A Brill Calendar: January 2

The Age of Voltaire

Few literary indications of an era are as widely used as the ‘Age of Voltaire’ for the 18th century.

There are several reasons for the common-place; a basic one is the fact that Francois Marie Arouet, as he was born in 1694, lived to be an octogenarian and that his life-time kept in step with an European ‘regime’ designated ‘ancien’ after 1789; (to be translated as ‘former’ rather than ‘old’). Not only that; right from the beginnings of his fame, from June 12 1718 to be precise, Arouet called himself ‘Voltaire’. But now for the best reason: it is hard to think of aspects of European life and culture, science and philosophy, art and economy, politics and manners that can’t be linked to Voltaire; and, what is more, quite naturally too. Then as well now.

Take Holland, for instance; a country he came to know quite well, visiting it frequently. Printers & publishers keen on exporting books, slip-shod censorship and international orientation were all grist to Voltaire’s mill. One early visit brought him for a short ‘séjour’ to Leyden, where he was still present, on January 2 1737; not yet celebrated as a fully-fledged European ‘monstre sacré’.

The English founder and former director of the ‘Institut et Musée Voltaire’, Theodore Besterman, the eminent historian and scholar residing in Voltaire’s own home - ‘Les Délices’, Geneva - wrote in the biography of the man (3rd edition, revised and enlarged, Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 1969 – ’76, p. 245): ‘The visit to the Netherlands had been an escape from persecution at home, but it was not in Voltaire’s nature to miss so useful an occasion to learn from the able men of science who lived at Leyden and Amsterdam, in particular ‘s-Gravesande. Yet even this pleasure was troubled by the hatred of Rousseau and Desfontaines, who spread the rumour that the purpose of these discussions was to advocate atheism.’

It is seldom, that the early spirit of the age – and Voltaire’s position in it – were so concisely worded.