The manuscript is an autograph letter, written in the hand of Henri Jean Baptiste Fabry de Moncault. The letter expresses gratitude for Voltaire’s feedback on Le Pyrrhonien raisonnable, challenges the Judaic interpretations of The Bible, contests the myths surrounding Moses, and reflects on moral imperatives and religious maxims.

The compilation includes the following texts: Anonymous, Vie de Moyse; Notice et fragmens de cinquante évangiles; Évangile de la naissance de Marie; Protévangile attribué à Jacques surnommé le Juste, frère du Seigneur; Évangile de l’enfance du Christ; Évangile de l’enfance; Évangile du disciple Nicodème; Deux lettres de Pilate à l’empereur Tibère; Relation du gouverneur Pilate touchant Jesus-Christ Notre Seigneur, envoyée à l’empereur Tibère qui était à Rome; Extrait de Jean d’Antioche; Relation de Marcel, des choses merveilleusses et des actes des bienheureux apôtres Pierre & Paul, et des artes magiques de Simon le magicien; Le dîner du comte de Boulainvilliers; Sur les imposteurs en général. The main section, consisting of eleven pieces, is said to have been compiled by Voltaire. Ten of these texts were published as Cellection d’anciens évangiles in London/Amsterdam, 1769, whilst Voltaire’s Le dîner du comte de Boulainvilliers was published in 1767. They have all been copied in the same, neat hand. Two different hands have added the remaining texts to the beginning and ending of the supposed Voltaire collection.

Voltaire begins by saying that an illustrious theologian from Basel has written that Lord Bolingbroke has the ‘chaude-pisse’, a popular term for gonorrhœa, and from there draws the conclusion that Moses is the author of the pentateuch. He remarks that Lord Chesterfield’s chaplain took up Lord Bolingbroke’s cause like a good Christian and defended it in a pious and modest letter, the translation of which arrived in Potsdam with the permission of the superiors. He adds that the King laughed a lot and so should Formey. He jokingly instructs Formey to live cheerfully on the gospel and philosophy, let the profane doubt the chronology of Moses and the monads, get covered in pitch-resin, put big pins in his ass, and follow the advice of the author of the newsletters. He continues, telling him to feel the centrifugal forces, or have himseld embalmed while still alive. Voltaire then writes that he intends to take a trip to the southern lands with Dalichamp and dissect the brains of twelve-foot-tall giants and men as hairy as bears with the tails of monkeys. He philosophises that ‘those who turn the foolishness of this world into mockery will always be the happiest’ and advises Formey to ‘put only their price on things, and don’t take large scales to weigh cobwebs.’ He then concludes by speaking of a song by the Archbishop of Cambrai that the Marquis de Fénélon recited to him at the Hague in front of his wife and the Abbé de la Ville.