The typographical Société of Neuchâtel (or STN) is a active Publisher of 1769 with 1789. The library of Neuchâtel (BPUN) has funds of files of company which makes it possible to study the history of this company. It attracts many researchers as Darnton for its studies on the clandestine book.

The STN is founded in 1769 per Osterwald, banneret of Neuchâtel, Jean-Elie Bertrand, professor, Berthoud, Master of writing and Samuel Fauche, bookseller and editor.

The situation is very favorable since the consumption of the books (and especially French books) explode in Europe. Moreover the censure which is exerted in France incites the authors to seek obliging printers, often located along the borders (London, Amsterdam, Brussels, Kehl, Geneva, Lausanne, Neuchâtel…).

The company functions primarily with the counterfeit, which makes it possible to reduce the costs and to offer a reasonable price. The imports in France are done then in a clandestine way. In Neuchâtel, the censure is not too heavy. Thus the authorities authorize the STN to print certain dangerous works like the Système of nature of Holbach, in condition however that the name of their city do not appear and that the works are reserved for export. But the impression is ventilated with the great scandal of the Vénérable Class and Osterwald loses its load of banneret.

Other problems emerge when Fauche - without the knowledge of its associates - joined in the orders whom it prepares for France, of the specimens of the prohibited booklet: the Gazetier armoured of Théveneau de Morande. A Lyons bookseller complains about this sending which was worth many troubles to him.

Mowing withdraws STN then and founds its own company. To establish its reputation, it publishes some beautiful works like Voyages in the Alps of Saussure. What does not prevent it from continuing the trade of prohibited books. It thus gets the explosive manuscript of Mirabeau Essai on the despotism .

Printed books

Among their counterfeits of the STN the Description of Arts and Métiers appears, published in Paris by the royal Académie of sciences. The version neuchâteloise is of smaller format, with some clean chapters in Switzerland and Germany, and aims at less fortunate customers. But vis-a-vis the opposition of the owners of the original version, it cannot be essential in France and is at the origin of the serious financial problems.

Because their catalog is varied little, the editors of the STN make exchanges with certain fellow-members, which enables them to propose with their customers several hundreds of different titles. “According to Robert Darnton, the STN is then, in Europe, one of the largest wholesale booksellers. Its bundles, which circulate in all the countries, in all the capitals, but also in the most moved back provinces, testify to the richness of its stores where all the literature of the time rests. Great classics (…), the tenors of the republic of the letters (Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot), the authors with the mode (Draper, Mirabeau, Raynal) côtoient of obscure minute-books whose works however marked the thought of the Lights: Luchet, Buffonidor, Baudoin de Guémadeuc or Thévenau de Morande. ”

Sources

Michel Schlup (to dir.), the typographical Company of Neuchâtel, the edition neuchâteloise at the Age of Enlightenment (1769-1789) , Public library and academic of Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel, 2002.

External bonds

• files of the STN
• In connection with the books " philosophiques"