Ludwig Heinrich Freiherr von Nicolay (Russian: Андре́й Льво́вич Никола́и, romanized: Andrey Lvovich Nikolai; 25 December 1737, in Strasbourg – 18 November [O.S. 6 November] 1820, in Monrepos north of Vyborg) was a poet and scholar of the Enlightenment who spent much of his career in the service of the Russian imperial court. He served as president of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences between 1798 and 1803, and is remembered as the creator of the Monrepos landscape park near Vyborg and the founder of a significant library of Enlightenment literature, now held at the National Library of Finland in Helsinki.
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Life
Nicolay was the son of a Strasbourg archivist, Ludwig Christian Nicolai, and Sofia Katarina Faber. He graduated from the University of Strasbourg with a degree in law. Prince Dmitry Golitsyn, the Russian ambassador in Vienna, employed Nicolay as his secretary after they met in Paris, where Nicolay came to know Voltaire, Diderot, d'Alembert and other leading intellectuals of the Enlightenment.
In 1769 Nicolay was invited to Saint Petersburg to serve as tutor to the future Emperor Paul I of Russia. He went on to serve the grand ducal court in several capacities – as librarian, cabinet secretary and financial administrator – and later as secretary to Paul's consorts Natalia Alexeievna and Maria Feodorovna. In 1776 he married Johanna Margareta Poggenpohl. In 1782 Nicolay was ennobled by Joseph II at Paul's request. When Paul became emperor in 1796, he appointed Nicolay a state councillor and member of the imperial cabinet; the title of baron followed in 1797. He served as president of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences from 15 April 1798 to 2 June 1803.