Rudolf Erich Raspe improbable", but wrote: "... the reader may be assured that this part of the narrative is founded on a fact of actual occurrence." Rudolf Erich Raspe Rudolf Erich Raspe (March 1736 – 16 November 1794) was a German librarian, writer, and scientist, called by his biographer John Patrick Carswell a "rogue". He is best known for his collection of tall tales, "" also known as "Baron Munchausen's Narrative of his Marvellous Travels and Campaigns in Russia", originally a satirical work with political aims. Raspe was born in Hanover, and baptised on 28 March 1736. He studied law and jurisprudence at
Rudolf Erich Raspe history of art. The Trewhiddle Ingot, found in 2003, is a 150-year-old lump of tungsten found at Trewhiddle Farm. This may predate the earliest known smelting of the metal (which requires extremely high temperatures) and has led to speculation that it may have been produced during a visit by Raspe to Happy-Union mine (at nearby Pentewan) in the late eighteenth century. Raspe was also a chemist with a particular interest in tungsten. Memories of his ingenuity remained to the middle of the 19th century. While in Cornwall, he seems to have written the original version of Munchausen; whether he also