The copy is part of a wider collection, Recueil de divers ouvrages, owned by Marie de Vichy Chamrond, marquise Du Deffand.

The letter contains a copy of a short verse titled ‘À Mme la Duchesse de ***’. The lines of the poem have been added to the bottom of f.97v in two columns of four lines each.

The letter contains four lines of verse known as ‘Sur la banqueroute d’un nommé Michel’.

The letter features a poem on the death of Emanuel Falckner (1718-1739), the uncle of Bernoulli.

In the manuscript, the poem is titled: ‘Quatrains par Voltaire sur le malheur d’avoir près de 50 ans’.

Jaucourt sent the manuscript to Théodore Tronchin on 4 November 1743.

This copy, produced by Gouroff, rector of the University of St Petersburg, is addressed to Beuchot. It is a copy of a manuscript said to have been held in the archives of the Bastille which was is missing from the folder ‘Autographes 288’ at the National Library of Russia.

The copy differs from the printed version of the text in two key ways: the section on Rousseau is less developed, and the conclusion is different as it does not include the letter to P. Tournemine.

The copy was produced by Stöterogge. This could either be Leonhard Georg V. Stöterogge (b. 1671) or his brother Hieronymus Hartewich V. Stöterogge (b. 1672).