The collection publishes aesthetic works by Perrault, Fontenelle, Boileau, Racine, Lafontaine, Labruyere, La Mota, A. Dacier, Fenelon, related to the "Dispute about the Ancient and the New," which erupted in France at the turn of the XVII and XVIII centuries, on the issue of attitudes towards ancient heritage. Most of the materials in Russian are published for the first time.