In 1688, Kuhnau completed his dissertation and began practicing law. He was still working as an organist and continued composing. In 1689 he published his first collection of keyboard works, followed by three more in 1692, 1696, and 1700. During the 1690s, he translated a number of books into German from Italian and French, completed and published his best-known novel, the satirical "Der musicalische Quack-Salber" (1700), and devoted his spare time to studying various subjects such as mathematics, Hebrew and Greek. In 1701 he succeeded Johann Schelle as Thomaskantor and kept the position until his death. Unfortunately, although he was successful in directing the many musical activities of the Thomaskirche and teaching at Thomasschule, Kuhnau started suffering from bad health. Scholar Willi Apel noted that the job was "as vexatious and difficult for him as for his successor, J.S. Bach." Not only health troubles, but also efforts by rival musicians and composers such as Georg Philipp Telemann and Kuhnau's own student Johann Friedrich Fasch, undermined his activities as Kantor.