Iron Mask
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Iron Mask. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
The Man with the, a mysterious state prisoner of France. He was confined in several prisons during the reign of Louis XIV . He always wore a mask of black velvet secured with springs of steel or iron. No one, not even his physician, was allowed to see his face. His name was never mentioned. In other respects he was treated with the greatest consideration. He was evidently a person of some education. He whiled away the time by reading and playing the guitar, and was given anything he desired except his freedom. He died in 1703 and was buried under the name of Marchiali. Everything which had been employed in his service was burned, and every precaution taken to keep the secret of his name from being discovered. Even the tiles in the room he had occupied were removed lest a letter might have been concealed behind them. Great curiosity was felt for many years as to his identity. The question was never settled positively, but the more commonly accepted view is that he was Count Matthioli, a minister of the Duke of Mantua, and that he was imprisoned for treachery. Another view is that he was implicated in a conspiracy against the king. There are no less than five distinct theories.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
MAN IN THE, a mysterious French prisoner, confined in the Bastille and other prisons in the reign of Louis XIV., who has been the subject of numerous plays, stories, and novels. Funck-Brentano in his work on the Bastille proves conclusively that this person was one Matthioli-secretary to the Duke of Mantua who was found guilty of treason and imprisoned for life. The mask he was compelled to wear was of black velvet stretched over a steel frame. city and
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Both accounts back the same solution: Aiton's in 1910 calls Count Matthioli "the more commonly accepted view," and Collier's in 1921 says Funck-Brentano "proves conclusively" it was the Mantuan minister. That case has since collapsed, largely because the prison records show Matthioli died on the Île Sainte-Marguerite in 1694, nine years before the masked man died in the Bastille on 19 November 1703 and was buried as "Marchioly." The candidate now favoured by most historians, including Jean-Christian Petitfils, is Eustache Danger (or Dauger), a valet arrested in 1669 and shifted from prison to prison in the custody of the same gaoler, Bénigne Dauvergne de Saint-Mars, for thirty-four years. The one detail both entries get right against popular legend is the mask itself: black velvet, as they say, not iron — the iron was Voltaire's embellishment.
Written for this edition, 2026.