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Presentation copy of ‘La Pucelle d’Orleans’, written in the hand of Wagnière and dating to c.1742

What could be more fitting for National Poetry Month, than a presentation copy of one of Voltaire’s most contentious poetic works: La Pucelle d’Orleans. This satirical and irreverent retelling of the story of Joan of Arc was banned (and at times burned) over the two centuries that followed its publication, representing perhaps the most expressive criticism of superstition in his œuvre. The poem exists in two versions: a widely distributed, early pirated copy of 1752 that was made significantly more ribald by its unauthorised editors, and a later authorised edition of 1762 in which Voltaire toned things down somewhat.

Prior to these print editions, however, were a series of manuscript copies, carefully penned by Voltaire’s secretary Jean-Louis Wagnière and distributed to the author’s closest friends. To the great surprise of the editors of CMV, one such copy eventually made its way to South Africa, where it survives today in the University of Cape Town’s library collection. Though the poem dates to 1737, watermarks found within the MS date this copy to 1742 or later. It contains 15 cantos, is a quarto volume and is bound in red morocco accompanied by a matching slip case. Throughout the manuscript, Voltaire has added notes expanding on, or elucidating, the text and a later owner, Guillaume-Chrétien de Lamoignon de Malesherbes, possibly Voltaire’s intended recipient of the work, has loosely inserted a list of corrections and/or additions to be made to the manuscript into the volume.

From Malesherbes (1720-1794), this manuscript passed into the ownership of Mathieu Guillaume Thérèse Villenave (1762-1846). Quite how it later made its way to South Africa, however, remains a mystery!

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