The MS is divided into the following sections:

• ‘Diatribe du Docteur Akakia, médecin du Pape: décret de l’Inquisition; et rapport des professeurs de Rome au sujet d’un prétendu Président. Rome 1753.’
  
• ‘Berlin du 16eme Decembre 1752’
• ‘Decret de l’Inquisition de Rome’
• ‘Augement des Professeurs du Collége de la Sapience’
• ‘Mémoire’, written in the hand of Collini with an autograph correction by Voltaire
• ‘Reponse de Mr de Voltaire à Mr de Maupertuis’
• ‘Avertisement qui a paru dans les gazettes litteraires et ordinaires de Leipzig’

The text contains substantial variants, many of which do not appear in the print editions. A leaf between f.199 and f.200 appears to be missing.

The text contains substantial variants, many of which do not appear in the print edition.

This copy of the text contains substantial variants, many of which do not appear in the print editions. A correction on line 23 which corrects ‘déisme’ to ‘théisme’ indicates that the MS was produced between 1748 and 1750.

Count von Manteuffel sent this copy of the poem to Count von Brühl from Berlin on 21 October 1740.

Voltaire acquired this manuscript from the chevalier de Maudave in 1760 and presented it to the Bibliothèque de roi (now the Bibliothèque nationale de France) in August 1761. The text is a commentary on the Vedas, though rather than being a precious authentic text as Voltaire imagined, it was composed by Jesuits in Pondicherry. He inscribed a title page (f.iir) outlining what he knew and believed about the manuscript and its history.

The text dates to 1759, with Voltaire adding to the manuscript in 1761.

This volume contains four items:

• f.[i] Notice sur le Zozur Bedo et sur sa traduction par Mr Court de Gebelin
• f.[ii] Title page in Voltaire’s hand: ‘L’Ezour-védam ou ancien commentaire du védam traduit de la langue du hanscrit par un Brame de Bénares correspondant de la compagnie des indes […]. This appears to have been written on a pre-existing blank page.
• f.1-29 [The commentary]
• f.30-33 Suite du Zozur Bedo

This poem would later feature in a letter from Voltaire to Cideville (D2512) and was published in the 1745 edition of his works (Tome VI, in Stances à madame du Châtelet) published in Amsterdam by Etienne Ledet. An expanded version was printed in Tome V of the 1746 London edition.