The ''Grosses vollständiges Universal-Lexicon aller Wissenschafften und Künste'' () is a 68-volume German

encyclopedia An encyclopedia is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge, either general or special, in a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into article (publishing), articles or entries that are arranged Alp ...

published by

Johann Heinrich Zedler Johann Heinrich Zedler (7 January 1706 in Breslau (now Wrocław, Poland) – 21 March 1751 in Leipzig) was a bookseller and publisher. His most important achievement was the creation of a German encyclopedia, the '' Grosses Universal-Lexicon (Gre ...

between 1731 and 1754. It was one of the largest printed encyclopedias ever, and the first to include biographies of living people in a systematic way.

Title

The bookseller and publisher Zedler published this book in

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

under the name:

''Great Complete Encyclopedia of All Sciences and Arts Which So Far Have Been Invented and Improved by Human Mind and Wit: Including the Geographical and Political Description of the Whole World with All Monarchies, Empires, Kingdoms, Principalities, Republics, Free Sovereignties, Countries, Towns, Sea Harbors, Fortresses, Castles, Areas, Authorities, Monasteries, Mountains, Passes, Woods, Seas, Lakes ... and also a Detailed Historical and Genealogical Description of the World's Brightest and Most Famous Family Lines, the Life and Deeds of the Emperors, Kings, Electors and Princes, Great Heroes, Ministers of State, War Leaders... ; Equally about All Policies of State, War and Law and Budgetary Business of the Nobility and the Bourgeois, Merchants, Traders, Arts.''

Zedler himself called his encyclopedia "Zedler's Encyclopedia" (''Zedlersches Lexikon''). Many previous encyclopedias were associated with the names of their authors, but the ''Universal Lexicon'' was the first to be associated with the name of its publisher.

Editors

The main editors were Jacob August Franckenstein (volumes 1-2), Paul Daniel Longolius (volumes 3-18), and Carl Günther Ludovici (volumes 19-64 and supplements). Each seems to have taken a different approach to encyclopedia-making. From volume 18 onward, for example, the encyclopedia contains numerous biographies of living people, presumably because of Ludovici's appointment as editor around the same time. In his introduction to volume 1, Zedler himself claimed to have had the encyclopedia compiled by nine anonymous "muses." Scholars continue to debate over how many or few collaborators he actually had. In fact, almost nothing certain is known about the individual authors of the encyclopedia. Heinrich Winkler wrote many medical articles, and Friedrich August Müller probably wrote articles on philosophy.

Lorenz Christoph Mizler Lorenz Christoph Mizler von Kolof (also known as Wawrzyniec Mitzler de Kolof and Mitzler de Koloff; 26 July 1711 – 8 May 1778) was a German physician, historian, printer, mathematician, Baroque music composer, and precursor of the Enlighten ...

(1711–1778) claimed to have written mathematical articles. Johann Heinrich Rother and Johann Christoph Gottsched have also been suggested as possible collaborators, though both denied it.

Printing

The ''Grosses vollständiges Universal-Lexicon'' is sometimes considered the first modern encyclopedia in the

German language German (, ) is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family, mainly spoken in Western Europe, Western and Central Europe. It is the majority and Official language, official (or co-official) language in Germany, Austria, Switze ...

. At the time, it was the largest printed encyclopedia in the

Western world The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to various nations and state (polity), states in Western Europe, Northern America, and Australasia; with some debate as to whether those in Eastern Europe and Latin America also const ...

, and it remains one of the largest. It was originally supposed to be printed in about 12 volumes, an estimate later extended to 24, but it was finally printed in 64 volumes plus four supplements, with about 284,000 articles on 63,000 two-column pages. Ludovici had even intended to write a further four supplements. Initial production was funded through

subscription The subscription business model is a business model in which a customer must pay a recurring price at regular intervals for access to a product or service. The model was pioneered by publishers of books and periodicals in the 17th century. It ...

, where buyers paid in advance and received a discount on the volume that was later delivered. The pressrun of the ''Universal Lexicon'' was undoubtedly small. Scholars have estimated that only around 1500 sets were printed. Zedler arranged to have the encyclopedia printed in the Halle Waisenhaus ("orphanage"), not far from Leipzig.Peter E. Carels and Dan Flory, “Johann Heinrich Zedler’s ''Universal Lexicon'',” in ''Notable Encyclopedias of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries: Nine Predecessors of the Encyclopédie'', ed. Frank A. Kafker (Oxford: Voltaire Foundation: 1981), 168. This printshop belonged to

August Hermann Francke August Hermann Francke (; 22 March 1663 – 8 June 1727) was a German Lutheran clergyman, theologian, philanthropist, and Biblical scholar. His evangelistic fervour and pietism got him expelled as lecturer from the universities of Dresden and ...

Francke Foundations The Francke Foundations (Franckesche Stiftungen), also known as Glauchasche Anstalten were founded in 1695 in Halle (Saale), Halle, Germany as a Christian, social and educational work by August Hermann Francke The Francke Foundations are today ...

. Later, between 1961 and 1964, the book was republished in

Graz Graz () is the capital of the Austrian Federal states of Austria, federal state of Styria and the List of cities and towns in Austria, second-largest city in Austria, after Vienna. On 1 January 2025, Graz had a population of 306,068 (343,461 inc ...

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

Online copy

The

Bavarian State Library The Bavarian State Library (, abbreviated BSB, called ''Bibliotheca Regia Monacensis'' before 1919) in Munich is the central " Landesbibliothek", i. e. the state library of the Free State of Bavaria, the biggest universal and research libra ...

's digitisation center in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

(''Münchener Digitalisierungszentrum'', MDZ) has digitized the encyclopedia completely, including the four supplements, in the form of images and

PDF Portable document format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe Inc., Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, computer hardware, ...

files. The 68 volumes have an index and readers can browse through the pages.

Footnotes

External links