Le docteur Pansophe, ou, Lettres de Monsieur de Voltaire

Name: Le docteur Pansophe, ou, Lettres de Monsieur de Voltaire
Author: Voltaire

by Voltaire

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44 pages 1766

About This Book

8vo. pp. 44. Signatures: A12 B10. Mottled calf, gilded spine, red edges, marbled endpapers. Bound with three other works:<ul><li>D. Hume, J.-J. Rousseau, J. B. Le Rond d’Alembert, J.-B.-A. Suard, Exposé succinct de la contestation qui s'est élevée entre M. Hume. et M. Rousseau, avec les pièces justificatives. London [i.e., Lyon?, Paris?], 1766 (see Bib# 4103200/Fr# 715 in this collection).</li><li>Justification de J. J. Rousseau, dans la contestation qui lui est survenue avec M. Hume. London [i.e. Paris], 1766 (a forgery, see Bib# 4103201/Fr# 716).</li><li>Précis Pour M. J. J. Rousseau, en Réponse a l’Exposé succint de M. Hume: Suivi d’une Lettre de Madame D *** a l’Auteur de la Justification de M. Rousseau. 1767 (Bib# 4103203/Fr# 718).</li></ul> First edition. While the first letter (to Hume, on the controversy with Rousseau) is genuine, Voltaire strenuously denied authorship of the second, ‘au Docteur Jean Jacques Pansophe’, i.e. Rousseau, or any responsibility for the publication. He first suspected the Abbé Coyer, who swore he had not written it, and then his own Lyonnais acolyte Charles Bordes, who likewise pleaded his innocence. But Voltaire remained adamant, writing to Bordes that ‘l’un de vous deux ... l’avoir écrite. Le troisième n’existe pas’, and cataloguers (e.g. ESTC) now usually attribute it to Bordes. The recent Oxford Voltaire editor (J. Hanrahan, Complete Works of Voltaire. Volume 60C. Oxford, 2013, pp. 20-23), however, has tentatively endorsed the opinions of earlier editors Decroix, Beuchot, and Moland, in considering Voltaire’s protests a mere mystification. <a href="https://catalyst.library.jhu.edu/catalog/bib_5968408" rel="ugc nofollow">Click here to view the Johns Hopkins University catalog record.</a>