Grosses Universal-Lexicon

The Grosses vollständiges Universal-Lexicon aller Wissenschafften und Künste (English: Great Complete Encyclopedia of All Sciences and Arts) is a 68-volume German encyclopedia published by Johann Heinrich Zedler between 1731 and 1754. It was one of the largest printed encyclopedias ever, and the first to include biographies of living people in a systematic way.

The bookseller and publisher Zedler published this book in Leipzig under the name Great Complete Encyclopedia of All Sciences and Arts Which So Far Have Been Invented and Improved by Human Mind and Wit: Including the Geographical and Political Description of the Whole World with All Monarchies, Empires, Kingdoms, Principalities, Republics, Free Sovereignties, Countries, Towns, Sea Harbors, Fortresses, Castles, Areas, Authorities, Monasteries, Mountains, Passes, Woods, Seas, Lakes ... and also a Detailed Historical and Genealogical Description of the World's Brightest and Most Famous Family Lines, the Life and Deeds of the Emperors, Kings, Electors and Princes, Great Heroes, Ministers of State, War Leaders... ; Equally about All Policies of State, War and Law and Budgetary Business of the Nobility and the Bourgeois, Merchants, Traders, Arts.

Zedler himself called his encyclopedia "Zedler's Encyclopedia" (Zedlersches Lexikon). Many previous encyclopedias were associated with the names of their authors, but the Universal Lexicon was the first to be associated with the name of its publisher.

The main editors were Jacob August Franckenstein (volumes 1-2), Paul Daniel Longolius (volumes 3-18), and Carl Günther Ludovici (volumes 19-64 and supplements). Each seems to have taken a different approach to encyclopedia-making. From volume 18 onward, for example, the encyclopedia contains numerous biographies of living people, presumably because of Ludovici's appointment as editor around the same time.

In his introduction to volume 1, Zedler himself claimed to have had the encyclopedia compiled by nine anonymous "muses." Scholars continue to debate over how many or few collaborators he actually had. In fact, almost nothing certain is known about the individual authors of the encyclopedia. Heinrich Winkler wrote many medical articles, and Friedrich August Müller probably wrote articles on philosophy.Lorenz Christoph Mizler (1711–1778) claimed to have written mathematical articles. Johann Heinrich Rother and Johann Christoph Gottsched have also been suggested as possible collaborators, though both denied it.

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