This collection consists of handwritten copies of 18th-century French literary works by such authors as Condillac, Florian, and Voltaire. It was donated to Saint Louis University by Frederick Saugrain, son of early St. Louis settler Dr. Antoine Francois Saugrain. Either or both of these men may have been the copyist of the pieces preserved here, which perhaps served as educational aids at a time when both books and schools were in short supply in the Mississippi Valley.

This collection is organized into seven series: 1. Cours d'etudes; 2. Discours; 3. Extracts; 4. Florian; 5. V. Guillaume Vade; 6. Henault; 7. Saugrain. With the exception of Saugrain, this collection is entirely in French. The series Cours d'etudes contains Etienne Bonnot de Condillac's work of this name intended for the instruction of his young charge, the Prince of Parma. The Discours series includes some of Napoleon's communications to the Senate and Legislature of France along with several of his other speeches and decrees. The Extracts series contains part of Voltaire's Essai sur les moeurs as well as Benjamin Franklin's La Science de Bonhomme Richard, which may be a French version of his Poor Richard's Almanack. Also here is the heroic-comic poem Le Lutrin. The series entitled Florian includes excerpts from various works by this author, while that designated by the name of Guillaume Vade covers some of his efforts. A few of the historical works of Voltaire also appear among the Vade material. The Henault work copied here is his chronology of French history. The final series consists of biographical information about Antoine Francois Saugrain.