Donatien-Alphonse-François, marquis de SADE. Autograph manuscript, [at the Bastille, 1787?]; 2pages in-4. Curious manuscript containing notes after Beccaria, a plan for Aline and Valcour, and a coded erotic letter. On the first page and at the beginning of the second, the Marquis has collected notes taken (in his defense?) from Beccaria's Traité des délits et peines, of which we quote the first: "No other crimes are assumed of him because the situation puts him in no state to commit them. That leaves desertion, and we have already said how it will be punished"... Following this, he jotted down a coded erotic letter, probably intended for his wife: "Jai une envie de / vous gronder ettonnante cette maniere dont you thread that / doesn't say a word is awful and in truth everything one / can imagine with you one never knows what one and that / is atrocious thinking about it I know it's not is not surprising /you've closed up with me since we stopped being together, but I must confess I don't see any /reason for your behavior and you're the most peculiar of you imagine I'll forgive you for all this, you think I must be well that I must be / very ulcerated by your / conduct, adieu I am [...] in train like a / beast like a donkey like a Spanish stallion [...] / I salute you, please come and see me come whenever you like / you always give me pleasure and honor and you can be sure that / despite all the grief you give me you will be well fucked / yes fucked with all my soul"... Below, and in the margin, plan and notes for Aline and Valcour: "He must have been in love at 20 with a girl in garrison who fell in love with him, to whom he had made a promise of marriage; he returns to Paris, thinks no more of it, the young lady dies of grief"... Etc. In the margin, notes on the chronology and ages of the novel's characters: "20 amour / 23 père mort et tue l'ami"... Etc. Attached is a L.A.S. "Montreuil de Sade" from the Marquise, May 18, 1774, requesting accounts to be forwarded to M. de Sade (1p. in-4).