Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet) - Collection complette des oeuvres de M.de Voltaire - 1761-1767

Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet) - Complete Collection of his Works - 1761/1767

Complete collection of M. de Voltaire's works from 1761 to 1767 with no publisher indication.

The work consists of:

- critical writings on literature, philosophy, and history
- dramatic works
- historical works.

This publication is one of the most complete published during Voltaire's lifetime and comprises 30 volumes. They reproduce another large and old set of Voltaire's works, in 18 volumes published in Geneva by Cramer from 1757 to 1761. Each volume contains on average about 400 pages. Exquisitely bound leather volumes with gilded and relief edges. The first volume opens with a little-known engraving featuring a portrait of the young Voltaire.

All the books in this publication contain hundreds of vignettes on various subjects. Voltaire's work on geometric forms is illustrated by numerous illustrations. In two volumes on the history of Russia, two engravings of Empress Elizabeth and the oldest map of Russia are present. There are many high-quality art vignettes in the books. It has a different watermark paper. For the convenience of collectors, photographs present a table of contents of all of Voltaire's works included in this publication.

Condition of the books: all the books are in good condition. The drawbacks include: the presence in three volumes of small holes due to library rats, in some volumes, the binding between the book block and the cover is slightly detached. You can see the defects in the photographs provided.

The “Collection complette des Oeuvres de Mr de Voltaire” edited mainly between 1761 and 1767 refers to one of the very early and most important collective editions of François-Marie Arouet, aka Voltaire's works, published by the Cramer brothers in Geneva.

This edition period is particularly sought after by bibliophiles and literary historians for several key reasons:

1. Voltaire's active participation
Unlike many pirate editions printed at the same time in Amsterdam, London, or Paris, the Geneva edition by the Cramer brothers was produced with the direct collaboration and revision of Voltaire himself. Based not far away in Ferney, the author supervised the printing, corrected his texts, and regularly added new pieces over the years.

2. An evolving structure (1761–1767)
The Cramer collective edition began as early as 1756-1757 (often in 17 volumes), but it was continually supplemented by volumes of addenda and expanded reissues between 1761 and 1767 to incorporate his new major writings, including:
• Essai sur l'histoire générale et sur les moeurs et l'esprit des nations (often dated 1761-1763).
• Contes de Guillaume Vadé (1764).
• The theater and the dramatic pieces enriched (such as the Théâtre of 1766-1767).