Introduction:

“I’ve known only humiliations, and I expect to bear them until my last day,” the voice of Voltaire resides, ringing through two centuries, embedded in ink and paper, in a phrase from the second page of his letter dated April 25, 1764. The letter is addressed to his “angel,” his dear friend Charles-Augustin de Ferriol d’Argental. It is signed simply, “v.” The content of this letter carries the tone and usual charm of the great philosopher. But in fact, the letter was not written by Voltaire. This letter to M. d’Argental, along with numerous others, was dictated by Voltaire, but penned by his ever-faithful secretary Jean-Louis Wagnière.
 
In this essay, a brief introduction to paleographical analysis offers a way to examine a trace left by the man behind the pen of so many Voltaire letters. Wagnière was one of Voltaire’s most trusted confidants, yet much about him has not been the focus of scholarship. This essay looks at the letter written to M. d’Argental on April 25, 1764 for its value as an historical artifact rather than for the content of the text. In this introduction to paleography, the focus is on Wagnière’s handwriting itself, in an effort to motivate academic interest in the life, history, and personality of the man behind the letters of Voltaire.
 
A Brief Bio of Jean-Louis Wagnière

Jean-Louis Wagnière (1739-1802) is the last and the best known of Voltaire’s secretaries.  For twenty four years (1754-1778), he served Voltaire as both secretary and accountant.  Voltaire’s recognition of his secretary’s exceptional devotion (“le fidèle Wagnière”, whom he could call at any time, day or night) led him to entrust him, as of 1760, with the responsibilities of manager, property stewardship, and as his representative, particularly in confidential business. After Voltaire’s death (May, 30, 1778) Catherine II of Russia bought Voltaire’s library.  Wagnière accompanied the books to Saint Petersburg and put them in order on arrival.  He remained with his wife at Ferney until the estate was sold by Voltaire’s niece, Marie Louise Denis.   He was involved in Charles Joseph Panckoucke’s, and then Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais’s, project to produce the Œuvres complètes of Voltaire, but only as a secretary.  His Mémoires sur Voltaire et ses ouvrages [par Longchamp et Wagnière, ses secrétaires] was published in 1826. The Commentaire historique sur les œuvres de l’auteur de La Henriade (1776) was published under his name but has generally been attributed by modern scholars to Voltaire himself.
 
Paleographical Description and Dating

In order to describe details and features of different handwriting, paleographers should always list the conventions that they will be using in their transcriptions. To describe the features of the writing and letter forms on this letter, technical terms will be used. The following list of terms is based on the list from English Cursive Book Hands 1250-1500, by M.B. Parkes (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969). These terms are useful even when describing later hands, such as that of Wagnière:
 

Hand:	The handwriting itself; what was actually put down onto the page.
Graph:	Another name for a letter form.
Stroke:	A single trace made by the pen on the page.
Otiose stroke:	A stroke added for decorative purposes. This mark is not rhetorical punctuation, nor does it correlate with any meaning.
Letter forms:	• b comprises a stem which rises above the general level of the other letters (ascender) and a lobe made with a curve to the right of the stem • p comprises a descender and a lobe • h comprises an ascender and a limb • t comprises a shaft and a headstroke  • The body of a letter form is that part which does not include an ascender or descender.

Description and Dating
 
Features such as the left indent of the second and proceeding paragraphs, diverse punctuation including semicolons, accents such as grave and cedilla, and recognizably modern cursive graphs (e.g. r, e), immediately suggest that this letter was written after the turn of the 18^th century. The hand is a round italic cursive and characteristically mid 18^th century. The content, furthermore, offers a great deal of detail on dating the manuscript. The language is flowery and poetic, typical of the Enlightenment, and offers times, places, and names to help identify it. Unique to this hand are the round minuscules accentuated by elegantly flourished ascenders and descenders, producing a highly individualized hand. Consistency in the letters, spacing, and soft right leaning slant, suggest familiarity with writing such as a professional secretary would have had. These traits match other manuscripts known to be written by Jean-Louis Wagnière. Furthermore, since the ink has not faded nor had adverse reaction with the paper, this suggests quality supplies. The pooling of ink that can be seen in graph corners (e.g. the ‘t’ of “trés”) as well as the variation seen in the weight of the strokes as sentences progress suggest that, as the nib ran low on ink, the pen was dipped. Early models of the modern fountain pen appeared in the early 1800’s and tended to create ink blobs, while smooth-writing fountain pens were not developed until after the turn of the 19^th century. The pen used for this letter was, therefore not a fountain pen, suggesting that the manuscript was written before 1827, when the first recorded patent of the fountain pen was made in France, again placing it within the time frame of Wagnière’s life.
 
Traits of Wagnière’s Hand

The letter, at one time, had been folded and sealed, although this copy appears to have not been addressed and may have been made for Voltaire’s personal records. Written on the back in Wagnière’s hand, the word “memoire” suggests that this copy was meant to be filed. Jean-Louis Wagniére’s hand is a good example of a neat, mid 18^th century hand. Written in an italic cursive round hand, his variation in the width of strokes adds elegant shading to the words. Lineation is right justified, regular and neatly spaced, allowing ample room for his elegantly flourished ascenders and descenders. Overall, his hand is easy to distinguish and offers clean, elegant, respectful style of writing.
 
The flourish, as seen on the stems of his d and capital letters, swoops elegantly to the left, complementing the general right lean. His flourish is easily recognizable at a quick glance, peppering the pages with all the long descenders of his g, j, y, and f forms.  Wagnière also tends to flourish his terminals (a, e, n, r, u, especially). This characteristic flourish provides a notable distinction between Wagnière’s and other hands. The minuscule p is another notable trait of his hand. A small, elegant flag appears on his initial p, and his minuscule initial forms of p tend to break the descender into two lines.
 
As with other 18^th century manuscripts, two forms of the minuscule s, short and long, are used in this letter. The long s is double-length but has not become infralinear. Rather it is lifted and sits level on the line as is the case of “semblons” on page 1, line 9. Occasionally Wagnière uses a mixed version of the two s forms. Notice the long s on “sommes” on page 1, line 6. The short s, by comparison, is used at the terminal and uses no tail or flourish of any kind. The shortened s on the line below “si” is shortened but leaning toward the form of the long s, which also occurs on page 1, line 11 with “sur.” The long s can appear when used as the initial letter to a word, but not consistently. The long s almost never appears as a medial. The notable exception is that of the two medials in “messieurs,” on page 2, line 11. Here, the older tradition of long/short ss ( ß ) is used, the long s followed by the short s. This is an exception and can be compared to other medial double s forms such as the word “reconnaissance” on page 2, line 10, where a more contemporary standard of the doubling of the short s occurs.
 
Unlike Voltaire, who very rarely capitalized any words, especially names, Wagnière does flavor his writing with capital letters though it is sparse. In the first line of this letter, he capitalizes the initial L in “Lettre.” Initial c forms are capitalized when used on some nouns (such as “Conseil” on page 1, line 8, and “Commencement” on the last line of page 1), but not consistently (compare the series of nouns with the initial c  in the line above the last line of page 1 to “Commencement”). Capitals are not used at the beginning of each sentence, but consistently used at the beginning of each paragraph and also for names. Wagnière also capitalized the genres “Tragédies” and “Comédies” on page 3, line 4.
 
Wagnière uses accents and rhetorical punctuation throughout the letter. Accents grave and aigu are similar but distinguishable, the latter appearing almost the same as his contraction apostrophes. Notably, there is a tilde above the n of “donnent” (page 3, line 5), indicating the word has been contracted by omitting an n. The tilde is a carry over from 16^th century secretary hand and was used infrequently by Voltaire’s time.
 
The Heading

The heading of this letter appears at the top right, “ A M. D’Argental,” written in a different ink than the body and date, and in a hand different than Wagnière’s. The slant is much more right-leaning, the letters are elongated, not rounded, and the shaft and limb of the n are separated, creating two distinct lines, unlike the tidiness of Wagnière’s hand. Note particularly the difference in the capital “D” in the heading and those in the body (see page 1, line 6; page 2, lines 8 and 13). Wagnière tends to shorten the stem while in the heading it has been crossed by the lobe.
 
The Transcript

Below is a transcription of the letter to d’Argental written by Wagnière. No attempt has been made to correct or regularize spelling. The important aspect in this transcription is that it records information about Wagnière’s unique handwriting. Details about the handwriting have been recorded, marked by the following conventions:
 
Transcription Conventions[4]

Paleographers may choose to transcribe manuscripts making as many or as few changes as necessary for the intended use of the transcription. For this and all other letters in the USC Voltaire Correspondence Collection, the conventions are based on the suggestions made by Béatrice Beaucourt-Vicidomini (in Manuel de paléographie moderne, XVIe-XVIIIe siècles. Archives & Culture, 2012) will be used.
 

• This transcription falls between modernized and semi-diplomatic: the transcription records as much detail from the original manuscript as is practical.
• Original lineation and indentation has been retained.
• Original spelling has been maintained. In the case that spelling seems particularly incorrect, [sic] notifies the reader that the spelling was originally written that way.
• Original accents and rhetorical punctuation have been maintained. In instances that are obscure, the accent that fits the author’s usual habit has been chosen. This allows the modern reader to see etymological details that have been lost in modern orthography. For example, the circumflex [ˆ] in words such as nôtre, allow us to see that the word was once spelled “nostre,” as the circumflex signifies the letter “s”.
• Abbreviations and superscript letters have been expanded. The supplied letters have been italicized.
• Indecipherable or obliterated text is marked by {…}.
• Additions to the original text are made inside brackets [ ], and may be used if, for example, the scribe had omitted an obvious word.
• Otiose marks, line fillers, are indicated with the ~ symbol.
• Minuscule letters have been retained even where the modern convention would use majuscules (at the beginning of a sentence, proper names, etc.)
• Special notes about the manuscript are numbered in superscript.

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[4] For more details on transcription conventions, see: “Transcription Conventions for the Voltaire Correspondence at USC,” and “Diplomatic or Semi-diplomatic Transcriptions.”