Voltaire - Recueil - 1769

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SCANDALS, TRIALS AND SECRETS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: THE “CAUSES AMUSANTES” IN A RARE RECUEL
Curious eighteenth-century collection that brings together texts devoted to famous judicial controversies, private disputes, and worldly affairs transformed into genuine entertainment literature. The core volume is Causes amusantes et connues, published in Berlin in 1769, a collection of memoirs and controversies capable of captivating the audience of the Ancien Régime. To the volume are linked two other texts: Lettres secrètes de Mr. de Voltaire, Geneva edition of 1765, and Dissertation sur les bonnes qualités de l’eau de la Barraquette, Toulouse 1769. An heterogeneous and fascinating ensemble, preserved in its elegant eighteenth-century full-leather binding with richly gilded toolings on the spine. The initial manuscript table of contents documents the intentional formation of the collection and greatly enhances its bibliographic and collecting interest.

WHY TO BUY
RECUEIL SETTECENTESCO – Three autonomous works gathered long ago in a single volume, following a collecting practice typical of the XVIIIth century, today particularly interesting for reconstructing tastes and readings of the era.
CAUSES CÉLÈBRES – The main text belongs to the fortunate vein of curious and scandalous legal cases, where law, journalism, custom and literature meet.
VOLTAIRE – Presence of Lettres secrètes de Mr. de Voltaire, evidence of the extraordinary editorial and clandestine circulation of writings attributed to or connected with the great figure of the Enlightenment.
LEGATURA E PROVENIENZA MATERIALE – Beautiful eighteenth-century full-leather binding with a richly gold-tooled spine and the manuscript table listing the texts contained in the volume.

MARKET VALUE
The value of this exemplar derives mainly from the composite nature of the recueil, from the presence of Lettres secrètes de Mr. de Voltaire, from the preservation of the eighteenth-century binding, and from the manuscript table that identifies the works originally gathered by the owner. For the complete volume of the three listed texts and in the conditions shown, a prudent antiquarian valuation can be placed roughly in the €450–600 range.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION AND CONDITION
Contemporary full brown mottled leather binding; spine with raised bands, compartments delineated by gilt fillets and adorned with characteristic large flower or rosette toolings impressed in gold; title on a spine label. Red-stained edges. At the beginning there is a seventeenth-century manuscript table listing the three texts. Pages with natural browning, foxing and sporadic stains; some signs of use and small imperfections compatible with age. Binding solid but with abrasions, wear to hinges, raised bands and corners and other signs of time. In old books with a centuries-long history, some imperfections may be present, not always noted in the description. This listing includes AI Visualizations. Refer to the original photographs to verify the object’s actual condition. The images are an integral part of the description. Pp. (2); 12; 216; 114; (2); 6; 2nn; 88; (2).

FULL TITLE AND AUTHOR
- Causes amusantes et connues.
Berlin, 1769.
- Lettres secrètes de Mr. de Voltaire.
Genève, 1765.
- Dissertation sur les bonnes qualités de l’eau de la Barraquette, pour l’usage des Bains.
Toulouse, de l’Imprimerie de Jean-Florent Baour, 1769.
François-Marie Arouet, universally known as Voltaire.

CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE
The volume constitutes an interesting example of an eighteenth-century fictitious collection: works published separately were bound together by the owner according to personal interests, thematic affinities, or simply the taste of one’s library. In this case the old owner arranged a manuscript table that indicates the start of the three texts, transforming the volume into a small personal collection perfectly organized. Particularly characteristic of eighteenth-century taste is Causes amusantes et connues. The title itself reveals the intention to present the world of justice not only as a technical matter but as a social spectacle: marital disputes, patrimonial conflicts, questions of honor, accusations and judicial memoirs could become readings able to captivate the public. In the photograph the “Mémoire pour François Brochard, Sieur de la Ribordière, Officier dans le Régiment Royal d’Artillerie, Accusé, contre M. le Comte de Nogent, Accusateur” appears, an eloquent example of the documentary nature and simultaneously narrative of the collection. The inclusion of Lettres secrètes de Mr. de Voltaire brings the recueil directly into the Enlightenment universe. In the eighteenth century authentic letters, unauthorized collections, attributed texts and publications presented as “secret” formed a highly attractive publishing genre, because they promised readers access to the private dimension of the Republic of Letters’ protagonists. The third text, devoted to properties of the Barraquette water and its use in baths, adds another element of interest tied to medicine, hydrology, and eighteenth-century spa culture. The result is therefore a bibliographic object far more interesting than the simple sum of the three publications: it is tangible testimony of how an eighteenth-century reader built and organized his/her library.

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR
François-Marie Arouet, universally known as Voltaire (1694–1778), was one of the absolute protagonists of European Enlightenment. Writer, philosopher, polemicist and playwright, he intervened in the major religious, philosophical, judicial and political controversies of his time. His vast correspondence constitutes an essential source for understanding the eighteenth-century République des Lettres. Precisely Voltaire’s enormous notoriety favored the proliferation of letter collections, unauthorized editions, forgeries and publications that exploited formats such as “lettres secrètes” to attract readers. The other works contained in this collection belong instead to genres in which author identification may be less immediate: judicial memoirs and medico-hydrological dissertations circulated frequently as occasional or anonymous publications.

PRINTING HISTORY AND CIRCULATION
The recueil presents three different places and dates of printing: Genève 1765 for Lettres secrètes de Mr. de Voltaire, Berlin 1769 for Causes amusantes et connues and Toulouse 1769 for the Dissertation sur les bonnes qualités de l’eau de la Barraquette. This circumstance confirms that it is not a work originally conceived as a single volume, but autonomous publications later assembled and bound together. The initial manuscript table of contents is particularly significant because it explicitly indicates the internal organization: Causes amusantes on page 1, Lettres secrètes de Voltaire on page 100 and Dissertation sur les eaux de la Barraquette on page 230. This kind of collection can show significant variations from copy to copy and must therefore be described based on the specific composition of the copy, rather than as a normal uniform edition.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
Bibliothèque nationale de France, catalogs of eighteenth-century French and francophone editions.

CCFr – Catalogue Collectif de France, index of collections held in French libraries.

WorldCat, international catalogs of eighteenth-century editions of Causes amusantes et connues and of collections attributed to Voltaire.

USTC – Universal Short Title Catalogue, bibliographic repertories of Early Modern European production.

KVK – Karlsruher Virtueller Katalog, European bibliographic catalogs.

Voltaire Foundation, Oxford, bibliographies and studies related to Voltaire’s works and correspondence.

Bibliothèque de Genève, Voltairian holdings and bibliographies of Geneva editions of the eighteenth century.

Bibliography of eighteenth-century French editions and collections of mémoires judiciaires.

Historical indexes on the literature of causes célèbres and the circulation of mémoires judiciaires in the Ancien Régime.