Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Autograph letter signed : The Hague, to his partner, Thomas Becket, in London, 1764 Dec. 4.

BIB_ID
193128
Accession number
MA 6326
Creator
D'Hondt, Pieter Abraham.
Display Date
1764 Dec. 4.
Credit line
Purchased Mr. Gaylord Donnelley and Mr. William Jovanovich, 1982.
Description
1 item (4 p.) ; 22.8 cm.
Notes
Transcription on file.
Summary
Concerning the publication of books by Rousseau, Voltaire, and others, and their shipment to England; asking in a postscript that Becket have a copy of "Mrs. Carter's Epictetue" bound "in as elegant a Manner as can possibly be bound in England," warning that "it must not be overloaded with ornaments" [the words "as can possibly be bound in England," "not," and "overloaded" underlined], and discussing English workmanship; and speculating Voltaire's authorship of the Lettres Secrettes de Voltaire and the Dictionnaire philosophique de Voltaire: "You may depend upon it that these 2 Books are really wrote by Voltaire; as to the Lettres Secrettes, they have in my opinion only the name of Voltaire, and the title wc. is good, to recommend them, but their intrinsic value is very trifling, --it is otherwise with the Dictionnaire, wc. no doubt will sell much, but I do not know if it is advisable to advertise it, it is certainly a performance sc. by religious [the word "religious" underlined"] people will be numbered. in the class of bad [the word "bad" underlined"] books, for it is clear that the Author makes a jest of revealed religion, this character is I believe sufficient to persuade you not to translate it ... it has been burned. by the Common Executioner at Geneva, and we expect daily that it will be prohibited here."