[deleted: je dois dire icy quun nommé sabatier natif de castres connu sous le nom de labbé Sabatier, d’apr a fait imprim] Cest icy l’occasion dobserver que l’auteur du siecle de louis 14 na donné cette liste des ecrivains et des artistes qui ont fleuri sous Louis 14 qu’apres avoir vu leurs ouvrages et souvent connu leurs personnes [deleted: il ne pouvait] recherchant tous les moiens de sinstruire sur ce siecle celebre depuis quil fut nommé historiografe de france.
Autograph draft of the passage on Saint-Pierre at ‘Catalogue de la plupart des écrivans français qui ont paru dans le siècle de Louis XIV’, OCV, vol.12, p.184-186, l.3202-3251.
Detailed Summary:
The text features a number of revisions which would eventually form the published text. It is a draft of the ‘Catalogue de la plupart des écrivans français qui ont paru dans le siècle de Louis XIV, pour servir a l’histoire littéraire de ce temps’. Voltaire discusses the writers and artists who flourished under Louis XIV and claims that he could not discuss the l’Abbé de Saint-Pierre because the Annales of l’Abbé de Saint-Pierre were not printed until 1757. These Annals, Voltaire writes, are a satire of the government and the monarch who deserved more esteem and are not written well enough to forgive them their injustice. The family of l’Abbé Saint-Pierre urged the author to conceal the work from the public and it was only printed after l’Abbé Saint-Pierre’s death. Voltaire therefore defends himself against the claims of l’Abbé Sabatier who has claimed that Voltaire drew heavily on the Annals for his Siècle. This passage concludes by Voltaire writing that l’Abbé Sabatier came to Paris to work as a slanderer for money and it is therefore difficult to hope for paradise for him. It is even a great effort, Voltaire notes, to wish him this.
A piece of plain white paper upon which he has written some brief notes about the MS in red and blue ink has been included. These notes are written in an unknown hand.
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Bibliography
Bibliography:
J. Vidal-Mégret, Collection d’autographes littéraires, lettres et manuscrits des XVIIe, XVIIIe, XIXe et XXe siècles. 2ème partie. Catalogue de la vente aux enchères du 26 février 1969 à l’Hôtel Drouot (Paris, 1969), no.156.