Documents include many on the administration of the Département du Nord and the departments of the Gironde and Isère in the 1790’s, including certificates of baptism and other documents on questions of residence, and documents on the identification and arrest of emigrés from France. Also included are many legal documents ranging from 1629-1810, including opinions and verdicts in civil lawsuits; documents on issues of inheritance and succession; 18th-century marriage contracts and divorce papers; deeds to houses and land titles; and powers of attorney. Other documents include a military discharge dated 1582, military service and pension records, and other documents concerning the French army from 1710-1815.

Also included are census data for Albania and Dalmatia for 1781; correspondence of various French government officials, from the 1870’s and early 20th century; detailed work contracts for repairs and rebuilding of a chateau in 1803, signed by carpenter Jean Baptiste Echeuvin and by Jean Pierre Fluchaire; the autograph text of an address to the king by Monseigneur Leveque on behalf of France’s bishops in 1735; a chapbook quoting extensively from Voltaire, especially on the subject of women and on Christianity; a book-length manuscript on the Jesuits, written after 1810; manuscript essays on the relationship of church and state, apparently dating from the 18th century; a genealogy of the family Le Brun de Rabot, dated 1826; letters of recommendation for students seeking admission to a school, by Marc-Antoine Jullien; an essay criticizing the Gazette de France and the French government for not upholding freedom of the press, apparently 18th century; and correspondence by various 19th-century journalists on editing, publishing and social matters.

Photographs, apparently of the 19th century, show views of Venice and Avignon. Engravings include views of Amiens in the early 19th century and portraits of French authors René Charles de Maupeou, Paul Deroulède, Victorien Sardou, Ludovic Halévy, Mme. Eugènie Foa, and Othenin, comte d’Haussonville.

Correspondents include Louis Barthou; Henri Rochefort; René-Richard Castel; Barthelemy St. Hilaire; Augustin Louis, marquis de Ximenès; Louis-Joseph de Bourbon, prince of Conti; comte Arthur O’Mahony; Artaud de Montor; Alexis Nicolas Pérignon; Auguste Maguet; Jules Ferry; Miguet, secretary of the Institut impérial de France, later the Institut de France; Jules Michelet; A. Augustin-Louis Laya; Jules Lecomte; Othenin, comte d’Haussonville; Calmann Lévy; Adèle Esquiros; Gabriel, comte d’Haussonville; Etienne Vigée; and Auguste Guinard.

Includes letters and documents concerning the War of the Austrian Succession, France’s support for the Jacobite cause of Charles Edward, the Young Pretender, in England, and other aspects of French foreign policy; the finances of the French navy; diplomatic relations and commerce with other countries such as Spain, Russia, and Portugal; shipbuilding, navigation, scientific expeditions, and taxation. Papers concerning Maurepas’s management of the royal household document his patronage of the arts, including the Comédie Française and dancers of the Royal Academy. Also included are personal letters to Maurepas from his politically powerful aunt concerning life at the court of Versailles; and a report on naval affairs written by Joseph Pellerin for Voltaire, which Voltaire used later in his Précis du siècle de Louis XV.
Correspondents include Maurepas; his father, Jérome Phélypeaux, comte de Pontchartrain, and grandfather, Louis de Pontchartrain, who preceded him as Secretary of the Navy; his aunt, Armande de la Porte Mazarin, marquise de Mailly-Nesle; Charles Edward, the Young Pretender; King George II of England; Louis François Armand, duc de Richelieu; Joseph Pellerin; and Voltaire

Despite the date of 1770 on the title page, the volume must have been written after 1793, as it mentions the execution of Louis XVI. It includes anecdotes and quotations on history, philosophy, and the range of human emotion and experience, as well as insights concerning the King and the political climate leading up to the Revolution. Also included are anecdotes which illustrate a quality or emotion, such as courage, honor, or charity, or which exemplify an act, such as adultery or forgiveness. Two sections titled “Sentences” contain short Latin quotations from classical authors.
The pieces (arranged in loose alphabetical order by subject) cover the period from antiquity to the late 18th century, and deal with a wide range of historical, mythological, Biblical, and literary figures. These include Philip of Macedonia, Alexander the Great, Aristotle, Socrates, Plato, Homer, Virgil, Martial, Ovid, Juvenal, Pliny, Horace, Seneca, William the Conqueror, Henri IV, Pierre de Bayard, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, Catherine de Medici, Torquato Tasso, and Sir Walter Raleigh
Major 17th- and 18th-century figures mentioned include Cardinal Jules Mazarin, Elizabeth I of England, Philip IV of Spain, Charles Le Brun, Ottoman sultan Suleyman II, René Descartes, Anne Robert Jacques Turgot, Jacques Necker, Maurepas, the Marquis de Lafayette, George Washington, Charles-Louis de Montesquieu, Malesherbes, Charles Alexandre de Calonne, Camille Desmoulins, the Marquis de Sade, Voltaire, François Quesnay, and Louis XVI, who is much discussed in admiring terms. Many passages include detailed information on the actions of the French government under Louis XVI.

One volume (1772-1773) is titled ‘Recueil de pensees ingenieuses, tirees des auteurs du temps’; the other (1775) is titled ‘Pensees tirees de differents auteurs’. Both contain mainly aphorisms and excerpts of poems, including extensive quotes from Voltaire and the playwright Louis Boissy. Vol. 1 has a table of contents at the end listing authors quoted.