Jean-Louis Wagnière

Wagnière entered Voltaire’s service as his valet de chambre early in 1755 shortly after he arrived at Prangins near Lake Geneva.

His discretion, his enormous capacity for work, his fine handwriting which was always clear and easy to read and above all his scrupulous honesty are among the reasons for his unusually long service.

He was also Voltaire's librarian and archivist, administrator of the chateau of Ferney and accountant of the estate, chief of staff and the essential intermediary between the great man and the innumerable visitors who wished to speak to him.

[4] After Voltaire's death on 30 May 1778, Catherine the Great of Russia commissioned Wagnière to install his library at the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg, which she had acquired from his estate.

They were considered to be 'one of the most reliable sources for the biography of Voltaire',[6] and Wagnière was recognised by the scholarly community as 'the only living dictionary of all that took place in the final twenty-four years of the most celebrated man of our times'.

[8] Pierre Beaumarchais set out to publish Voltaire's complete works and Wagnière made repeated attempts to furnish him with various texts of interest to his project.