spector • Ragnhild Kaarbø • René Bazin • Richard Mayes

Born in the same month (December 1723): Carl Friedrich Abel