Two bifoliums in Villaume’s hand with additions by Voltaire. The subject matter is in connection with the work that was to become, in 1756, the Essai sur les mœurs.

A book of reading notes on historical subjects, mainly in the hands of Voltaire, Collini and Villaume. There is a note in an unknown hand on f.58r. Wagnière has jotted at the start of the notebook (at the top of f.1r): ‘ce cahier contient 58 feuillets écrits, soit 116 pages’, then, heavily crossed out: ‘je prie qu’on en ait soin, n’aiant pout de double étant obligé de rendre l’original. le […] peut écrire à messieurs les rédacteurs ils pourront me l’envoier pour le copier’. The final leaf contains a list of errata for the work that was to become l’Essai sur les mœurs.

Incomplete copy of an article almost certainly written for the Encyclopédie, but which was never included in the published work.

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.

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