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The title is written in Voltaire’s hand.
The title is written in Voltaire’s hand.
(cf. t. IV, fol. 14)
The phrase ‘concernant le XVIe siècle en France’ is written in Voltaire’s hand.
The letter expresses profuse gratitude for a gift of nine volumes of the finest literature, received from Amsterdam from an unknown sender, urging Voltaire to identify this respectable anonymous figure.
Additionally, according to T.D.N. Besterman, Caussy misidentified the sender, incorrectly referring to him as ‘Moisnel’.
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.
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.
The letter reflects on the suicide of Mr. Martignac and features his suicide note. The manuscript is written in Wagnière’s hand, but the titular phrase ‘Anecdote étrange’ is in Voltaire’s handwriting.
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