Autograph letter signed from Devellenne, to Benjamin Franklin, written from Paris, undated
Identifiers
CMV:
CMV33074
Repository:
Shelfmark:
Mss.B.F85inventory10, XLII, 119, ‘Benjamin Franklin Papers Part 10 — Materials sent to Franklin during his residence in France.’
Title:
Autograph letter signed from Devellenne, to Benjamin Franklin, written from Paris, undated
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Incipit Diplomatic:
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In Voltaire’s Hand:
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Brief Summary:
A collection of 233 items sent to Benjamin Franklin during his residence in France, dated 1776-1785.
Detailed Summary:
Included in the collection is: XLII, 119., an autograph letter signed from Devellenne, to Benjamin Franklin, written from Paris and undated. In the letter, Devellenne discusses a statement in Bacon’s Philosophical Works that the claims that the Greeks condemned to death the first physicists who presumed to explain the natural causes of thunder. Devellenne then applies to Franklin to aid in verifying this claim, before turning to the question of belief in God, using Voltaire and Socrates in an attempt to find a resolution.
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Physical Description
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6 pp.
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History
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Provenance:
Bequeathed to William Temple Franklin by Benjamin Franklin in his will of 17 July 1788. The papers were stored at Champlost, a country estate owned by George Fox who agreed to take care of them for William Temple Franklin. Temple took a selection of letters and documents to prepare an autobiography of Benjamin Franklin but died without returning to the United States of America. After his death on 25 May 1823, the manuscripts in his possession were discovered in London and eventually given to the Library of Congress. The remaining material at Champlost was formally bequeathed to Fox who in turn left the papers to his children, Charles Pemberton Fox and Mary Fox. The MSS were given to the American Philosophical Society in 1840 by Charles Pemberton Fox and Mary Fox. A second large grouping of documents were given to the Society in 1936 as a gift from Franklin and Nannie Bache.
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