Digital Voltaire project
- INTRODUCTION
- COLLECTIONS
- PROJECT DOCUMENTS
Voltaire life documents
In keeping with Electronic Enlightenment's determination to enrich and enhance content found in its collections of correspondence, we are adding “life documents” to its outstanding collection of Voltaire materials, including biographical information, a detailed chronology, images and personal documents.
We very pleased to be able to begin with “Voltaire and the Enlightenment”, an extended biographical note by Professor Nicholas E. Cronk, Director of the Voltaire Foundation, Oxford.
Read an excerpt from this biographical text (subscribers can see the full text).
Voltaire works / œuvres
To date, the collection consists of:
- 1st tranche (published 2010) — "Onziéme lettre: Sur l’insertion de la petite vérole", Lettres philosophiques by Voltaire, c. 1730; along with a translation from French into English.
Read excerpts from this collection.
Digital correspondence of Voltaire
— Tranche 2 (published October 2012)
Our second update to our Voltaire project adds over 140 translated Voltaire letters, these letters were selected and translated by Theodore Besterman in the 1960's and published in Select Letters of Voltaire: translated into English. Ed. Theodore Besterman. Trans. Theodore Besterman. London & Edinburgh: Thomas Nelson & Sons, 1963. This select set of Voltaire's letters attempts to give the reader a view of some of the aspects of Voltaires life and activities where he addresses a wide variety of correspondents including monarchs, publishers, and actresses. Voltaire's intellect and personality are clearly demonstrated in this representative selection.
Read excerpts from this collection.
— Tranche 1 (published November 2011)
The Digital Voltaire project marks the beginning of an ambitous collaboration with the Voltaire Foundation, University of Oxford, publishing here exclusively the first ever revision of Theodore Besterman’s monumental edition of Voltaire’s Correspondence and related documents (1968–1977). We launch the project by honouring Paul LeClerc (scholar and librarian) on his retirement from the New York Public Library, where he served so remarkably as President & CEO.
Making full use of the opportunities of web-publication, this new edition will be supplemented by a range of associated resources including high-quality images of original manuscripts, chronologies, house-hold accounts, concordances and topic-mapping, geographical resources and associated works. We begin the project with publication of 14 previously unpublished letters, as well as new information and annotations on over 30 more letters, making significant revisions to all previous editions. We also include high-quality images of all relevant Voltaire letters at the New York Public Library and the Morgan Library and Museum.
