Beman thanks Caldwell for going to the trouble of sourcing books from him. He discusses various editions that he has printed, including:

• A volume of Voltaire’s works
• Morany’s Dictionary
• Boyle’s Dictionary
• Works by Vallance
• Buffon’s Historia Naturello das Orseaux
• Works by Abbe Winckelman

Beman opens with a list of twenty books that he sent via Captain John Haslope of the ‘Charming Sally’ to Mr Dally at the Customs House in Dublin. He adds that the total value of the books was £509 5s. Featured amongst these books is a volume of Voltaire’s works for Lord Charlemont.

Beman opens by saying that he is enclosing a bill for £50 16s for books that he has already sent to Caldwell. He adds that he has recently published two new editions ‘under his own Eye’. The first if an edition of Voltaire’s complete works. the second is the Dictionnaire Encyclopédique

Voltaire writes that he sent Walther the third volume more than three weeks ago, and asks that Walther confirms receipt of the volume, adding that he will have the fourth soon. He ends by asking Walther to let him know if there is a better way to get packages to him.

Pieter Abraham D’Hondt writes to his partner, Thomas Becket, in London to discuss the publication of books by numerous authors, including Voltaire, and their being shipped to England. He speculates on the authorship of the Lettres Secrettes and the Dictionnaire philosophique, remarking that: ‘You may depend upon it that these 2 Books are really wrote by Voltaire; as to the Lettres Secrettes, they have in my opinion only the name of Voltaire, and the title wc. is good, to recommend them, but their intrinsic value is very trifling, it is otherwise with the Dictionnaire, wc. no doubt will sell much, but I do not know if it is advisable to advertise it, it is certainly a performance sc. by religious people will be numbered in the class of bad books, for it is clear that the Author makes a jest of revealed religion, this character is I believe sufficient to persuade you not to translate it’, adding that it has been burned in Geneva by the Common Executioner.

The letter discusses matters concerning the couple’s family, and gives news on their friends. Gravelot notes that he is currently working on some engravings to be used in the works of Voltaire.

The list accompanying the Lee Collection suggests that this letter was intended for Voltaire. However, given that it is dated 1786 (after Voltaire’s death), and that the name ‘M. du Perron’ is written at the bottom of the letter, it is likely that the recipient was Abraham-Hyacinthe Anquetil-Duperron who, in 1763 was elected an associate of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres and began publishing materials from his travels. Louis-Charles-Auguste Le Tonnelier, baron de Breteuil opens by stating that he has been informed that the printing of the first volume of the extract submitted to the Comité de l’académie du belles lettres has barely begun at the Imprimerie Royale. He notes that the King’s intention in establishing the committe was that the public would quickly recognise its usefulness. He acknowledges the recipient’s frustration at this slow progress.

The MS declares that it records two editions of Voltaire’s Tancrède, published by Prault in Paris in 1761. The author of the MS notes that there were significant changes made to the text between the first and second editions, and it is for this reason that they are recording instances of variants. The exemplars are taken from Acts 2-4.

The MS notes that it was compiled to identify variants between the 1736 edition of Alzire and the Beaumarchais edition of the same text. Examples from each edition are directly compared and contrasted throughout. The exemplars are taken from Acts 1-6.

The letter notes that Voltaire is always in his bed. He sends his compliments to Élie Bertrand and promises to send him the detestable edition when it is finished. The letter is signed with a ‘V’, but this is in the hand of Wagnière rather than Voltaire.