LS in French, signed “Voltaire,” one page, 3.75 x 6.25, July 15, 1776. Letter written from his home at Ferney, lamenting financial losses caused by the sinking of a ship. In full (translated): "I place into your hands, Monsieur, a small act of atonement for the breaches that I have caused and that I made a great deal larger before the end of the year. It is no easy thing to build a city when one loses thirty thousand francs on the ship Carnatic. I am quite afraid that you have lost something there also, but I am far more grieved to have lost Monsieur Turgot." In fine condition.
In 1759, Voltaire left Geneva and moved to the commune Ferney near the French-Swiss border. He lived there for the remaining twenty years of his life before returning to Paris, where he died in 1778. So influential was Voltaire during his residency there—he built the local church, set up potteries, watch-making shops, and theatres—that after the French Revolution, the town was renamed 'Ferney-Voltaire' in his honor.
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