Writing and Printing

Société littéraire typographique de Kehl

The Société littéraire typographique de Kehl was a publishing house founded by Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais and Nicolas de Condorcet for the sole purpose of publishing an edition of Voltaire's Œuvres complètes. It moved into the Kehl, owned by the Margraviate of Baden, to escape Louis XVI's censorship. In operation from 1780 to 1790, it was at its peak the largest printing works in Europe, with 40 presses and nearly 200 employees. Despite an outcry from the clergy, a royal ban, the embezzlement of funds by the director of the printing works, the flight of the cashier, attempts at counterfeiting, Russian and Prussian political pressure, a betrayal by Voltaire's last secretary, and major technical problems, publication, albeit years behind schedule, was completed.

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See also

• ▸Buyla inscription
• ▸Chinese herbology
• ▸Decline of newspapers

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