Partly autograph draft of a section of Siècle de Louis XIV

Identifiers

CMV:

CMV32831

Repository:

Shelfmark:

MS 15 (B), ‘Siècle de Louis XIV’

Title:

Partly autograph draft of a section of Siècle de Louis XIV

Collection(s):

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Content

People:

Voltaire: Editor

Incipit Diplomatic:

[deleted: Cette] L’affaire du Quietisme si malheureusement importante sous Louis 14 aujourd’hui si méprisée et si oubliée perdit a la cour [deleted: fut la cause du malheur du] Le Cardinal de Bouillon.

Incipit Modernised:

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In Own Hand:

Brief Summary:

Partly autograph draft of a passage at OCV, vol.13D, ch.38, p.144-148, l.344-439.

Detailed Summary:

An alternate version of MS 15 (A). Voltaire writes that Quietism removed Cardinal de Bouillon from the court. He was the nephew of Turenne, to whom Voltaire notes that the king owed his salvation in the civil war. United by friendship with the Archbishop of Cambrai and charged with the king’s orders against him, he sought to reconcile his two duties and bring the two parties to conciliation. An Italian priest named Giori was a spy with the opposite faction and worked his way into Cardinal de Bouillon’s confidence, asking him for a thousand crowns which, after he had obtained them, he disappeared with. The letters between Giori and the Cardinal, Voltaire writes, were the Cardinal’s downfall at court, though he suggests that the Cardinal was punished wrongly. His letters show that he had conducted himself with wisdom and dignity, and that he had obeyed the orders of the king in condemning the mystics, whom Voltaire describes as the alchemists of religion. The king wrote a letter of reproach to Cardinal de Bouillon on 16 March 1699. After the rise of Telemachus in Europe, however, the Cardinal was recalled to court by the king but on the way he learned of the death of the Dean of the Sacred College in Rome and so instead took up the role instead. This embittered the king who exiled the Cardinal for ten years. The Cardinal left France forever in 1710 at a time of great instability for Louis XIV and resigned from his position as the Grand Chaplain of France.

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Physical Description

Material(s):

Extent:

2 ff.

Format:

Dimensions:

290 x 200 mm

Hands:

3

Watermark:

The paper is watermarked with a crown and bell. Also included in the watermark is the date 174[?]2.

Countermark:

Binding:

Additional Comments:

The leaves feature a faint horizontal fold mark. There is a small tear in the upper right-hand corner of p.4 and the lower left-hand corner of p.6. P.6 also features a small hole in the middle of the right-hand side next to an area of discolouration suggesting that this manuscript was once included in a bound collection.

Materiality Keywords:

Decorations:

Undecorated

Additions:

Revisions to Wagnière’s copy have been made throughout by Voltaire including crossings out and marginal notes. A third hand has added the title ‘Siecle de Louis XIV’ in the left-hand margin of p.4 and the note ‘de sa main’ in the left-hand margin of p.7.

Marginalia Keywords:

Inclusions:

A sheet of paper containing notes about the content and provenance of MSS 15 (A) and 15 (B) in an unknown modern hand written in blue and red ink. The notes misattribute the text to ch.28 of the Siècle de Louis XIV, rather than ch.38.

History

Date:

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Bibliography

Bibliography:

J. Vidal-Mégret, Collection d’autographes littéraires, lettres et manuscrits des XVIIe, XVIIIe, XIXe et XXe siècles. 2ème partie. Catalogue de la vente aux enchères du 26 février 1969 à l’Hôtel Drouot (Paris, 1969), no.156 (9).

OCV Reference:

OCV Manuscript Reference: