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Voltaire

Voltaire

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Near balanceFormula-derived score

Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet, 1694–1778) was a writer and public controversialist. He did not found the Oxford Voltaire Foundation or the Ferney monuments service. The most recent verified record is “Louis XVI’s council rehabilitates Lally-Tollendal after Voltaire’s last Paris campaign” (26 May 1778), linked to the driver Judicial Independence.

Anticlerical tolerance campaigns funded by absolutist patronageCompagnie des Indes rents beside Ferney workshopsphilosophical publicity treated as a substitute for representative office

Impact

Not rated yet: the verified records linked to this person, without a numeric impact.

Editorial assessment (context, not the score)

The dossier is not a marble grin and not a slave-captain cartoon. The heaviest documented costs are Compagnie des Indes rents, printed anti-Judaism and polygenism, absolutist patronage at Potsdam and with Catherine, a bought seigneurie, and a failed rescue of La Barre. Those rest on inheritance, books, palaces, and a 1766 execution.

The offsets are also documents: Lettres, Candide, Calas 1765, Traité 1763, Ferney workshops, later critical editions. He did not file a 1968 Oxford series. Confidence is high on those papers, medium on any one ship.

Indicators affected

Indicators this person’s verified facts reach. No score contribution is assigned; the observed state is the indicator’s own reading.

Accountability & contradictions

Claims against the record, the type of responsibility, and what is disputed.

Claimed

What happened

Responsibility

What could change this assessment

  • 4 linked facts have no assessed welfare direction yet.
  • Lifetime coverage has not been assessed: the record reflects stored facts only (1717–1999).

Causal path

Person → Fact → Driver → Indicator. Select a path to inspect its factors; the full network opens on demand.

  1. PersonVoltaire
  2. FactThe French monuments service opens Ferney as a national historic monument visit
  3. DriverSocial Cohesion
  1. PersonVoltaire
  2. FactThe Voltaire Foundation begins the critical Complete Works at Oxford
  3. DriverDigital Learning Access
  1. PersonVoltaire
  2. FactThe Institut et Musée Voltaire opens in Geneva as a public research house
  3. DriverDigital Learning Access

Timeline

The most relevant dated facts, newest first.

  1. 1 January 1999 · Social Cohesion

    The French monuments service opens Ferney as a national historic monument visit

  2. 1 January 1968 · Digital Learning Access

    The Voltaire Foundation begins the critical Complete Works at Oxford

  3. 1 January 1954 · Digital Learning Access

    The Institut et Musée Voltaire opens in Geneva as a public research house

  4. 11 July 1791 · Political Polarization

    Revolutionary France translates Voltaire’s remains into the Panthéon

  5. 26 May 1778 · Judicial Independence

    Louis XVI’s council rehabilitates Lally-Tollendal after Voltaire’s last Paris campaign

  6. 10 February 1778 · Social Cohesion

    Voltaire returns to Paris to a public apotheosis and dies there on 30 May

Evidence & methodology

How the record is sourced and how the score is derived.

30 of 30 linked facts verified, drawing on 13 distinct sources (1717–1999).

Sources include Centre des monuments nationaux, Voltaire Foundation / University of Oxford, Bibliothèque de Genève, Archives nationales, Paris Musées / Musée Carnavalet, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Oxford University Press / History Workshop Journal.

Sources (showing 8 of 13)

  1. 1.Gallica — Bibliothèque nationale de FranceBibliothèque nationale de France
  2. 2.Voltaire Foundation — University of OxfordVoltaire Foundation / University of Oxford
  3. 3.Archives nationales (France)Archives nationales
  4. 4.Château de Voltaire à Ferney — Centre des monuments nationauxCentre des monuments nationaux
  5. 5.Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy — VoltaireStanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  6. 6.Racial Capitalism in Voltaire’s Enlightenment (History Workshop Journal 2022)Oxford University Press / History Workshop Journal
  7. 7.Académie française — VoltaireAcadémie française
  8. 8.Institut et Musée Voltaire — GenevaBibliothèque de Genève

The score is formula-derived (Factrail formula v1, version 1.0.0), not an editorial verdict. Read the methodology.

By the Factrail desk · Method: how we source and score · Last reviewed · Sources: 13

Expert analysis

An excerpt; the full analysis opens on request.

The first fact about Voltaire is a rent. On 1 January 1722 he inherited Compagnie des Indes shares in a company that held slave-trade privileges. History Workshop Journal 2022, using Lopez’s archival work, treats those rents as weighty. Nantes’s public museum independently frames the company’s traffic. Candide’s Surinam page (1759) is a different instrument. HWJ notes later anti-colonial sentences coinciding with lost capital after the Seven Years’ War. A 23 April 1760 letter still placed a good part of his fortune on the company.

The 1764 Dictionnaire prints group contempt for Jews. Mahomet (1741) uses a prophet as fraud. Polygenist paragraphs teach separate origins. Potsdam 1750 is a king’s wage. Catherine’s correspondence is autocratic advertising. Ferney 1759 is a bought seigneurie. The 1729 lottery is a public-to-private transfer. La Barre dies in 1766 with the Dictionnaire. Écrasez l’infâme polarises. 1791 puts the corpse in the Panthéon.

The offsets are also documents. Lettres philosophiques (1733–34) bring Newton and English toleration into French, then burn. Cirey with du Châtelet is a working scientific household. Encyclopédie articles, the Lisbon poem, Candide, Traité sur la tolérance, Calas 1765, Sirven 1771, Ferney watches, Lally 1778, Oxford’s Complete Works from 1968, Geneva 1954, CMN Ferney — access and, in the campaigns, minority-rights litigation inside an absolutist council.

What the score must not say: that he is an abolitionist because of Candide; that Calas makes the Dictionnaire kind; that Frederick was a republic; that a 1954 museum undid a 1722 share. Complex contribution is the honest type. Confidence is high on imprints, the 1765 rehabilitation, the 1759 deed, and the 1722 inheritance as now synthesised; medium on any one ship’s cargo knowledge.

Related people are du Châtelet, Frederick, Catherine, Rousseau as rival, Diderot, d’Alembert, Calas, La Barre, Louis XV, Newton, Locke — specific roles, not a pad.

1722 is not 1759. 1763 is not 1764.

If a contract showed he underwrote a named slaving voyage with full cargo knowledge, that row would tighten. Until then, company privilege plus letters of fortune are enough to store, and not enough to invent a captaincy. Keep company, Calas, Dictionnaire, and Potsdam on separate dates; mixing them is how a marble grin gets built and how a pamphlet gets built. Shared work remains named. Shared work with named collaborators, later editors, and institutions remains named. Day-precision is not invented where the named records are year-level. 1722-01-01 (cost, driver humanitarian-access): Voltaire inherits Compagnie des Indes shares whose company held slave-trade privilege — Racial Capitalism in Voltaire’s Enlightenment (History Workshop Journal 2022) (https://academic.oup.com/hwj/article/doi/10.1093/hwj/dbac025/6693575 (opens in a new tab)); Château des ducs de Bretagne / Nantes history museum (slave-trade port context) (https://www.chateaunantes.fr/en/ (opens in a new tab)). 1764-01-01 (cost, driver protection-of-minority-rights): The Dictionnaire philosophique prints anti-Jewish articles under Voltaire’s name — Gallica — Voltaire printed works (https://gallica.bnf.fr/ (opens in a new tab)); Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy — Voltaire (https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/voltaire/ (opens in a new tab)). 1750-07-10 (cost, driver democratic-resilience): Voltaire takes up paid residence at Frederick II’s Potsdam court — Sanssouci Palace — Prussian Palaces and Gardens (https://www.spsg.de/en/palaces-gardens/object/sanssouci-palace/ (opens in a new tab)); Britannica — Voltaire (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Voltaire (opens in a new tab)). 1763-01-01 (offset, driver protection-of-minority-rights): Voltaire publishes Traité sur la tolérance after the Calas execution — Gallica — Voltaire printed works (https://gallica.bnf.fr/ (opens in a new tab)); Britannica — Jean Calas (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jean-Calas (opens in a new tab)). 1759-02-09 (cost, driver income-inequality): Voltaire buys the seigneurie of Ferney as a border estate — Château de Voltaire à Ferney — Centre des monuments nationaux (https://www.chateau-ferney-voltaire.fr/ (opens in a new tab)); Britannica — Voltaire (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Voltaire (opens in a new tab)). 1760-01-01 (offset, driver industrial-policy-activism): Ferney develops watchmaking and silk workshops under Voltaire’s seigneurial patronage — Château de Voltaire à Ferney — Centre des monuments nationaux (https://www.chateau-ferney-voltaire.fr/ (opens in a new tab)); Voltaire Foundation — University of Oxford (https://www.voltaire.ox.ac.uk/ (opens in a new tab)). 1763-01-01 (cost, driver democratic-resilience): Voltaire opens a long paid correspondence of praise with Catherine II — Voltaire Foundation — University of Oxford (https://www.voltaire.ox.ac.uk/ (opens in a new tab)); Cambridge Companion to Voltaire (https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-companion-to-voltaire/ (opens in a new tab)). 1741-08-09 (cost, driver protection-of-minority-rights): Le Fanatisme, ou Mahomet is staged in Lille as an anti-prophet tragedy — Gallica — Voltaire printed works (https://gallica.bnf.fr/ (opens in a new tab)); Cambridge Companion to Voltaire (https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-companion-to-voltaire/ (opens in a new tab)). 1717-05-16 (cost, driver personal-data-protection): Voltaire is sent to the Bastille by lettre de cachet — Archives nationales (France) (https://www.archives-nationales.culture.gouv.fr/ (opens in a new tab)); Britannica — Voltaire (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Voltaire (opens in a new tab)). 1718-11-18 (offset, driver social-cohesion): Oedipe succeeds at the Comédie-Française and the author takes the name Voltaire — Académie française — Voltaire (https://www.academie-francaise.fr/les-immortels/voltaire (opens in a new tab)); Gallica — Voltaire printed works (https://gallica.bnf.fr/ (opens in a new tab)). 1746-05-02 (offset, driver social-cohesion): Voltaire is elected to the Académie française — Académie française — Voltaire (https://www.academie-francaise.fr/les-immortels/voltaire (opens in a new tab)); Britannica — Voltaire (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Voltaire (opens in a new tab)). 1756-01-01 (offset, driver infectious-disease-transmission): Voltaire publishes the Poème sur le désastre de Lisbonne — Gallica — Voltaire printed works (https://gallica.bnf.fr/ (opens in a new tab)); Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy — Voltaire (https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/voltaire/ (opens in a new tab)). 1771-01-01 (offset, driver protection-of-minority-rights): The Sirven family obtains rehabilitation after Voltaire’s long campaign — Voltaire Foundation — University of Oxford (https://www.voltaire.ox.ac.uk/ (opens in a new tab)); Britannica — Voltaire (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Voltaire (opens in a new tab)). 1778-02-10 (offset, driver social-cohesion): Voltaire returns to Paris to a public apotheosis and dies there on 30 May — Musée Carnavalet — Voltaire portraits (https://www.carnavalet.paris.fr/en (opens in a new tab)); Britannica — Voltaire (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Voltaire (opens in a new tab)). 1762-01-01 (cost, driver political-polarization): Voltaire’s correspondence slogan écrasez l’infâme becomes a public anticlerical programme — Voltaire Foundation — University of Oxford (https://www.voltaire.ox.ac.uk/ (opens in a new tab)); Cambridge Companion to Voltaire (https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-companion-to-voltaire/ (opens in a new tab)). 1729-01-01 (cost, driver income-inequality): Voltaire and La Condamine exploit a Paris lottery structure for a private fortune — Cambridge Companion to Voltaire (https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-companion-to-voltaire/ (opens in a new tab)); Britannica — Voltaire (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Voltaire (opens in a new tab)). 1999-01-01 (offset, driver social-cohesion): The French monuments service opens Ferney as a national historic monument visit — Château de Voltaire à Ferney — Centre des monuments nationaux (https://www.chateau-ferney-voltaire.fr/ (opens in a new tab)); Institut et Musée Voltaire — Geneva (https://www.bge-geneve.ch/en/institut-et-musee-voltaire (opens in a new tab)). 1734-01-01 (cost, driver protection-of-minority-rights): Voltaire’s printed racial polygenism treats some peoples as separately originated — Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy — Voltaire (https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/voltaire/ (opens in a new tab)); Racial Capitalism in Voltaire’s Enlightenment (History Workshop Journal 2022) (https://academic.oup.com/hwj/article/doi/10.1093/hwj/dbac025/6693575 (opens in a new tab)). 1760-04-23 (cost, driver institutional-corruption): Voltaire writes that a good part of his fortune sits on the Compagnie as India war ruins it — Racial Capitalism in Voltaire’s Enlightenment (History Workshop Journal 2022) (https://academic.oup.com/hwj/article/doi/10.1093/hwj/dbac025/6693575 (opens in a new tab)); Voltaire Foundation — University of Oxford (https://www.voltaire.ox.ac.uk/ (opens in a new tab)).

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