The Count of St. Germain has been variously described as a courtier, adventurer, charlatan, inventor, alchemist, pianist, violinist and an amateur composer. Contemporaries referred to him (often ironically) as 'the Wonderman'. His name has occasionally caused him to be confused with Claude Louis, Comte de Saint-Germain, a noted French general, and Robert-Francois Quesnay de Saint Germain, an active occultist.