ABSTRACT
The year when Hercule Florence came back from expedition there was, in the whole Sao Paulo Province, only one printing press and two periodicals, O Farol Paulistano and O Observador Constitucional. This fact reveals a great deal about Florence’s isolation in terms of information and circulation of ideas. Due to the difficulties Florence faced in publishing his Zoophonie, he considered the possibility of inventing a simple printing system and, from 1830, he started to develop a process that he later named Polygraphie. In 1830, Florence began his studies aimed at developing printing process or technique that could be applied by use of simple equipment. He engaged himself in that research which, at the beginning, seemed to be quite incipient, as one can grasp through his notes. In 1831, Edouard Pontois, who was in charge of French Relations in Rio de Janeiro, declared that he “would send” to Paris, in addition to two polygraphic proofs, a document describing all process details.
