Collection of letters and manuscripts : France, Switzerland, Germany, etc., to various recipients, 1710 June 27-1778 Jan. 12 1735-1778.

This collection consists of a group of letters that Pierpont Morgan purchased from J. Pearson & Co. in 1900. In 1922, the Morgan's bookbinder, Marguerite Duprez Lehay, bound these letters, together with other Voltaire materials removed from extra-illustrated works, in a red-morrocco folio volume which was accessioned as MA 638. Of the 95 items, 45 are letters to Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas de Caritat, marquis de Condorcet, liberal reformer and president of the Academy of Sciences, and Voltaire's future biographer. There are also three letters to the young chevalier de Lally-Tollendal. The remaining letters are a representative sample of Voltaire's correspondence from 1735 to his death. Mixed among them are the occasional poem; a draft of an article intended for the Encycloṕedie; a document signed by Voltaire's father, François Arouet; and letters from people including Anne Claude Philippe, comte de Caylus, Gabrielle Emilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil, marquise Du Châtelet, Olympe Du Noyer, Marie-Louise Mignot Denis, Trophime-Gérard, marquis de Lally-Tolendal, and Jean François Dufour, seigneur de Villevieille. Items are described in 95 individual records; see MA 638.1-95 for more information.