CMV: CMV34120

Letter from Voltaire to François de Chennevières, written in the hand of Jean-Louis Wagnière from Les Délices and dated 5 May [1760] [D8891]

On 5 May 1760, Voltaire dictated a very moving letter to François de Chennevières to his secretary Jean-Louis Wagnière at Les Délices. Though unsigned, the letter is a deeply personal one in which Voltaire says that his heart bleeds with the news that the Duc de Bourgogne is near death, and that the Duc de Berry is afflicted with the same illness. Indeed, he goes on to say that he does not want to believe that the news is true because it is too distressing.
This extraordinarily emotional letter represents a more sombre moment in Voltaire’s life. Towards the end of the letter, he notes that he has been reading Spartacus, a work leant to him by Saurin. Recalling the emotion of the letter’s opening, he states that it is not a touching work, but that it nevertheless contains some beautiful moments. Emotion and feeling, then, were very much at the forefront of Voltaire’s mind at this time.
This manuscript copy of the letter is no less extraordinary than its contents. It was to our great surprise when locating materials to include in CMV that we came across the letter in the library of Waseda University, Japan. With the kind assistance of Rumi Kitahara and colleagues at the Library, we were able to identify the letter as D8891 and we are grateful to them for their help in this regard. The manuscript appears to have passed at the Rauch sale in Geneva on 29 April 1957 (Lot. 45) and later entered the collections of Mrs Sugiura Toshiko (Yoshiko) who donated it to Waseda University in December 1999.

CMV: CMV34120