Some of the handwritten traces of Voltaire and other famous writers have disappeared while an astonishing quantity has been preserved by various means (purchase, bound text, paper folding, transcription. . .). The feeling of veneration underlying these preservation efforts can be situated in the context of a growing fetishization of secular objects in the nineteenth century, which has become more scientific nowadays.
CLIL theme: 4027 -- SCIENCES HUMAINES ET SOCIALES, LETTRES -- Lettres et Sciences du langage -- Lettres -- Etudes littéraires générales et thématiques