The University of Southern California Voltaire Letters: A polymathic multimodal digital project

Abstract

In spring 2015 one catalog record in the University of Southern California (USC) Special Collections came to my attention: Voltaire correspondence, 1741–1777. The correspondence consists of 30 original autograph letters and four poems authored by Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet, 1694–1778) and his circle, including leading figures of the Enlightenment such as Jean le Rond d’Alembert (1717–1783), Frederick II of Prussia (1712–1786), and Madame de Pompadour (1721–1764)—the acknowledged mistress of Louis XV (1710–1774).