Thirty-nine scholars contributed to the series, which was edited by Pierre Huet with assistance from several co-editors, including Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet and Anne Dacier.
[2] The original volumes each had an engraving of Arion and a dolphin, accompanied by the inscription in usum serenissimi Delphini (for the use of the most serene Dauphin).
[8] Editors of the Ad usum Delphini consciously censored classical works, deleting from the main texts passages they deemed obscene.
[9][10] The expression Ad usum Delphini is therefore sometimes used to refer to other texts which were expurgated because they contained passages considered inappropriate for the target audience (such as the youth).
[14] „Sie sind, unterbrach ihn der Prinz, ein spaßhafter Mann.“ — Ganz und gar nicht, fuhr Kreisler fort, ich liebe zwar den Spaß, aber nur den schlechten, und der ist nun wieder nicht spaßhaft.
The Ad usum Delphini collection was referred to by Edward Bulwer-Lytton in Devereux, Book IV (1829):[15] let me turn to Milord Bolingbroke, and ask him whether England can produce a scholar equal to Peter Huet, who in twenty years wrote notes to sixty-two volumes of Classics, for the sake of a prince who never read a line in one of them?"