Christian Bernhard Tauchnitz (August 25, 1816 – August 13, 1895)
was a German
publisher
Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...
.
Biography
He was born near
Naumburg
Naumburg () is a town in (and the administrative capital of) the district Burgenlandkreis, in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, Central Germany. It has a population of around 33,000. The Naumburg Cathedral became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2018 ...
, a nephew of
Karl Christoph Traugott Tauchnitz. His firm, founded in
Leipzig in 1837, was noted for its accurate classical and biblical texts, its dictionaries, and other works of reference.
In 1841, Tauchnitz began a ''Collection of British Authors'', now extending to some 3500 volumes and widely read on the continent of
Europe. English authors were paid a royalty by Tauchnitz, who thus helped to establish the present international
copyright law
A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...
. A similar collection of ''German Authors'' (translated into English) was begun in 1866 and ''Students' Tauchnitz Editions'' of English and American works began to appear in 1886 with notes and introductions in German.
In 1860 the title of baron was conferred upon him by the duke of
Saxe-Coburg-Gotha
Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (german: Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha), or Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (german: Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha, links=no ), was an Ernestine, Thuringian duchy ruled by a branch of the House of Wettin, consisting of territories in the present- ...
, and his title was recognized by the king of Saxony in 1861.
Tauchnitz was made British Consul General for
Saxony in 1872, and a member of the Saxon House of Peers in 1877.
See also
*
Tauchnitz publishers
Tauchnitz was the name of a family of German printers and publishers. They published English language literature for distribution on the European continent outside Great Britain, including initial serial publications of novels by Charles Dickens. ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tauchnitz, Christian Bernhard
1816 births
1895 deaths
German book publishers (people)
Members of the First Chamber of the Diet of the Kingdom of Saxony