A new handwritten copy of Voltaire’s letter Sur l’ame

A newly discovered copy of Voltaire’s letter Sur M. Locke among the papers of the painter F. Tissen enriches our knowledge about the clandestine dissemination of this document. It belongs to the family of the oft-reprinted Poppy collection (1738), the wording of the title as well as other details bringing it closer in line with the edition published in Paris in 1747. However, it does not appear that this manuscript was copied directly from the printed version, but from a manuscript of the 1747 edition.