Le Sottisier

Identifiers

CMV:

LE-SOTTISIER

Repository:

National Library of Russia, Voltaire Library, National Library of Russia

Shelfmark:

5-240 (V, f.1-134r), ‘Le Sottisier’

Title:

Le Sottisier

Collection(s):

Link to Archive Catalogue:

Link to Digital Resource:

OCLC Number:

Reproductions:

Content

People:

Voltaire: Author

Jean-Louis Wagnière: Annotator

Unknown: Copyist

Incipit Diplomatic:

Si on prouve par des anachronismes des plus marqués que Moïse n’a point écrit la Genèse, si l’on démontre qu’il n’est point non plus l’auteur de l’Exode, du Lévitique, des Nombres, du Deutéronome, il est sûr qu’on doit moins de foi à des histoires dont on n’a pas d’auteur contemporain.

Incipit Modernised:

Language(s):

French

In Own Hand:

Partly

Brief Summary:

The manuscript is an autograph notebook titled Le Sottisier.

Detailed Summary:

This notebook formed part of the papers acquired from Mme Denis by Catherine II.

The manuscript was assembled in its present form by Wagnière, and the title is written in Wagnière’s hand.

This group of notebooks bound together contains several notebooks, whose precise number is difficult to ascertain, in which Voltaire wrote over many years. Besterman suggest a date range of 1735 to 1750 (OCV 81, p.29), which is probably roughly correct.

There are two items in this assemble that are copied in an unknown hand. The first is vers libertine (44r-44v), and the second is an extract from a Manuscrit Philosophique Clandestin (97r-102r), which Voltaire has titled Extraits de Maillet. T.D. Betserman indicates that this is in the hand of Colligny (p.420), but this is mistaken. Below is the beginning of this text:

Keyword(s):

Genre(s):

Notebook

Status:

Annotated, Autograph

Physical Description

Material(s):

Ink on paper

Extent:

Format:

Folio

Dimensions:

Hands:

Watermark:

Countermark:

Binding:

The manuscript is bound with other documents in contemporary red morocco.

Additional Comments:

Materiality Keywords:

Decorations:

Additions:

Marginalia Keywords:

Annotation

Inclusions:

History

Date:

1735-1760

Ownership:

After Voltaire’s death, the MS passed into the ownership of Catherine II and remained in the imperial and then national collection thereafter.

Origin (transcript):

Origin:

Provenance:

This MS was probably taken to St Petersburg by Wagnière in the summer of 1779 along with the rest of Voltaire’s library.

Bibliography

Bibliography:

Fernand Caussy, Inventaire des manuscrits de la bibliothèque de Voltaire conservée à la bibliothèque impériale publique de Saint-Pétersbourg (Geneva, Slatkine reprints, 1970), p.22-23.

OCV Reference:

81 I – 82 II, p.208-466

OCV Manuscript Reference:

81 I, p.27-9