The copy is found in a recueil of diverse theatre parts taken from a number of plays. The plays all seem to have been performed at the Château de Berny, home of the comte de Clermont.

The fragments are bound with pieces relating to Voltaire and his time. An unknown hand has endorsed the MS as ‘fragmens d’une Preface de Baculard D’arnaud, destinée a l’edition de Dresde Rouen des œuvr. de Voltaire. / jls sont de s la main de D’Arnaud et les corrections sont de celle de Voltaire’. The leaves have been bound together in the wrong order: the text begins on p.3 (f.195r), continues to p.8 (f.197v), continues on f.194v, and concludes on f.194r. The pagination appears to be in Voltaire’s hand.