![VOLTAIRE, François Marie Arouet de (1694-1778). Letter signed ('Voltaire gentilhome [sic] ordinaire du roi') to an unidentified recipient [the architect Jean-Rodolphe Perronet], Ferney, 28 July 1774, the text in the hand of Voltaire's amanuensis, Wagnière, one page, 4to.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2006/CSK/2006_CSK_04072_0196_000(122001).jpg?w=1)
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VOLTAIRE, François Marie Arouet de (1694-1778). Letter signed ('Voltaire gentilhome [sic] ordinaire du roi') to an unidentified recipient [the architect Jean-Rodolphe Perronet], Ferney, 28 July 1774, the text in the hand of Voltaire's amanuensis, Wagnière, one page, 4to.
PRAISE FOR PERRONET'S FAMOUS BRIDGE AT NEUILLY: 'Sir, you give me a great desire to take the coach and come and see the bridge at Neuilly. I would set out immediately if my 80 years and my continual illnesses did not hold me back. It is sad to die without seeing the monuments which give lustre to one's country', thanking Perronet for sending a plan of the bridge, and expressing his confidence that the King will employ him on further works 'which will immortalise his age and his reign'.
Jean-Rodolphe Perronet (1708-1794) was a pioneer of the low-arch bridge, constructing elegant bridges supported on his characteristically slender piers. The bridge at Neuilly was the scene of a notable demonstration before Louis XV at its opening, when the centring was released simultaneously from all five arches, to fall into the Seine.
PRAISE FOR PERRONET'S FAMOUS BRIDGE AT NEUILLY: 'Sir, you give me a great desire to take the coach and come and see the bridge at Neuilly. I would set out immediately if my 80 years and my continual illnesses did not hold me back. It is sad to die without seeing the monuments which give lustre to one's country', thanking Perronet for sending a plan of the bridge, and expressing his confidence that the King will employ him on further works 'which will immortalise his age and his reign'.
Jean-Rodolphe Perronet (1708-1794) was a pioneer of the low-arch bridge, constructing elegant bridges supported on his characteristically slender piers. The bridge at Neuilly was the scene of a notable demonstration before Louis XV at its opening, when the centring was released simultaneously from all five arches, to fall into the Seine.
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