Voltaire, Francois Marie Arouet de

Autograph letter signed ("Voltaire"), 3 pages (8 7/8 x 7 1/4 in.; 225 x 183mm), in Italian, Paris, 17 August [1750], to Cardinal Prospero Lambertini then Pope Benedict XIV; some browning and spotting, page fold frayed and strengthened with transparent paper.

The Library of the late Reverend Dr. Roderick Terry (American Art Association Anderson Galleries, Inc., 8 November 1934, lot 338)

Profound thanks for a gift and a gift of verse in return. Voltaire expresses his heartfelt thanks to Pope Benedict XIV for a gift: "I am, delighted at the kindness of your holiness, in that I have received the most precious gift, that of his portrait, and I should like to obtain through your polite courtesy, that the Holy Father should know that I am entirely devoted to his service, so much do I admire all his eminent qualities." In appreciation, Voltaire provides two lines of Latin verse in honor of his learned correspondent:

Lambertinus hic est Romae decus, et pater orbis

qui mundum scriptus docuit, virtutibus ornat.

An extraordinary letter from Voltaire to Pope Benedict XIV.