Publishing Practices of Georg Markus Knoch, Gdańsk’s Bookseller and Publisher from the 18th Century

Abstract

The article described the publishing practices that were used by the publishers living in the 18th century. They were shown on the example of the activities of Georg Markus Knoch (1695-1759), one of the thriving acting Gdansk’s booksellers and publishers. Knoch was born in Wroclaw, made his first steps in the profession in Wittenberg. Then he arrived in Gdansk in 1728 where he opened the Bookstore on Piwna Street. He published approximately one hundred titles, several of which were title editions. Reissues of the title editions appeared in his publishing for a number of reasons. Most of the time, Gdansk‘s bookseller took over parts of the other publishers‘ titles; it happened due to their death, or due to the closure or change of the owner of the print shops. Wanting to get rid of some of the unsold copies of the books was the other reason of publishing some of his title editons. In this case he would have either lightly modified the editions, or he would have put the information on the title edition saying that it is an another issue, suggesting to potential customers that they are dealing with a completely new work, or that the first edition was a great success and it needed reissuing. Publishing practices used by Kanch show how often publishers in the 18th century were unable to sell many of the titles.