Browsing: Adams Family Correspondence, Volume 5

9. The earliest edition of Christof Hermann von Manstein's Memoirs of Russia . . . from the year 1727 to 1744 was translated from the original French MS, edited by David Hume, and published in London in 1770. French and German editions appeared in 1771. JQA purchased the Paris edition of 1771 in St. Petersburg on 7 March 1782, according to his notation on p. iii of the volume, which is now in MQA. Manstein's Memoirs; Voltaire's Histoire de l'empire de Russie sous Pierre le grand (1759–1763), which JQA bought in July 1781, either in Germany or in Holland (vol. 4:234, note 2; JQA, Diary , 1:94–95); and JQA's observations were the sources for his descriptions of Russia. See JQA to AA, 23 Oct. 1781 (vol. 4:233–234).