Library Status: This manuscript appears to have been owned by Voltaire and is in the collection today.

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The phrase ‘concernant le XVIe siècle en France’ is written in Voltaire’s hand.

Repository: National Library of Russia, Voltaire Library
Date: pre-1751
CMV: cmv37111
This notebook formed part of the papers acquired from Mme Denis by Catherine II.
The manuscript was assembled in its present form by Wagnière, and the title is written in Wagnière’s hand.
This group of notebooks bound together contains several notebooks, whose precise number is difficult to ascertain, in which Voltaire wrote over many years. Besterman suggest a date range of 1735 to 1750 (OCV 81, p.29), which is probably roughly correct.

There are two items in this assemble that are copied in an unknown hand. The first is vers libertine (44r-44v), and the second is an extract from a Manuscrit Philosophique Clandestin (97r-102r), which Voltaire has titled Extraits de Maillet. T.D. Betserman indicates that this is in the hand of Colligny (p.420), but this is mistaken. Below is the beginning of this text:

Si on prouve par des anachronismes des plus marqués que Moïse n’a point écrit la Genèse, si l’on démontre qu’il n’est point non plus l’auteur de l’Exode, du Lévitique, des Nombres, du Deutéronome, il est sûr qu’on doit moins de foi à des histoires dont on n’a pas d’auteur contemporain. Voilà l’objet et l’idée de la critique de Spinosa, etc.

Repository: National Library of Russia, Voltaire Library
Date: 1735-1760
CMV: cmv37115

The manuscript title is written in Voltaire’s hand, the verso features the lines ‘Trop de vers || de Rillet || sur le suicide,’ also penned by Voltaire.

Repository: National Library of Russia, Voltaire Library
CMV: cmv37116

The titular phrase ‘Proscription du comte d’Orange’ is written in Voltaire’s hand.

Repository: National Library of Russia, Voltaire Library
CMV: cmv37117
Repository: National Library of Russia, Voltaire Library
CMV: cmv37119

This manuscript relates to Votaire’s ambitious, yet ultimately unsuccessful project of building a church. His intentions are documented in his correspondence with various individuals, including Chauvelin, Thiriot, Helvetius, Marmontel, Algarotti, and d’Argental.

Repository: National Library of Russia, Voltaire Library
Date: c.1760
CMV: cmv32707
Repository: National Library of Russia, Voltaire Library
CMV: cmv37209
Repository: National Library of Russia, Voltaire Library
CMV: cmv37210
Repository: National Library of Russia, Voltaire Library
Date: [1761]
CMV: cmv37211

The title is written in Voltaire’s hand.

Repository: National Library of Russia, Voltaire Library
CMV: cmv37217