Annals of the Empire (Annales de l’Empire) is a history of Germany written by the French philosopher and author Voltaire at the request of Princess Luise Dorothea of Saxe-Meiningen in 1753. The first volume appeared in December 1753 and the second in March 1754.[1]

It is largely compiled from previous work by German historians: Voltaire described his role as like an architect, assembling a building from individual pieces of masonry.[2]

Quotation

The Annals are the source of Voltaire's much-quoted statement about the Holy Roman Empire:

This agglomeration which was called, and which still calls itself the Holy Roman Empire is in no respect either holy, Roman or an empire.[3]

References

  1. ↑ Jean Goulemot, ′Annales de l'Empire′ in Inventaire Voltaire, ed. Jean Goulemot, André Magnan and Didier Masseau, Paris, Gallimard, 1995, p.68-69.
  2. ↑ Aldridge, A. Owen (1975). Voltaire and the Century of Light. New Jersey: Princeton University Press. p. 213.
  3. ↑ Ayer, A.J. (1986). Voltaire. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. p. 96. ISBN 0297788809.
French Wikisource has original text related to this article:
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.