La Pucelle d'Orleans Manuscript

A manuscript copy of the 1762 "authorized" edition of Voltaire's La Pucelle d'Orleans including 47 interleavings on which the copyist has supplied ommitted passages considered too risque to print. The result is something like an early critical edition of the text. A date in the final quarter of the 18th century seems likely, at earliest post-1762.

The text is written in a single neat cursive hand throughout, with additions marked by decorative brackets. Several additions and inscriptions are present, including two names on first original flyleaf: "Monsieur de Fourkowitch" and "Chale Damans" -- both likely 18th or early 19th century. A portion has been cut from the foot of the title page (repaired) and there is some water damage to the final chapters, though it does not compromise legibility. Twentieth-century red quarter bound morocco leather, marbled endpapers.

The volume is from the library of French critic and writer Camille Cé (1878-1959) and bears her bookplate on the verso of the first flyleaf.