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Voltaire

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:6,000.00 - 8,000.00 USD
Voltaire

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Auction Date:2015 Mar 11 @ 18:00 (UTC-05:00 : EST/CDT)
Location:236 Commercial St., Suite 100, Boston, Massachusetts, 02109, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
LS in French, three pages on two adjoining sheets, 7.25 x 9, December 8, 1767. Letter to the Seigneury of Montbeliard, giving a meticulous account of their debts and asking them, if nothing else, because of his age, to pay what is rightfully his. In part (translated): “I have no time to lose…You promise me ten thousand francs in January…Tell me, gentlemen, delegations accepted for the rest…both for my life and for that of my nieces and nephews, regarding theirs after my death. This will end all discussion. Do you feel, gentlemen, what a sad state you have reduced me to by not paying me. I have currently more than twenty five thousand pounds. I am a family man at the head of a large house…I trust that you will not want to fill the end of my life with so much bitterness.” Intersecting folds, light dampstaining to edges, show-through from writing to opposing sides, and brushing to the signature, otherwise fine condition. Voltaire published the satirical novella L'Ingenu in 1767, which offered harsh criticism of intolerance, fanaticism, superstitions, sects, and the Catholic clergy. A fine letter from a late but productive period of Voltaire’s brilliant career.