Karl Christoph Traugott Tauchnitz (29 October 1761 – 14 January 1836) was a German printer and bookseller. He was born at Grosspardau, near

Grimma Grimma (; , ) is a town in Saxony, Central Germany, on the left bank of the Mulde, southeast of Leipzig. Founded in 1170, it is part of the Leipzig district. Location The town is in northern Saxony, southeast of Leipzig and south of Wurz ...

and

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 ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. He learned the printer's trade at Leipzig, and worked in the printing house of Unger in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

. In 1792 he entered the house of Sommer in Leipzig. He began a small printing business of his own in Leipzig in 1796. In 1798 he opened a bookstore in connection with the printing business, and in 1800 a type foundery. His business, “Karl Tauchnitz,” became one of the largest establishments of the kind in Germany. In 1809 he began to issue Greek and Latin classics in accurate, convenient, and cheap editions, and they circulated throughout

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

. He also published fine editions of classical authors in folio. By offering a prize of a ducat for every error pointed out, he brought out a remarkably correct edition of

Homer Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...

. In 1816 he introduced

stereotyping In social psychology, a stereotype is a generalized belief about a particular category of people. It is an expectation that people might have about every person of a particular group. The type of expectation can vary; it can be, for example ...

into Germany and applied it to music, an experiment which had not been tried before. His edition of

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition and proficiency from an early age ...

's ''

Don Giovanni ''Don Giovanni'' (; K. 527; full title: , literally ''The Rake Punished, or Don Giovanni'') is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. Its subject is a centuries-old Spanish legen ...

'' had a wide popularity. His stereotyped editions of the classics were once widely famed alike for their cheapness, their convenience, and their accuracy. He also printed stereotype editions of oriental works, including two of the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' Koran The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...

. By his will Leipzig received 4,500,000 marks for charitable ends. A son, Karl Christian Philipp Tauchnitz, carried on the business. A Tauchnitz edition of English authors, which numbered over 3,700 volumes, was begun in 1842 by a nephew, Christian Bernhard, Freiherr von Tauchnitz.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tauchnitz, Karl Christoph Traugott 1761 births 1836 deaths German printers German book publishers (people) 18th-century German publishers (people) Printers from the Holy Roman Empire

See also

References