Karl Christoph Traugott Tauchnitz (October 29, 1761 – January 14, 1836) was a German printer and bookseller. He was born at Grosspardau, near

Grimma Grimma ( hsb, Grima) is a town in Saxony, Central Germany (cultural area), Central Germany, on the left bank of the Mulde, southeast of Leipzig. Founded in 1170, it is part of the Leipzig (district), Leipzig district. Location The town is in ...

and

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. He learned the printer's trade at Leipzig, and worked in the printing house of Unger in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

. In 1792 he entered the house of Sommer in Leipzig. He began a small printing business of his own in Leipzig in 1796. In 1798 he opened a bookstore in connection with the printing business, and in 1800 a type foundery. His business, “Karl Tauchnitz,” became one of the largest establishments of the kind in Germany. In 1809 he began to issue Greek and Latin classics in accurate, convenient, and cheap editions, and they circulated throughout

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

. He also published fine editions of classical authors in folio. By offering a prize of a ducat for every error pointed out, he brought out a remarkably correct edition of

Homer Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...

. In 1816 he introduced

stereotyping In social psychology, a stereotype is a generalized belief about a particular category of people. It is an expectation that people might have about every person of a particular group. The type of expectation can vary; it can be, for example ...

into Germany and applied it to music, an experiment which had not been tried before. His edition of

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...

's ''

Don Giovanni ''Don Giovanni'' (; K. 527; Vienna (1788) title: , literally ''The Rake Punished, or Don Giovanni'') is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. Its subject is a centuries-old Spanis ...

'' had a wide popularity. His stereotyped editions of the classics were once widely famed alike for their cheapness, their convenience, and their accuracy. He also printed stereotype editions of oriental works, including two of the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. Hebrew: ''Tān ...

, and an edition of the

Koran The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , sing.: ...

. By his will Leipzig received 4,500,000 marks for charitable ends. A son, Karl Christian Philipp Tauchnitz, carried on the business. A Tauchnitz edition of English authors, which numbered over 3,700 volumes, was begun in 1842 by a nephew,

Christian Bernhard, Freiherr von Tauchnitz Christian Bernhard Tauchnitz (August 25, 1816 – August 13, 1895) was a German publisher. Biography He was born near Naumburg, a nephew of Karl Christoph Traugott Tauchnitz. His firm, founded in Leipzig in 1837, was noted for its accurate classic ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tauchnitz, Karl Christoph Traugott 1761 births 1836 deaths German printers German book publishers (people)

See also

References