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 ...
's
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
Further reading
* Gu Zhengxiang: "Zum
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
-Bild des Zedlerschen Lexikons:
Bibliographie der in seinen China-Artikeln besprochenen oder als Quellen genannten Werke", in: ''Suevica. Beiträge zur schwäbischen Literatur- und Geistesgeschichte'', hrsg. von
Reinhard Breymayer, 9 (2001/2002). Stuttgart: Heinz, 2004
005 pp. 477–506, .
* Werner Raupp: Zedler, Johann Heinrich, in:
Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon
The ''Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon'' (''BBKL'') is a German biographical encyclopedia covering deceased persons related to the history of the church, philosophy and literature, founded by Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz, the first volu ...
, vol. 26, Nordhausen 2006, col. 1576–1588 (with detailed bibliography).
External links
*
Digitised version, in GermanZedleriana: information about Zedler's encyclopaedia from the University of Essen, in German*
ttps://web.archive.org/web/20041024135212/http://www.deutsches-museum.de/bib/entdeckt/alt_buch/text1200.htm German Museum in Munich's Book of the Month, January 2001, in German
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grosses vollstandiges Universal-Lexicon
1731 non-fiction books
1731 in literature
1731 introductions
Book series introduced in the 1730s
18th-century encyclopedias
German encyclopedias
Encyclopedias in German
History of Leipzig