‎VOLTAIRE, (FRANCOIS M.A.de).‎
‎Oeuvres completes de Voltaire. 90 vols (out of 92, wanting vol. 57 and 87).‎

‎(No place), L’Imprimerie De La Société Littéraire-Typographique, 1785-89. 8vo. Uniformly bound in 90 contemporary full sprinkled calf bindings with five raised bands and gilt lettering and ornamentation to spines. Ex-libris (Karl Henrik Koch, Danish author and philosopher) pasted on to pasted down front end-papers. Bindings with wear, of which 35 have considerable wear, with loss of leather and boards party detached. Internally with light marginal browning, but generally nice and clean. With 2 portraits (in vol. 1 and 16) and 14 engraved plates (in vol. 39). Wanting vol. 57 and 87. ‎

Reference : 61987

‎This edition of the Voltaire's Complete Works notably includes the bulk of Voltaire’s previously unpublished correspondence. The Société littéraire typographique was a publishing house founded by Beaumarchais and Condorcet in order to publish a new complete edition of Voltaire's works. Based in Kehl in Baden to escape censorship it operated from 1780 to 1790 they aimed at creating a monumental posthumous edition, seven years after Voltaire’s death. To achieve this Beaumarchais purchased the printing types of the great English typographer John Baskerville from his widow and acquired paper mills and presses (including three paper mills in the Vosges). Graesse VII, 390.Brunet V, 1354.Bibliographie Voltairienne , p. 101.‎