Autograph letter from Voltaire to Frederick II, dated 29 August 1742.
Detailed Summary:
The manuscript comprises a draft of a “lettre en vers,” adorned with two poems framing the main body of the letter. While the poetry, adhering to the customary style of the 18th century, extends compliments and praise to the recipient, the letter’s substance delves into Voltaire’s work Siècle de Louis XIV (1751) and the tumultuous events unfolding in Paris, spurred by Joseph Omer Joly de Fleury. It also references D2632, an autograph letter from Frederick II, king of Prussia (the Great), to Voltaire (François Marie Arouet), penned from Potsdam on Tuesday, 7 August 1742. Moreover, in MS1, Voltaire inadvertently omitted a verb in a sentence, which should have read ‘Je vais pendant les trois ou 4 jours que je.’
The manuscript is bound with other documents in contemporary red morocco.
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History
Date:
29 August 1742
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Bibliography
Bibliography:
Fernand Caussy, Inventaire des manuscrits de la bibliothèque de Voltaire conservée à la bibliothèque impériale publique de Saint-Pétersbourg (Geneva, Slatkine reprints, 1970)