Bibliotheca Teubneriana - History of The Series

History of The Series

In 1811, Benedictus Gotthelf Teubner (1784-1856) refounded in his own name a printing operation he had directed since 1806, the Weinedelsche Buchdruckerei, giving rise to the Leipzig publishing house of B.G. Teubner (its imprint, in Latin, in aedibus B.G. Teubneri). The volumes of the Bibliotheca Teubneriana began to appear in 1849. Although today Teubner editions are relatively expensive (as are European-produced scholarly books in general), they were originally introduced to fill the need, then unmet, for low-priced but high-quality editions.

Prior to the introduction of the Teubner series, accurate editions of antique authors could only be purchased by libraries and rich private scholars because of their expense. Students and other individuals of modest means had to rely on editions which were affordable but also filled with errors. To satisfy the need for accurate and affordable editions Teubner introduced the Bibliotheca Teubneriana.

In the 19th century, Teubner offered both affordable editiones maiores (with a full critical appartus) for scholars, and low-priced editiones minores (without critical apparatuses or with abbreviated textual appendices) for students. Eventually, editiones minores were dropped from the series and Teubner began to offer only scholarly reference editions of ancient authors.

During the period between the end of World War II and German reunification, the publishing house of B.G. Teubner split into two firms, one in Leipzig in East Germany, and one in Stuttgart in West Germany. Both offered volumes in the Bibliotheca Teubneriana.

After the fall of the Berlin wall and the reunification of Germany, B.G. Teubner was also reunited and subsequently consolidated its headquarters at Wiesbaden.

In late 1999, B.G. Teubner Verlag announced their intention to concentrate on scientific and technical publishing. All their Classical Studies titles, including the Biblotheca Teubneriana, were sold to K.G. Saur, a publisher based in Munich. Although new volumes began to appear with the imprint in aedibus K.G. Saur, the name of the series remained unchanged.

In 2006, the publishing firm of Walter de Gruyter acquired K.G. Saur and their entire publishing range, including the Bibliotheca Teubneriana. Since January 2007, the Bibliotheca Teubneriana is being exclusively published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG. As of 1 May 2007, the new North American distributor of titles from the Bibliotheca Teubneriana is Walter de Gruyter, Inc.