Almanach de Gotha

The Almanach de Gotha was a respected directory of Europe's royalty and highest nobility. First published in 1763 by C.W. Ettinger in Gotha at the ducal court of Frederick III, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, it came to be regarded as an authority in the classification of monarchies and their courts, reigning and former dynasties, princely and ducal families, and the genealogical, biographical and titulary details of Europe's highest level of aristocracy. It was published from 1785 annually by Justus Perthes Publishing House in Gotha, until 1944 when the Soviets destroyed the Almanach de Gotha's archives.

In 1998, a London-based publisher acquired the rights for use of the title of Almanach de Gotha from Justus Perthes Verlag Gotha GmbH (Perthes regard the resultant volumes as new works, and not as a continuation of the editions which Perthes had published from 1785 to 1944). The new publishers have so far produced seven editions (consisting of two volumes), Volume I listing the sovereign, formerly sovereign and mediatised houses of Europe and Volume II listing the non-sovereign princely and ducal houses of Europe. The only Volume II of this new work, published in 2001, received a scathing review in The Economist magazine.