This essential research work for Voltaire scholars reproduces Voltaire's own annotations written in the margins of the books in his library, now owned by the National Library of Russia at St Petersburg.Volume 8 includes Voltaire's copious marginal notes on Jean-Jacques Rousseau, which benefit here from extensive critical annotation by Nathalie Ferrand, with the participation of Larissa Albina. The material on Rousseau is complemented by reproductions in an appendix of annotations by Voltaire on a second copy of "Emile". Voltaire's readings of other important authors in this volume include Charles Rollin, Jean-Baptiste Rousseau, Saint-Evremond, Paolo Sarpi, Mlle de Scudery, Mlle de Sevigne, Shakespeare and Richard Simon. Comprehensive editorial notes show how Voltaire's reading of the books in his library influenced his own writing, and the volume also contains an index of Voltaire's works referred to in the editorial notes. The volume is further enhanced by 26 reproductions of Voltaire's annotations. Contributors: Larissa Albina, Nicholas Cronk, Natalia Elaguina, Nathalie Ferrand, Gillian Pink, Kelsey Rubin-Detlev.

The fifth volume of the "Corpus des notes marginales", long since out of print, was first published by Akademie-Verlag in Berlin, East Germany, in 1994. It was reissued in the OEuvres completes de Voltaire Oxford edition, where the remaining volumes of the 'Corpus' (unfinished since 1994) began to be published in 2006. This volume has been made easier to use in the reissue by the addition of running heads and by a new index of Voltaire's works cited in the notes of the present volume and the four that preceded it. This volume contains an additional piece by Nikolai Kopanev, 'V. S. Lublinski et le Corpus des notes marginales'.

Volume 4 of the "Corpus des notes marginales", long out of print, was first published by Akademie-Verlag in Berlin, in 1988. It was reissued in the OEuvres completes de Voltaire Oxford edition. This volume has been made easier to use in the reissue by the addition of running heads. Reproduced in an appendix is Nicholas Cronk's article, 'Les notes marginales de Voltaire: quel est le lectorat vise?', which appeared in the "Revue Voltaire" 7 (2007).

The third volume of the "Corpus des notes marginales", long since out of print, was first published by Akademie-Verlag in Berlin, East Germany, in 1985. It was reissued in the OEuvres completes de Voltaire Oxford edition, where the remaining volumes of the Corpus (unfinished since the publication of volume 5 in 1994) began to be published in 2006. This volume has been made easier to use in the reissue by the addition of running heads. Reproduced in an appendix is Christiane Mervaud's seminal article, 'Du bon usage des marginalia', which appeared in the "Revue Voltaire" 3 (2003).

La bibliotheque de Voltaire fut vendue a sa mort le 30 mai 1778 a l'imperatrice Catherine II de Russie, et transportee l'annee suivante de Ferney a Saint-Petersbourg. A partir de 1862 la collection devint partie de la nouvelle Bibliotheque imperiale, qui a son tour devint la Bibliotheque publique d'Etat apres la Revolution de 1918. La bibliotheque de Voltaire telle qu'elle se presente aujourd'hui est une collection phenomenale de quelques 7000 volumes acquis par Voltaire au long de sa vie. Elle est en soi un temoin extraordinaire de l'etendue des interets intellectuels de Voltaire, comme de l'energie et du soin dont il fit preuve pour se tenir bien au fait. Il avait l'habitude de marquer les passages qu'il jugeait importants a l'aide de symboles graphiques et de rediger ses propres commentaires sur les pages de ses livres. Nombreux sont les volumes qui contiennent des annotations de la main de Voltaire, griffonnees dans les marges des pages au fil de sa lecture. Le volume 6 du "Corpus des notes marginales" couvre les ouvrages d'auteurs allant de Nadal a Platon. L'annotation abondante des oeuvres de Platon de la main de Mme Du Chatelet est particulierement digne d'interet. Dans une serie de notes detaillees, les editeurs ont soumis les annotations de Voltaire a un examen critique aidant a les eclaircir. Le volume est enrichi de la reproduction de 35 pages tirees des livres de la bibliotheque de Voltaire, ainsi que d'un index des ecrits de Voltaire mentionnes dans les notes des editeurs.

The markings - marginal notes, underlinings, bookmarks, turned down corners - on the books in Voltaire's vast library bear witness to his thinking. The Corpus des notes marginales reproduces them alongside the extracts to which they relate. Comprehensive editorial notes show how Voltaire's reading influenced his writing. On Voltaire's death in 1778, his vast library, consisting of some 7000 volumes, was sold by his niece, Marie-Louise Denis, to Catherine the Great of Russia for 30,000 roubles. The empress, who had corresponded with Voltaire for fifteen years, wished to preserve the library intact as a monument to the writer, and housed the collection in the palace of the Hermitage. It was subsequently transferred to the Imperial Public Library, and then incorporated into the National Library of Russia, St Petersburg, where it now resides. Beginning in the 1950s Russian scholars typed out the extracts annotated by Voltaire and his secretaries and added their notes and markings for publication. The Corpus des notes marginales was launched by Akademie Verlag in East Berlin in 1979, with the Voltaire Foundation as co-publisher. Akademie Verlag was obliged to abandon the project in the mid-1990s, but in 2003 the Voltaire Foundation took the decision to complete it. In 2004 Natalia Elaguina, Head of Western Manuscripts at the National Library, began sending material to the Voltaire Foundation, and it is thanks to her that the Corpus des notes marginales was published as volumes 136 to 144 of the Complete Works of Voltaire. MARGINALIA OUTSIDE ST PETERSBURG. As a complement to the Corpus des notes marginales, the Notes et ecrits marginaux conserves hors de la Bibliotheque nationale de Russie (volume 145 of the Complete Works) reproduces marginalia by Voltaire found in works outside of his personal library in both printed books and manuscripts. It occupies a unique place within the series as some of the texts included therein were annotated by Voltaire not for his own use but for friends, acquaintances and correspondents. Contributors: Larissa Albina, Samuel Bailey, Nicholas Cronk, Jean Dagen, Natalia Elaguina, Nathalie Ferrand, Graham Gargett, Paul Gibbard, Ethel Groffier, John R. Iverson, Edouard Langille, Christiane Mervaud, Michel Mervaud, Patrick Neiertz, Christophe Paillard, Jean-Alexandre Perras, Gillian Pink, John Renwick, Kelsey Rubin-Detlev, Alain Sandrier, Bertram E. Schwarzbach, Gerhardt Stenger, Gemma Tidman,Bruno Tribout, David Williams, Irina Zaitseva.