Activities

The central aim of the Centre for Study of the Enlightenment ‘Voltaire Library’ is the conservation, study and promotion of this unique book collection, which has been preserved in its entirety thanks to its acquisition by Catherine II, and to its transfer from Ferney to St Petersburg in 1779.

The Centre organises international conferences on Voltaire’s writings and on other Enlightenment figures also.

The conference proceedings are published in the Lectures voltairiennes series.

Voltaire’s marginalia have given rise to many publications. The Voltaire Foundation (Oxford) is currently preparing the tenth and final volume of Corpus des notes marginales de Voltaire. The ninth volume was published in April 2018 (Corpus des notes marginales de Voltaire)..

This research tool has its origins at the National Library of Russia, led by Natalia Elaguina, who is head of the Western Manuscripts department (general editor, Natalia Elaguina; annotation by John Renwick et al.)

Exhibitions held in the main room of the Voltaire Library, as well as online exhibitions, provide the opportunity to visitors to the NLR and interested parties further afield, alike, to discover and to enjoy this unique collection of books.

A reading room and its reference collection allows scholars to consult the works of Voltaire, Diderot and Rousseau, as well as reference materials on the Enlightenment.

The Voltaire Library receives scholars from around the world. Those who are interested in the Enlightenment may visit the library by signing up via the Department of Cultural Programmes of the NLR.

Partners

• The Academic Cabinet (St Petersburg)
• The ‘Eighteenth-century Russian literature’ section of the Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkin House), of the Russian Academy of Sciences (St Petersburg)
• The Centre for the History of Ideas (St Petersburg)
• The Institut français of St Petersburg
• The Centre for the Study of the Eighteenth Century of the Institute of Universal History (Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow)
• The Centre international d'étude du dix-huitième siècle (Ferney-Voltaire, France)
• The ‘Musée Voltaire’ of the Bibliothèque de Genève (Geneva)
• The Ferney-Voltaire Town Council
• The Société des études voltairiennes (Paris-Sorbonne)
• The Voltaire Foundation (University of Oxford)
• L'Associazione Café Voltaire di Roma