46

Diderot’s income increased considerably in 1767-9, following the Russian Empress’s payment of fifty years of pension to constitute and preserve his library. This article therefore analyses his personal relationship to money through his correspondence from those years. Three series of exchanges have been chosen in order to study in detail how Diderot looked after both his own money and that of his protégés: his letters to his sister Denise; his exchanges with abbé Gayet de Sansale in charge of the case of an acquaintance from Langres who was in legal dispute with his brothers; and the letters to the actress Marie-Madeleine Jodin. They show a constant ethical concern, which is both universal and adapted to particular conditions, individuals and circumstances.