Just published: Voltaire, ‘Annales de l’Empire depuis Charlemagne’ (I-III)
Complete works of Voltaire, vol.44A-C, ed. Gérard Laudin and John Renwick
3-volume complete edition: ISBN 978-0-7294-1227-8, hb, 3 vols.

Written at the behest of Luise-Dorothea of Saxe-Meiningen, the ‘Annales de l’Empire’ were first published in 1754 and present a chronological account of the Holy Roman Empire from the coronation of Charlemagne in the year 800 up to the death of Charles VI in 1740. They are a work of philosophical history, extracting moral lessons from the deeds and misdeeds of the rulers of this territory famously described by Voltaire as ‘neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire’.

This is the first modern annotated critical edition of this historical work and its variants, supplemented by a scholarly introduction by Gérard Laudin and John Renwick.

Website article: Introduction to the Annales de l’Empire depuis Charlemagne
(http://www.voltaire.ox.ac.uk/about-voltaire/introduction-‘annales-de-l’empire-depuis-charlemagne’)

Stephen Ashworth
Voltaire Foundation, University of Oxford, UK