A Significant Enlightenment Text Fallen between the Cracks of Editorial History

The majority of the articles in these four volumes were composed between 1769 and 1771 and first appeared between 1770 and 1772 as nine octavo volumes, published by Cramer in Geneva under the title Questions sur l’Encyclopédie, par des amateurs. The full title suggests, just as the introduction confirms, that “Quelques gens de lettres qui ont étudié l’Encyclopédie, ne proposent ici que des questions, et ne demandent que des éclaircissements” (II, 3). It is fair to say that the Questions would not have appeared without the Encyclopédie, a work that is praised in the highest terms in Voltaire’s introduction. In 1769 the Parisian printer Panckoucke proposed a new, extended edition of Diderot and D’Alembert’s monumental work, with which Voltaire had agreed to collaborate. In preparation for this project, the philosophe of Ferney recruited collaborators of his own, among them the lawyers Bertrand, Christin, and Moultou, but the new edition was abandoned. With a series of articles already prepared, Voltaire set about increasing their number in order to produce this work, with the modest ambition to “présenter aux amateurs de la littérature un essai de quelques articles omis dans le grand dictionnaire, ou qui peuvent souffrir quelques additions, ou qui ayant été insérés par des mains étrangères, n’ont pas été traités selon les vues des directeurs de cette entreprise immense” (II, 11).

The idiosyncratic nature of the first article, “A,” is characteristic of Voltaire’s approach in the volumes of this work. The article begins with praise for César Du Marsais, who had composed the article “A” in the Encyclopédie, then turns to praising those in France’s history who had encouraged literary talent from positions of power (Colbert and Fouquet). This passage includes a veiled reference to Choiseul’s support of Voltaire before the former minister had broken off all correspondence with him following the philosophe’s support for Chancellor Maupeou’s reform of the parlements. We see from the variants (which conveniently appear on the same page as the text and footnotes) that this reference was made explicit in a later edition and in Voltaire’s correspondence (D16241, in response to D’Alembert, who criticized this digression). Voltaire then moves from the personal to the pedantic, proposing spelling reform, specifically the substitution of a for o in words such as français, anglais, and in the imperfect tense, il employait, so that these words will better represent the way they are pronounced. The range of topics covered in this review mirrors the variety of this work as a whole, which is vast and escapes easy categorization or synthesis, including as it does articles on literature, religion, law, history, philosophy, and natural sciences. Just like the scholarly model from which it drew inspiration, it is encyclopedic, but decidedly less systematic; it is at times arbitrary, and yet coherent inasmuch as it could be viewed as the culmination of a lifetime of criticism, questioning, and doubt. All of this is served to the reader with doses of humor.

In contrast, the critical apparatus and footnotes in this definitive edition of the Questions are a paragon of scholarly precision. Each volume begins with an abridged list of manuscripts and editions of the work (and their locations) to which the variants refer, with a complete description of all...