# The Parlement of Paris condemns Lettres philosophiques and the book is burned

Date: 1734

## The fact

In 1734 the Paris Parlement condemned Lettres philosophiques and copies were burned. The dated public cluster is the book plus the arrêt.

## Context

A burned book can still spread. Newton and inoculation in French are the knowledge content. Exile to Cirey followed. Welfare improving here is the letters, not the fire.

[Voltaire](/people/voltaire) is not the sole author of every later object, law, or museum label that uses the name. Shared work with courts, excavators, printers, spouses, officials, and later states does not erase a documented role, and it does not make an ancient person the signer of a twentieth-century statute.

## Evidence and sources

Gallica’s printings and SEP independently document the 1733–34 publication and condemnation.

Official or archival record: Gallica — Voltaire printed works (https://gallica.bnf.fr/; Bibliothèque nationale de France).

## Significance

Knowledge-access path. High confidence.

A burned book is still a book. Do not store the arrêt as his victory speech.

## What is established and what is not

Established: the letters were condemned and burned in 1734. Not established: a unique inoculation rate caused by the book that year.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions.

The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit.
Later competitions, monuments, translations, UNESCO listings, and museums are not converted into extra lifetime acts. The attached driver is edu-[digital-learning-access](/drivers/edu-digital-learning-access). The welfare reading used in this dossier is improving. That reading is an impact-path choice, not a property stored on the Fact itself. Confidence is stated on the impact path. A later English edition is not a recovered autograph. If a number is not in the two records named above, it is not supplied here. Later competitions, monuments, translations, UNESCO listings, and museums are not converted into extra lifetime acts. The welfare reading used in this dossier is improving. That reading is an impact-path choice, not a property stored on the Fact itself. Confidence is stated on the impact path. A later English edition is not a recovered autograph. If a number is not in the two records named above, it is not supplied here.

## People

- Voltaire: https://factrail.ai/people/voltaire

## Drivers

- Digital Learning Access: https://factrail.ai/drivers/edu-digital-learning-access

## Sources

- https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/voltaire/
- https://gallica.bnf.fr/

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/vo-lettres-philosophiques-1734