Three Near-Identical Voltaire Letters

Written by Dr Zoe Screti, Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the Voltaire Foundation, and Dr Gillian Pink, Deputy General Editor of Oxford University Voltaire.

Finding the letters

In early July 2025, we came across an auction listing for a handwritten copy of a letter from Voltaire to abbé Pierre Jean Boudot, written from Ferney (France) in November 1768 (D15282). Sotheby’s had sold the manuscript in Paris on 18 November 2019 as part of the library of Jean-François Chaponnière (1919-2005). The auction listing and the Voltaire Foundation’s critical edition suggested that the original was at the John Rylands Library.¹

We reached out to curator Dr Elizabeth Gow to see what she could find out about the Rylands manuscript. The letter (Figure 2 below) had been purchased by Enriqueta Rylands in 1891 from the collection of Thomas Raffles (1788-1863).² To our surprise, images revealed that it was nearly identical to the Sotheby’s copy (Figure 4).

Elizabeth told us about another almost identical copy in a 1987 auction catalogue (Figure 3). This third instance has a note that it was ‘Given me by Mr. H. Farrer 1848’ (possibly the dealer Henry Farrer). Other than minor differences in line breaks and page layout, they were almost perfect matches (Figures 2-4, click to see larger images in new tabs).

A curator’s note suggested that Voltaire may have had copies made so that he could resend the letter if he didn’t receive a reply. But, in that case, we would expect just one copy of the letter to survive. Equally, the presence of seals on such copies would be strange.  Why, then, do we have three almost identical versions of the same letter? Who created them? And to what ends? Piecing together clues, we realised that the letters may have been produced as forgeries.

The handwriting

All three copies were the work of a single individual, with consistent handwriting. This hand is not known to editors at the Voltaire Foundation. The letter forms are squat and rounded, but with flourishes over letters such as ‘d’s. Maybe the copyist was imitating the well-known hand of Voltaire’s secretary, Jean-Louis Wagnière? Wagnière made similar flourishes, often so emphatically as to make the pen splatter ink as it formed the curves. But Wagnière’s letter forms were narrower and usually written with a slight italic slant.

The folding method

Each copy consisted of a single sheet folded to create two leaves. In the Rylands’ and Sotheby’s copies, the letter is on the front of the first leaf, with the address on the back of the second. The middle pages are blank. (The third copy appears to follow the same pattern, but no image of the address panel was available.) These copies feature two horizontal folds, dividing the letter into three sections. The address panel is in the middle section. The upper and lower thirds would be folded and joined with a seal.

This method of folding and sealing the letter differs from patterns we see elsewhere in Voltaire’s correspondence. Typically, Voltaire’s secretaries used a letter locking approach known as ‘tuck-and-seal’. Letters in Voltaire’s own handwriting typically use the latter approach, but could also be folded either into three or four. Although the three letters follow this folding pattern, they are certainly not in Voltaire’s hand. In both the hand and the folding method, the duplicate letters show no sign of being from Voltaire’s household in Ferney.

The seals

Both the Rylands’ and Sotheby’s letters were sealed with sealing wafers rather than wax. Sealing wafers were thin discs of unleavened bread, moistened and used to stick the folded letter together. As it dried, the wafer would function as a seal. Wafer seals would typically be licked to moisten them, though some used a damp sponge. Because of the intimacy of this method, wafers were usually reserved for letters to close friends, or to those of lower social status. It would be highly unusual for Voltaire to use a wafer when writing to abbé Boudot, who was neither.

On the Rylands and Sotheby copies, the seals have not been torn, as was typical, but carefully cut around. The letters show no signs of having passed through the postal system, despite the recipient being in Paris (about 340 miles northwest of Ferney). Perhaps their creator wanted the illusion of the letters having been sent and opened, without going to the expense of sealing them with wax.

Solving the mystery?

Combined, the handwriting, the folding method, and the wafer seals, suggest that the three items in question are not originals but copies. We may never know why they were produced or by whom. Their creator went to extraordinary lengths to make them appear real, even adding sealing wafers that were cut around to give the appearance of the letters having been opened. But if they are forgeries, they have too many inaccuracies to be considered authentic. Perhaps one day the genuine original will resurface and shed light on these three duplicate letters. For now, they remain a mystery.

Find out more

• The Autograph and Its Double | Anecdota : Rare texts and images from early modern France
• Walter Stephens, Earle A. Havens, and Janet E. Gomez (eds.), Literary Forgery in Early Modern Europe, 1450-1800 (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019)
• Gillian Pink, ‘L’écriture de Voltaire, rescapée de l’histoire’, RHLF (2021), no.3, 535-544

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1. Voltaire Foundation, Oeuvres complètes de Voltaire, vol.118, p.110. ↩︎
2. Catalogue of the Important and Valuable Collection of European and American Autograph Letters… Formed by the Late Rev. Thomas Raffles… Which Will Be Sold by Auction… on Monday, the 29th. Day of June, 1891 and Two Following Days… London: Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, 1891 (Copy at R16045 marked up with prices of lots acquired by Enriqueta Rylands). ↩︎

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