The sheets present a selection of variants for both the 1730 and 1737 editions, and are pinned into a 1728 London edition of La Henriade. The edition also features marginalia by Voltaire.

The copy features in a volume of copies of roles played by Lekain between 1754 and 1759. Lekain copied out the part of Hérode and left a large left-hand margin in which he wrote notes. These notes were his personal guidance on questions of diction and interpretation.

Likely in preparation for the 1763 performances, another, later hand introduced the changes made to the role of Hérode to reflect the Sohème version of the play in darker ink. These changes saw rejected lines crossed out and the new versions written in above or below the line. Larger corrections were written on slips of paper pasted over the original text.

The MS appears to largely be written in an unknown secretarial hand. Thirteen of the fifteen folios feature annotations by Voltaire on the verso. The text of the ‘Épître sur l’amour de l’étude’ has been corrected by Helvétius.

The MS is in the hand of an unidentified copyist, but contains some corrections that may be autograph.

It is likely that this MS is the copy that Decroix had made from the Longchamp manuscript in June 1787. There are corrections and annotations throughout. The MS appears to have been used by Lequien or Beuchot for their editions of Voltaire’s works.

The names Marchand, Loustik, and Gille are written in red ink.