Frédéric Samuel Ostervald

Frédéric Samuel Ostervald (born October 11, 1713 in Neuchâtel ; † July 19, 1795 ibid) was a publisher , author and politician. He came from an old patrician family from Neuchâtel.

Live and act

Frédéric Samuel Ostervald was the son of pastor Frédéric Ostervald (1683–1740) and Marguerite Chaillet (* approx. 1686). His grandfather was Henri Ostervald. Ostervald first completed a banking or commercial apprenticeship. As an author, he wrote a reader on geography in 1757 , it appeared in several editions, and in 1764 a description of the Principality of Neuchâtel .

Since 1744 he was married to Marie Suzanne d'Amberloz (* approx. 1721) the daughter of Jean d'Amberloz from Rouen . In 1746 he became a member of the Grand Council , grand conseil of the city of Neuchâtel, from 1751 he was appointed to the small council , petit conseil , then as a member of the Quatre-Ministraux (that was the municipal executive of the city of Neuchâtel). In 1757 he was elected head of the city council, maître-bourgeois en chef , and then appointed as a banner lord (Venner) or head of the city militia for the period from 1762 to 1771 . His daughter Marie Anne Élisabeth Bertrand was director of the Philanthropin (Frankenthal / Pfalz) from 1786 to 1799 .

Ostervald founded the Société typographique de Neuchâtel (STN) in 1769 with his son-in-law, the Reformed pastor and high school teacher Jean-Élie Bertrand (1737–1779), Jonas-Pierre Berthoud and the bookseller Samuel Fauche (1732–1803 ) . But as early as 1772 Samuel Fauche was excluded from the joint publishing project by his partners because they felt they had been betrayed by the decision to print an offensive pamphlet . Fauche later founded his own publishing bookstore.

The Société typographique was a large publishing bookstore across the French border, which supplied the area of the Ancien Régime with pirated prints and banned books in the 18th century . From 1707 to 1805, from 1815 to 1848, and formally until 1857, the county (later principality) of Neuchâtel and the city of Neuchâtel were linked to the King of Prussia in personal union.

During his time as head of Société typographique from 1769 to 1789, in 1771 he published a pirated print of Paul Henri Thiry d'Holbach's system of nature against the ostracism of parish chapters and the Council of State. Ostervald then had to resign from his office as a banneret. In 1782 he was given a seat on the Small Council, petit conseil .

Fonts (selection)

Géographie historique: avec un cours de geographie élémentaire. A. Wagner, 1761.
Reasons for the beginning of the description of the earth: excellent for the use of young children. set up. Treuttel, 1790. (Title of the 1761 edition in German)
Les loix, us et coutumes de la Souverainete de Neuchatel et Valangin. D'apres le manuscrit meme de l'Auteur. Chez Samuel Fauche père & fils, Imprimeurs & Libraires du Roi, Neuchatel 1785.

literature

Gudrun Gersmann: In the shadow of the Bastille. The world of writers, colporteurs and booksellers on the eve of the French Revolution. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-608-91623-7 , p. 64 f.

Web links

Literature by and about Frédéric Samuel Ostervald in the SUDOC catalog (Association of French University Libraries)
Consortium of European Research Libraries. Frédéric Samuel Ostervald.
Fonds de la Société typographique de Neuchâtel (1769–1789). Bibliothèque publique et universitaire Neuchâtel.
Michel Schlup: Ostervald, Frédéric Samuel. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .

Individual evidence

↑ Michel Schlup: Ostervald, Frédéric Samuel. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
↑ Family genealogy
↑ Dictionnaire des journalistes (1600–1789) No. 071, Jean Elie BERTRAND (1737–1779)
^ Anne Jeanneret-de Rougemont: Fauche, Samuel. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
^ Michel Schlup: Société typographique de Neuchâtel. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
↑ Robert Darnton : The science of pirated printing. A central element in the publishing industry of the 18th century. Vol. 77, Carl Friedrich von Siemens Stiftung, Munich 2002.
^ Thomas Bürger: Enlightenment in Zurich. The Orell, Gessner, Füssli & Comp. in the second half of the 18th century. In Monika Estermann; Reinhard Wittmann (ed.): Archive for the history of the book industry. Published by the historical commission of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association, Vol. 48 Walter de Gruyter, 1999 p. 133 f.
^ Robert Darnton: The Business of Enlightenment: Publishing History of the Encyclopédie, 1775-1800: Publishing History of the "Encyclopedie", 1775-1800. Harvard University Press, 1987, ISBN 0-674-08786-0 , pp. 39 f.

personal data
SURNAME	Ostervald, Frédéric Samuel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Osterwald, Frédéric Samuel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Swiss publisher, author, politician
DATE OF BIRTH	October 11, 1713
PLACE OF BIRTH	Neuchâtel NE
DATE OF DEATH	July 19, 1795
Place of death	Neuchâtel NE

[1] Michel Schlup: Ostervald, Frédéric Samuel. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .

[2] Family genealogy

[3] Dictionnaire des journalistes (1600–1789) No. 071, Jean Elie BERTRAND (1737–1779)

[4] Anne Jeanneret-de Rougemont: Fauche, Samuel. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .

[5] Michel Schlup: Société typographique de Neuchâtel. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .

[6] Robert Darnton : The science of pirated printing. A central element in the publishing industry of the 18th century. Vol. 77, Carl Friedrich von Siemens Stiftung, Munich 2002.

[7] Thomas Bürger: Enlightenment in Zurich. The Orell, Gessner, Füssli & Comp. in the second half of the 18th century. In Monika Estermann; Reinhard Wittmann (ed.): Archive for the history of the book industry. Published by the historical commission of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association, Vol. 48 Walter de Gruyter, 1999 p. 133 f.

[8] Robert Darnton: The Business of Enlightenment: Publishing History of the Encyclopédie, 1775-1800: Publishing History of the "Encyclopedie", 1775-1800. Harvard University Press, 1987, ISBN 0-674-08786-0 , pp. 39 f.