Other copies of this letter date it to 15 February 1748 instead.

The letter begins with a poem, ‘A monsieur le maréchal duc de Richelieu, à qui le sénat de Gènes avait érigé une statue’. In a concluding prose section, 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.

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.