[VOLTAIRE François-Marie Arouet de (1694-1778)].

SAÜL "Clandestine Philosophical Manuscript". Manuscript (s.l.n.d. [Paris, circa 1763]). 68 pp. in-8, on leaves decorated on the front and back with floral woodcuts and drawn in blue ink, red edges, all in a contemporary marbled calf binding, 5-ribbed spine and marbled paper endpapers, reinforced at the hinges. Label of the cabinet of M. Janvier de Flainville, lawyer at the parliament, & at the bailliage présidial of Chartres, on a marbled paper guard. The work is referenced: "Belles-Lettres - Article 38 - Number 463 - Various periods". Handwritten inscription on the white guard: "This manuscript was given to me on September 11, 1773 by Made. Valler - Bound September 6, 1777...... 15". The only biblical tragedy written by Voltaire [1], Saul has a special place in the corpus of this author. Written in prose and not respecting any of the canons of the genre such as propriety or unity of place and action, this short play takes place in five acts. It takes place in different places (Caglala, the hill of Achila, Siceleg, Hebron and Jerusalem) and condenses nearly 80 years of biblical history, covering a period from Saul's victory over the Amalekites (in 1079 BC) to the death of David (in 1015 BC) [2]. A true anticlerical pamphlet denouncing the follies of religious fanaticism, Saul mixes genres and has many burlesque aspects. According to Clément Van Hamme, "the play is first of all a parody of the Bible that wants to highlight the implausibilities and the violence told by the sacred text, while pretending to respect the letter" [3]. This version of Saul belongs to a very particular genre, that of the "clandestine philosophical manuscripts". According to Alain Mothu, they designate "writings of a didactic and philosophical character in the broad sense, in their common rationalist intention to dissolve [...] received ideas concerning [...] the "factitious" or revealed religions [...]". [4]. Our copy is of great rarity since only four clandestine manuscripts of this piece have been recorded so far [5]. A study of its materiality suggests the desire to produce several copies of this manuscript, notably by the presence of typographic and ornamental elements affixed with stencils or printed with a wooden matrix. The use of such processes leaves no doubt about the intention to produce several copies, whereas such an intention is absent from the two manuscripts of Saul kept in the Mazarine Library [6]. It is highly probable that our work comes from a workshop specialized in this kind of clandestine production, the existence of which Ira Owen Wade has documented in Paris thanks to the archives of the Bastille [7]. This fact leads us to suppose that our work was perhaps one of the manuscripts published at the same time as the printed version. Saül is a play written around 1761 and published in 1763, under the wrong year of 1755. It was probably performed in Berlin under Frederick II according to a testimony by Bernardin de Saint-Pierre [8]. The sulphurous character of this text makes the knowledge of its manuscript and printed distribution particularly complex. As Christophe Paillard points out, "Voltaire never ceased to deny the authorship of Saul to the authorities in Geneva or Paris". He specifies in particular that the author begged "François Tronchin to hush up the affair: "I confess to you that it would be very sad for me that my name should be compromised at my age; if you and your friends can see to it that this foolishness is hushed up, I shall be truly obliged to you, as well as to Mama" [9]. On August 14, 1763, the writer also published an advertisement in the Petites affiches parisiennes to categorically deny the paternity of Saul. By this formidable strategy, Voltaire ensured his defense and his probity while reinforcing the scandalous aspect of his play and assuring it a certain form of publicity. The text of our manuscript is similar to that of the printed edition of 1763, it also has the same page of presentation of the characters as well as the same paratextual indications. Several elements allow us to trace the origin of our work. On one of the white endpapers there is a period inscription which specifies that the work was given by a certain Mademoiselle Valler[10], on September 11, 1773. The inscription also specifies that the book was bound in 1777. Its passage in the library of Jean-François-Augustin Janvier de Flainville (1717-1791) is attested by a label affixed on the marbled paper endpaper. Originally from Chartes, where he was mayor, this man of letters also held the position of lawyer and was a real historian. His library seems to have been