The original form of scholarly communication, the “correspondance littéraire,” emerged at the end of the first third of the xviiith century and may be described as the regular dispatch, in the form of handwritten letters, of chronicles detailing all the cultural activities taking place in the Paris of that time. The recipient, who paid dearly for this service, was almost always a member of German royalty, a fact that testifies eloquently to the fascination that French culture exerted upon the European elite at the time. Despite several commonalities, the “correspondance littéraire” differs from the erudite correspondence inherited from the humanist period, as well as from the literary journalism then proliferating, and lastly from the “handwritten news” [nouvelles à la main] with its the strictly political content. Only conceivable within the cultural environment of Old Régime France, the “correspondance littéraire” will experience the same destiny as the latter and disappear on the verge of the Revolution after half a century of enduring success.