VOLTAIRE (1694-1778). Manuscrit, Mémoires pour servir à la vie de Mr De Voltaire, écrits par lui-même, [2e moitié du XVIIIe siècle]; one small volume in-8 (16,5x10,5cm) of 322pages, contemporary binding in marbled calf, gilt filleting on boards, spine decorated, gilt edges (hinges worn, spine rubbed). Clandestine copy of Voltaire's Mémoires. A few rare copies of the Mémoires circulated before their publication in 1784 by Beaumarchais. As the text was banned, other copies were circulated under the table. The present copy, with its neat, legible handwriting, is on ruled pages lined with graphite. We note a few corrections by another hand, as well as the addition of a subtitle: "Ses liaisons avec le Roi de Prusse et la Marqse Du Chatellet" ("His liaisons with the King of Prussia and the Marqse Du Chatellet"), and two marginal notes: regarding the "dreadful portrait" of Seckendorff by Frederick II "inserted in some thirty copies of Branbourg's memoirs": "J'ai donné à l'Electeur Palatin l'exemplaire dont le Roi de Prusse m'avoit fait présent" (p.28); and (p.236) "M. de Voltaire had given up his correspondence with the King of Prussia; but he had never interrupted it with the Marckgrave of Bareith".