The letter begins with a poem, ‘A monsieur le maréchal duc de Richelieu, à qui le sénat de Gènes avait érigé une statue’. This is written in a secretarial hand.

In a concluding prose section, added in his own hand, Voltaire notes that he imagines the recipient, Maréchal Louis François Armand de Vignerot du Plessis, will be invited to dine with the President in Paris upon his arrival as his glory means that he must lack nothing. Voltaire ends by saying he has just received Louis’ letter.

This copy of the poem is given an alternative title: ‘A Mr le Prince et Mme la Pcesse de Craon qui l’invitaient à venir chez eux.’

The letter contains a copy of a short verse titled ‘À Mme la Duchesse de ***’. The lines of the poem have been added to the bottom of f.97v in two columns of four lines each.

The letter contains four lines of verse known as ‘Sur la banqueroute d’un nommé Michel’.

The letter features a poem on the death of Emanuel Falckner (1718-1739), the uncle of Bernoulli.