page_title: Johann Heinrich Zedler
section_title: Announcement of the Universal Lexicon
hierarchical_section_title: Johann Heinrich Zedler / Independent bookseller and publisher in Leipzig / Announcement of the Universal Lexicon
context_page_description: Johann Heinrich Zedler was a bookseller and publisher. His most important achievement was the creation of a German encyclopedia, the Grosses Universal-Lexicon,
  the largest and most comprehensive German-language encyclopedia developed in the 18th century.
  After training as a bookseller, Zedler founded his own publishing house in 1726. It was initially based in Freiberg, Upper Saxony, and in 1727 moved to the Publishing and Book Trade Center in Leipzig.
  His first major publication was an eleven volume edition of the writings of Martin Luther published between 1729 and 1734, with an index volume published in 1740.
  As the founding publisher of the Universal Lexicon, started in 1731 and during his lifetime growing to a total of 64 volumes, Zedler got into a long-standing legal dispute with the established publishers in Leipzig, whose more specialized products were threatened.
  Some time before the spring of 1737, Zedler suffered a financial collapse. His business was bought by the Leipzig businessman Johann Heinrich Wolf.
context_section_description: On 26 March 1730 Zedler announced the seventh and eighth volumes of Luther's works in the journal New Learned Works, and also announced his next project: the Great Complete Universal Lexicon of Science and Art, with the first volume to be available through Praenumeration subscriptions.
  Zedler intended to summarize many previously available reference works on various fields of knowledge into a single large work of reference. The plan was a challenge to the established publishers of Leipzig.
  For example, Johann Friedrich Gleditsch had published a household lexicon in 1704, and with its third edition of 1708 this had become a form of encyclopedia.
  Thomas Fritsch had published the General Historical Lexicon in 1709, the German-language equivalent of Le Grand Dictionnaire historique of Louis Moréri, a multi-volume project with contributions from specialist writers and scientists.
  In 1721, Johann Theodor Jablonski published a General Lexicon of Arts and Science.
  A series of small reference books and dictionaries  for the public completed the range.
  All these works were now threatened by Zedler's project.
  The first public reaction from an established Leipzig publisher came five weeks after Zedler's notice. Caspar Fritsch, son of Thomas Fritsch (who had died in 1726), was concerned about the effect on sales of the General Historical Lexicon, whose third edition was being prepared. He announced special pricing, and stressed the security of subscriptions to his established work.
caption: Zedler announced on 26 March 1730 his plan to print a large universal lexicon of all the sciences, seeking Praenumeration subscriptions.
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon DIGITAL IXUS 750", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "180", "Image YResolution": "180", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2007:05:09 16:07:52", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "188", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "180", "Thumbnail YResolution": "180", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "2090", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "8814", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/60", "EXIF FNumber": "14/5", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2007:05:09 16:07:52", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2007:05:09 16:07:52", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "5", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "189/32", "EXIF ApertureValue": "95/32", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "95/32", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "77/10", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3072", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2304", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "768000/71", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "768000/71", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Manual", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "3072", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "2304", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "1942"}