Bolaffi asks that the booksellers, Dey and Gravier, be kind enough to give to Mr. Daninos (the deliverer of the letter) the fifty copies of La Henriade that Bolaffi had translated into Italian. He notes that these copies were sent to Dey and Gravier by Mr. Fayolle, another bookseller.

An Italian translation of Voltaire’s La Princesse de Babylone is featured on p.269.

Refers, inter alia, to his banking interests, his fluency in Italian, his travels around the Courts of Europe, his meeting in Switzerland with Jean Jaques Rousseau (“a poor depressed melancholy misanthrope”) and Voltaire (“full of spirit, vivacity and intelligence”), his retirement, etc.

Bonaparte has practiced his Italian translation skills by translating letters by the King of Prussia and Voltaire into Italian.

Letter from Voltaire to Cardinal Domenico Passionei, written from Fontainebleau and dated 12 October 1745.

In 1745, Voltaire attempted to attract the good graces of Pope Benedict XIV through the people close to him, such as Cardinal Passionei. In this letter, Voltaire writes that he received a letter in French from Rome dated 15 September [D3211] that was so elegantly written that he believed it be from one of the best writers in France but from the sentiments he recognised the author as Cardinal Passionei. He adds that a mind such as Passionei’s comes from all countries and must be eloquent in all languages. Voltaire writes that Passionei’s letter redoubles the grief he has had for a long time at not having seen Rome because it seems to him that all French people who cultivate letters should make this trip just as the Greeks went to visit the Egyptians. He adds that he is consoled by the book by the Marquis Orsi that Passionei sent him as it will strengthn his extreme taste for, and little knowledge of, the Italian language. He then turns to literary criticism, noting that he has known for a long time of Father Bouhour’s mistakes and of Despreaux’s unjust severity towards Aristotle and Tasso, claiming that both men only superficially knew what they were criticising and concluding that Despreaux felt Tasso’s small faults too much and did not pay enough attention to his great feats. He then turns to the writings of Passionei, remarking that he sees with extreme pleasure that Passionei is in the midst of cultivating beautiful letters.

Voltaire states that he is writing to Marie-Anne de Vichy-Chamrond, marquise Du Deffand from Paris, before discussing literature. He questions why the Marquise wants to make him read English novels, such as Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones, when she will not read the Old Testament. He tells the Marquise that if she is to enjoy reading, she first needs a little passion, an object that is interesting, and a determined desire to educate herself that occupies her soul continuously, adding that if she were to know Italian she could be sure of a month of pleasure from Aristotle. Voltaire says that he will send her one or two chants of La pucelle d’Orleans that are unknown to others and in which he tries to imitate Aristotle (he claims to have limited success in this). He also advises that she may enjoy his Histoire universelle if she likes a picture of ‘this ugly world’ because in it he has painted men as they are. Voltaire then turns to various European empire-building projects, before stating that France’s only merit and superiority is that there are a small number of geniuses who make French spoken in Vienna, Stokholm, and Moscow. He returns to the Marquise’s reading, stating that he he found pleasure in reading Rabelais but that the Marquise was not learned enough to enjoy it. He expresses his desires for French translations of the philosophical works of Lord Bolingbroke and Dean Swift’s Tale of a Tub, before discussing various retellings of the story of Lucretia.