The manuscript is a fair copy and is bound after a copy of Tanis et Zélide which bears an following annotation stating that the work was a gift from Voltaire, though the annotation does not identify the beneficiary. This manuscript is part of a collection assembled by the lawyer Louis-Henri Moulin, and bequeathed to the Academy upon his death in 1885.

This copy differs significantly from the published version and could have been produced for a musician.

The MS is bound with a recueil of copies of letters from Voltaire.

The MS is bound in a recueil with other works by Voltaire.

Piron had begun writing a “tragédie héroïque et burlesque” about Samson in 1723, but the text has now been lost.

A coat of arms on the MS reveals that it belonged to Count Claes Ekeblad.

The manuscript is bound in a volume (p.1-37) in which it is followed by a manuscript copy of Pandore.

The writing on the flyleaf is in a different hand from the main manuscript, and a comment in pencil in yet another hand indicates the origins of some of the corrections to the manuscript: ‘P.3s. De la main de Florian. / Corrections de la main de Voltaire / pag. 2. 5. 6. 9. 18. 21. 29. 33. 35. 37.’ The recto pages are numbered in pencil in the same hand as the pencil writing on the flyleaf. The libretto itself is in a clear, legible hand, and contains few corrections, though two unnumbered leaves in a different hand, resembling the main writing on the flyleaf, are inserted between pages 34 and 35 and present a long variant to pages 33 and 34 (see Appendix, p.184-85, variant to lines 1-23).

The corrections to the manuscript are in a different hand from that of the main copyist. Although the corrections do appear similar to Voltaire’s hand, it is likely that they were made, along with the inserted sheets, by the person who wrote in ink on the flyleaf. Most notable is the very distinctive ‘p’ which appears throughout. Those corrections which correspond to the pages listed on the flyleaf as having been corrected by Voltaire have been underlined (and sometimes crossed out) in pencil, possibly by the same person who identified them as Voltaire’s writing and made the note on the flyleaf.

It is not clear what Florian’s contribution is meant to have been, since he seems unlikely to be the main copyist. ‘P.3s’ could conceivably refer to a small correction to ‘poursuivie’ on p.3 or the two inserted leaves. Although ‘3s’ could be read as ‘35’, which would correspond to the leaves’ place in the manuscript, what is transcribed here as ‘3s’ looks very different from the ‘35’ which appears below it in the same hand. If it was indeed Florian who copied the two leaves, then it is almost certainly he who made the other corrections and wrote in ink on the flyleaf.

Voltaire sent a copy of this play to André-Ernest-Modeste Grétry in August 1768.

The opera appears to be unknown, and is accompanied by a copy of a text title ‘Henriette’ and copies of letters addressed to Voltaire in various formats.

The collection includes remarks on the preliminary discussion in l’encyclopédie, the 4 embarras by Voltaire, poetic arts (both tragedy and comedy), Epître à Eglé, Zéphyr et Flore, and Titus et Tibérinus.