Tauchnitz
Encyclopedia
Karl Christoph Traugott Tauchnitz (1761-1836), born at Grossbardau near Grimma
Grimma
Grimma is a town in the Free State of Saxony, Germany on the left bank of the Mulde, southeast of Leipzig. Founded in c. 1170, it is part of the Leipzig district.- Location :...
, Saxony
Saxony
The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....
, established a printing business in Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
in 1796 and a publishing house in 1798. He specialized in the publication of dictionaries, Bibles, and stereotyped editions of the Greek and Roman classics.
The business was carried on by his son, Karl Christian Phillipp Tauchnitz (1798-1884), until 1865, when the business was sold to O. Holtze. He left large sums to the city of Leipzig for philanthropic purposes.
Christian Bernhard, Freiherr von Tauchnitz (1816-1895), the founder of the firm of Bernhard Tauchnitz, was the nephew of the first-mentioned. His printing and publishing firm was started at Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
(Germany) in 1837.
Bernhard started the Collection of British and American Authors in 1841, a reprint series familiar to anglophone travellers on the continent of Europe. These inexpensive, paperbound editions, a direct precursor to mass-market paperbacks, was begun in 1841, and eventually ran to over 5000 volumes. In 1868 he began the Collection of German Authors, followed in 1886 by the Students' Tauchnitz editions.
In 1860 he was ennobled with the title of Freiherr
Freiherr
The German titles Freiherr and Freifrau and Freiin are titles of nobility, used preceding a person's given name or, after 1919, before the surname...
(Baron), and in 1877 was made a life member of the Saxon Upper Chamber. From 1866 to 1895 he was British Consul-General for the kingdom and duchies of Saxony. He was succeeded in the business by his son, Christian Karl Bernhard, Freiherr von Tauchnitz.
The Todd-Bowden Collection of Tauchnitz Editions
The Todd-Bowden Collection is an important collection of Tauchnitz editions in the British LibraryBritish Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
. It was acquired in 1992, with the aid of the German KulturStiftung der Länder and the National Heritage Memorial Fund
National Heritage Memorial Fund
The National Heritage Memorial Fund is a non-departmental public body set up under the National Heritage Act 1980 in memory of people who gave their lives for the United Kingdom....
. The collection includes approximately 6,700 volumes, together with sale catalogues, leaflets, and other advertising materials and is one of the most important collections of Tauchnitz books outside Germany.