A Meeting of Minds: Frederick the Great and Voltaire

Abstract

Primary source material for this paper in addition to Frederick's and Voltaire's respective works was their correspondence which began in 1736 and ended in 1778. The original correspondence was exclusively written in French, but for this paper the selection and translation into English by Richard Aldington was used. Mr. Aldington includes two hundred and twenty-three of these letters. . . . The letters were divided by date into sections representing significant periods of their acquaintance. Within each section the letters were considered according to subject rather than chronology. After grouping the several letters into categories, their content was synthesised either by a quotation which in my estimation accurately contained the substance of all those particular letters or a paraphrase of that substance. Almost all of the letters dealt with philosophical or personal questions which have not lost their timeliness. Omitted were personal invectives. [From Bibliographical Note]