About the Resource

The Complete Works of Voltaire / Œuvres complètes de Voltaire, published over a 55-year period (read the prefaces from the first and last volumes), are the work of over a hundred scholars from many countries and a dedicated editorial team. Each critical edition of a work by Voltaire chooses a particular witness of that text (almost always from the author's lifetime, though this is not always possible), and to which careful thought has been given to determine which version is the most influential, representative or definitive – the relative importance of these factors may vary from work to work. Variant readings are given from all other significant versions, be they manuscript or printed witnesses. Any corrections or other editorial interventions are scrupulously noted in each introduction, usually in a section entitled 'Principles of this edition'. Voltaire's text is printed with line numbers to facilitate referencing, and in addition to the introductions and variants, the scholarly apparatus includes a full complement of editorial notes and any helpful appendices.

It is also now possible to search the entire critical apparatus, leading to new findings not previously apparent. For example, a search for 'wordplay' and 'jeux de mots' carried out in editorial material reveals places where the editors discuss this element of Voltaire's style. Such basic searches can be further fine-tuned, for instance by restricting them to a date range. For more information on searching, see the section on 'Using the platform' in the FAQs, or our video guides (coming soon).

Traditionally we navigate and search print volumes using tables of contents and indices. The tables of contents relating to introductions and works in OCV are present as clickable lists in OV, taking users directly to the section they wish to read. Some elements of the print volumes that have not been reproduced directly, but instead have been replaced with functionality that is unique to the digital resource. For example, instead of reproducing lists of works cited and indexes relying on print page numbers from the print volumes, we have marked up entities such as people, places, events and bibliographical references. These can be browsed via the compendium and are also linked to from the reading text and critical apparatus (the links can be switched on and off using the button in the bottom toolbar). The tagging of these items is a work in progress, and this functionality is projected to expand and be enriched as work on OV progresses. There is currently a digital humanities project underway exploring ways of producing a thematic 'index' of the full corpus, which we hope to implement in a future update of the resource.

OV is a living resource that will be continually enriched and fine-tuned. In 2026, we'll be working on adding Voltaire's marginalia, as well as integrating existing and new content from the Voltaire Studio. From history to epic poetry, from opera libretti to biblical criticism, Voltaire wrote prolifically in practically every literary genre, making this corpus, in its volume, diversity and complexity, an ideal subject for constructing a digital editions platform that can serve as a model for other eighteenth-century authors, and even for writings from different periods and languages. The Voltaire edition will soon be joined by the first scholarly edition of the works of eighteenth-century materialist writer Paul Thiry, baron d'Holbach (under the direction of Dr Ruggero Sciuto), which will follow the model established for Voltaire. Further editions will be added in future.

We welcome feedback on ways to improve the resource. Please get in touch with us at ov@voltaire.ox.ac.uk. if you have questions or if there is anything in particular that you would like to see.