German Museum of Books and Writing "Signs - Books - Networks"

Back to the graphical presentation

• 1588

  The English fire beacon network is put into operation (signal indicating approach of the Spanish Armada).
• 1591

  The first newspapers, named Newe Zeitungen, are created in Germany and Austria.
• 

  A clean slate: a slate and slate pencil. A set of slates and originally 1 batch of slate pencils wrapped in shiny paper. L. & C. Hardtmuth. After Joseph Hardtmuth had succeeded in producing pencil leads out of clay and graphite powder, he founded his pencil factory in Vienna in 1790.

  Deutsches Buch- und Schriftmuseum der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek Leipzig, Photograph: Michael Setzpfandt

  1592

  The Duchy of Pfalz-Zweibrücken is the first sovereign territory in the world to make it obligatory for all children to attend school.
• 

  The fever chart of the book trade: Friedrich Kapp, Gesamtentwickelung des Buchhandels von 1564–1765, und Anteil der verschiedenen Sprachen an derselben (Overall Development of the Book Trade 1564–1765, and the Percentage of the Different Languages), graphic image from Geschichte des Deutschen Buchhandels (The History of the German Book Trade), vol. 1. Leipzig: Börsenverein d. Dt. Buchhändler, 1886

  Deutsches Buch- und Schriftmuseum der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek Leipzig

  1594

  The first catalogue of the Leipzig Book Fair is published.
• 1609

  first still extant newspaper, the Straßburger Relation (in addition to Aviso Wolfenbüttel)
• 

  Nicolaus Copernicus, copperplate by Johann Christoph Reinsberger, 1742. This section of the engraving originates from the cover of the work Atlas coelestis by Johann Gabriel Doppelmayr.

  Deutsches Buch- und Schriftmuseum der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek Leipzig

  1616

  Nicolaus Copernicus’s masterwork De revolutionibus orbium coelestium is banned.
• 

  Portrait of Kircher from his work China monumentis, published in Amsterdam in 1667

  Deutsches Buch- und Schriftmuseum der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek Leipzig

  1636

  Athanasius Kircher publishes the first book on Coptic grammar.
• 

  A machine that creates order: table clock, circa 1820

  Deutsches Buch- und Schriftmuseum der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek Leipzig, Photograph: Michael Setzpfandt

  1650

  Christiaan Huygens invents the clock pendulum.
• 1650

  The first daily newspaper titled Einkommende Zeitung is printed in Leipzig.
• 

  Map of Europe from the Dutch edition of the Atlas Maior of Joan Blaeu

  Deutsches Buch- und Schriftmuseum der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek Leipzig

  1659

  The first volume of the Atlas Maior of Joan Blaeu (part of the Spanish edition) is published in Amsterdam.