Quicksilver Reading CompanionIn the summer of 1685, Eliza begins a series of encyphered letters from the court of Versailles to the French ambassador in the Netherlands, detailing the complex social and political hierarchies of Louis XIV’s reign.
“To M. le comte d’Avaux” — Jean-Antoine de Mesmes, Comte d’Avaux was a veteran French diplomat and ambassador to the Dutch Republic during the 1680s, known for maintaining an extensive and effective spy network.
“the King of France’s brother: namely, a fascination with women’s undergarments” — Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, known as “Monsieur,” was the younger brother of Louis XIV; he was famously flamboyant, often dressed in women’s clothing, and maintained a court that contrasted sharply with the King’s formal atmosphere.
“the daughter of a ruined petty noble… married a stunted and crippled writer in Paris” — Françoise d’Aubigné, Marquise de Maintenon was born in a prison and first married to the disabled poet Paul Scarron; she eventually became the governess to the King’s illegitimate children and, later, his secret second wife.
“This Duchess was none other than the maîtresse déclarée to the King himself” — Françoise-Athénaïs de Rochechouart, Marquise de Montespan was the most celebrated mistress of Louis XIV, bearing him seven children and dominating court life until she was supplanted by the more pious Madame de Maintenon.
“the Dauphin and the other Enfants de France” — The Enfants de France was a specific rank at the French court for the legitimate children of the King and the Dauphin (the heir apparent), carrying immense prestige and strict protocol requirements.
“The Pilgrim’s Progress” — Published in 1678, The Pilgrim’s Progress is one of the most significant works of religious English literature; its themes of spiritual struggle and “Vanity Fair” resonate with the Puritan characters in the novel.
“Difficulty at the beginning” — This is a reference to Hexagram 3 of the I Ching, the ancient Chinese “Book of Changes.” Leibniz was historically fascinated by the work and its binary patterns, which he saw as a precursor to his own mathematical theories.
“making a study of family trees for Sophie” — Sophia of the Palatinate, Electress of Hanover, was a granddaughter of James I of England and a key figure in the Hanoverian Succession; she was a major intellectual patron and close friend to Leibniz.
“M. le comte de Béziers was given the honor of holding a candle during the King’s going-to-bed ceremony” — Stephenson’s annotation: ‘This character is fictional but representative of a type that was apparently common at Versailles.’ The Le Lever and Le Coucher were highly ritualized morning and evening ceremonies where courtiers competed for the honor of performing menial tasks to gain proximity to the King.
“If what they say about Colbert is true… he died two years ago” — Jean-Baptiste Colbert was the First Minister of State under Louis XIV; he reformed French finances and promoted mercantilism, science, and the arts until his death in 1683.
“Since you employ the Wilkins cypher” — John Wilkins was a polymath and founding member of the Royal Society who wrote Mercury, or the Secret and Swift Messenger, a treatise on cryptography. Stephenson’s annotation: ‘Wilkins explains a steganographic cypher based on… binary numbers… using two different handwritten alphabets.’
“Louis XIV chose most of his most important ministers… from the middle class” — Louis XIV, the “Sun King,” centralized power by choosing ministers from the noblesse de robe (administrative nobility) rather than the old military aristocracy, ensuring their absolute loyalty to the crown.
“bought one of your digital computers!” — The Stepped Reckoner was a digital mechanical calculator invented by Leibniz around 1672; it was the first machine capable of performing all four arithmetic operations.
“boullaye and beber” — Stephenson’s annotation: “This seems to be a real story, though the involvement of the bastard son of the duc d’Arcachon is, of course, fictitious.”
“as a young girl in Algiers… by the Ladies’ Volunteer Sodality of the Society of Britannic Abductees” — This refers to the Barbary slave trade, the historical practice of North African privateers capturing Europeans for the slave markets of the Maghreb, which was a major maritime concern in the 17th century.
“Elisabeth Charlotte, known to Versailles as Madame, and known to Sophie—her beloved aunt—as Liselotte.” — Elizabeth Charlotte, Madame Palatine, was the Duchess of Orléans and sister-in-law to Louis XIV; she is famous for her blunt, voluminous correspondence detailing the scandals of the French court.
“I am sorry that your Spanish uncle had to move to Amsterdam” — This refers to the Sephardic Jews in Amsterdam, many of whom were “New Christians” fleeing the Spanish Inquisition to find religious tolerance and opportunities in international finance.
“their fathers and grandfathers used what money they had to raise private armies and fortify their cities” — The Fronde was a series of civil wars in France (1648–1653) where nobles rebelled against royal authority; Louis XIV’s move to Versailles was a deliberate strategy to domesticate these nobles by forcing them to live under his eye.
“apartments of a Lady in Waiting to the Dauphine” — The Dauphine refers to Maria Anna Victoria of Bavaria, the wife of the heir apparent; her household was a primary site for female political maneuvering at court.
“the city was in the process of falling to the Mahratta rebels” — The Maratha Empire, led by Shivaji, rose against the Mughal Empire in the 17th century; their sacks of the port of Surat were major blows to European and Mughal trade.
“living altar during black masses held at an abandoned country church” — The Affair of the Poisons was a massive scandal (1677–1682) involving a series of murders and alleged Satanic rituals among the high nobility, which eventually implicated Madame de Montespan.
“Mme. de Maintenon opens her school for poor girls of the French nobility at St. Cyr” — The Maison royale de Saint-Louis was founded in 1684 to provide an education for the daughters of impoverished noblemen who had died in the King’s service.
“some common people had erected a cantilever… filled with dozens of stray cats… brought here to amuse the crowd” — Cat-burning was a form of ritual entertainment in early modern France where cats were burned alive during festivals, believed to bring good luck or ward off evil.
“bills of exchange or little purses of diamonds” — Bills of Exchange were the primary instruments of international trade and finance in the 17th century, acting as a precursor to modern checks and paper money.
“a Jesuit priest named Édouard de Gex” — The Jesuits were a Catholic religious order known for their political influence and role as confessors to monarchs. Stephenson’s annotation: ‘Edouard de Gex is a fictitious character.’
“I saw a frightful purplish swelling in the crevice of his buttocks.” — In 1686, Louis XIV underwent a famous surgery to repair an anal fistula. The success of the operation by surgeon Charles-François Félix significantly elevated the professional status of surgery in France.
“the Protestant heretics who infest his realms” — Huguenots (French Protestants) faced increasing persecution under Louis XIV, culminating in the 1685 Edict of Fontainebleau which revoked their religious freedoms and led to a mass exodus of skilled citizens.
“Any tooth-puller chosen at random from the Pont-Neuf” — The Pont-Neuf was the oldest bridge in Paris and a bustling center of commerce where “tooth-pullers” (early dentists) and street performers plied their trades.
“d’Aquin, the King’s doctor, got it wrong” — Antoine d’Aquin was the personal physician to Louis XIV; his medical failures, including a disastrous dental surgery that broke the King’s jaw, eventually led to his disgrace and replacement.
“Calvinist proselytizers would come up the valleys to preach to the common folk” — The Waldensians were a pre-Reformation Christian movement in the Alpine valleys that later aligned with Calvinism and faced brutal military suppression by French and Savoyard forces.
Original annotations by: stephenson, countzero, ju