ABSTRACT
On April 14, 1791, one might have read in the Chronique de Pans, from the pen of one of its regular contributors, the Marquis Charles de Villette, a letter calling the citizens of the capital to witness:
Brothers and Friends,
I have taken the liberty to erase, on the corner of my house, this inscription: Quai des Théatins; and I have just substituted for it: Quai de Voltaire. It is at my house that this great man has died. His memory is as immortal as his works. We will always have a Voltaire, and we will never again have the Theatine priests. I do not know if the Municipals [Municipaux], the Supervisors [Voyers], the Representatives [Commissaires] of the neighborhood will find this new denomination illegal, since they did not order it; but I thought that the decree of the National Assembly, which is preparing public honors for Mirabeau, Jean-Jacques and Voltaire, was, for this legitimate innovation, a sufficient authority. 1
