Bidspirit auction | [LITERATURE] - Voltaire Revived: The

[LITERATURE] - Voltaire Revived: The Henriade in Manuscript - VOLTAIRE François Marie Arouté De - VOLTAIRE, François Marie Arouté De (after) – Henriade. (France, 18th cent.) Manuscript on paper in folio (cm 34,5), 20th cent. boards, internally in good condition, with full margins. Ff. 86 not numb, text on single column, by a single hand, on 31 lines. Transcription of Voltaire’s ‘Henriade’, with notes. The ‘Henriade’ is one of two epic poems written by Voltaire (the other being ‘La Pucelle d’Orleans’). First published in 1723 and written in honour of the King of France Henry IV (and the principle of tolerance that the king represented), the poem is composed of ten cantos, and has as its subject the siege of Paris in 1589. Two structural lines overlap: one that faithfully follows historical events; and another, which instead gives space to the fantastic and fictional element, such as the prediction of the conversion of Henry IV, the apparition of Saint Louis, etc. Voltaire had published, in the same year, a first version of the poem, under the title of ‘La Ligue’… (1)