The manuscript is a lettre en vers that opens with a thirteen-line poem celebrating the intellectual and cultural contributions of Italians, French, English, and Germans. Voltaire references Thorn and Dantzik, cities linked to the work of Copernicus and Hevelius, respectively. The letter then shifts to discuss Prussian political issues, including the Prussian partition, the Treaty of St Petersburg, and the romantic entanglements between Count Grigory Grigorievich Orlov and Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia.