Figure 165
Baskerville’s Types used in Voltaire’s La Pucelle, Kehl
From HathiTrust (scan 1, scan 2)
1789
The Kehl editions of Voltaire (with the imprint Société Littéraire Typographique) were printed from Baskerville’s type, purchased by Beaumarchais for the purpose. Three editions were proposed; but the octavo and 12mo seem to have been the only ones completed. The octavo is the better of the two, and its pages have distinction and charm. Their marked lightness of effect is gained by very open leading and by titles set in spaced capital letters, much helped by the small sizes of the types employed, which lend themselves readily to this kind of treatment. Some of the tables of contents are particularly interesting in composition. The 12mo edition, planned on the same lines as the octavo, scarcely “arrives,” as its type seems rather a misfit for such a small format. This work—de longue haleine—was printed in seventy volumes octavo, and in ninety-two volumes 12mo, being begun in 1784 and finished in 1789. Artistically a success, it was financially a complete failure. And it is one of the sarcasms of destiny that the Revolution which Voltaire helped bring about, wrecked the “definitive edition” of his works! Pages of La Pucelle of 1789 are reproduced.