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Encyclopaedia Article on "The Reprinting of Books", Leipzig and Halle (1740)

Source:
Universitätsbibliothek Tübingen 34 A 398 [Reprint Edition of 1995]

Citation:
Encyclopaedia Article on "The Reprinting of Books" (1740), Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900), eds L. Bently & M. Kretschmer, www.copyrighthistory.org

Record Images


Record-ID:
d_1740

Full title
Anonnymous article by Johann Abraham Birnbaum on "The Reprinting of Books" for Zedler's Encyclopaedia

Full title original language
Article "Nachdruck derer Bücher", in "Zedlers Universal-Lexicon" vol.23, col.60-80

Abstract
The anonymous article on "The Reprinting of Books" in vol. 23 of Johann Heinrich Zedler (1706-1751)'s encyclopaedia, the "Großes Universal-Lexikon", was mainly based on an earlier book by Johann Abraham Birnbaum (1702-1748) that had also been published anonymously. There is no direct evidence for Birnbaum's authorship of the article, but it does seem very likely given that many editors of the Zedler "Universal-Lexikon" were based at Leipzig University, where Birnbaum himself taught as a lecturer in rhetoric.
Birnbaum acknowledges an intellectual property of the author and identifies physical and non-physical aspects of the book. The author's disposal of the manuscript, however, is in Birnbaum's view a "complete cession of all rights associated with it which otherwise belong exclusively to the work's author."
Ironically, Zedler's 64-volume "Universal-Lexikon" (the first volume of which was published in Leipzig in 1731) was at first confiscated by the authorities because many of its scholarly articles had evidently been plagiarised from encyclopaedias brought out by other Leipzig publishers. A few years later, to compound the irony, the Universal-Lexikon in its turn would be illegally reprinted, after Zedler's Imperial privilege was revoked in 1737, possibly under pressure of the reprinter himself, Johann Ernst Schultze, a publisher based in the Bavarian town of Hof.

Bibliography
Gieseke, Ludwig, "Vom Privileg zum Urheberrecht" (Baden-Baden: Nomos 1995)
Quedenbaum, Gerd, "Der Verleger und Buchhändler Joahnn Heinrich Zedler 1706-1751" (Hildesheim: Olms, 1977)
Wittmann, Reinhold, "Geschichte des deutschen Buchhandels" (Munich: Beck, 1999)

Related documents in this database

Author
Johann Abraham Birnbaum (1702-1748)

Publisher
Johann Heinrich Zedler

Location
Leipzig and Halle

Year
1740

Language
German

Source
Universitätsbibliothek Tübingen 34 A 398 [Reprint Edition of 1995]

Physical description
N/A

Illustrations tables
N/A

Persons referred to
Aristophanes (c.448 B.C.-c.388 B.C.)
Berger, Johann Heinrich von (1657-1732)
Beier, Adrian (1634-1698)
Birnbaum, Johann Abraham (1702-1748)
Bode, Heinrich (1652-1720)
Böhmer, Justus Henning (1674-1749)
Carpzov, Benedict Jr (1595-1666)
Marchand, Prosper, (c.1675-1756)
Chevillier, André (1636-1700)
Cicero, Marcus Tullius (106 B.C.-43 B.C.)
Erasmus (1466/69-1536)
Froben, Johann (c.1460-1527)
Johann Georg I (1585-1656)
Johann Georg II (1613-1680)
Charles V of Habsburg (1500-1558)
Hess, Johann Stephan (d.1725)
Le Cointe, Charles (d.1611)
Lederer, Michael Friedrich (1639-1674)
Leyser, Augustin von (1683-1752)
Lentz, Christian (d.1650)
Ludewig, Johann Peter von (1668-1743)
Luther, Martin (1483-1546)
Mencke, Lüder (1658-1726)
Moscherosch, Johann Michel (1601-1689)
Moses
Müller, August Friedrich (1684-1761)
Romanus, Paul Franz (1641-1675)
St Paul the Apostle (c.5-67)
Scriver, Christian Gotthold (1629-1693)
Sextus Pomponius (c.120 A.D.)
Simon, Père Richard (1638-1712)
Stryk, Samuel (1640-1710)
Süstermann, Johann Melchior (fl.1696-1718)
Theodosius I, the Great (c.346-395)
Trentacinquius, Alessandro (d.1599)
Valens (328-378)
Werner, Johann Balthasar (1675-1742)
Zeno (c.440-491)
Ziegler, Caspar (1621-1690)

Persons referred to in commentary
Birnbaum, Johann Abraham (1702-1748)
Schultze, Johann Ernst (fl.1738)
Zedler, Johann Heinrich (1706-1751)

Places referred to
England
Erfurt
France
Halle
Hamburg
Holland
Paris
Schweinfurt

Places referred to in commentary
Hof (Bavaria)
Leipzig

Legislation referred to
Saxon code of common law
Saxon Royal Edict 1661

Legislation referred to in commentary
N/A

Cases referred to
Süstermann v. Geffen (1723)

Cases referred to in commentary
N/A

Institutions referred to
Erfurt law faculty
Giessen law faculty
Helmstadt law faculty
Jena law faculty
Leipzig law faculty
Wittenberg law faculty

Institutions referred to in commentary
Leipzig University

Key words
authors, self-publishing
authorship, legal concept of
barter trade
Bible, the
book trade
catechisms
contract
divine law
duration
duration, prolongation of privileges
editions, new
fraud
free trade
guilds
learning, the advancement of
monopoly
natural rights
penalties
piracy
price regulation
privileges
privileges, German Imperial
privileges, printing
property analogies
property theory
property theory, authors' property
property theory, publishers' property
public good
royalty/royalties
scholarly writing
subscription
transferability

Responsible editor
Friedemann Kawohl




Copyright status

Original document is out of copyright. In so far as these scans are protected by copyright, they are made available on the same terms as translations and commentaries (see home page).




Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900), Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge, 10 West Road, Cambridge CB3 9DZ, UK