Johann Jakob Weitbrecht (typographer)

Johann Jakob Weitbrecht ( Russian Иван Иванович Вейтбрехт (Iwan Iwanowitsch Weitbrecht); * 1744 ; † May 3, 1803 in Saint Petersburg ) was a German typographer , music dealer and publisher as well as purveyor to the court in Saint Petersburg.

biography

The son of Johann Jakob Weitbrecht senior (* 1713) and nephew of the anatomist Josias Weitbrecht , who worked in Saint Petersburg, studied unproven sources at the University of Tübingen . His father, who descended from the Schorndorf line of the Weitbrecht family, was still active in Württemberg at the time, but later settled down as a bookseller in Greifswald , where he achieved a certain level of awareness and established good connections with numerous European colleagues. This also shaped Johann Jakob junior and he decided to move to St. Petersburg in 1765 to work there as a bookseller and typographer. In St. Petersburg, the sons and daughters of his uncle Josias were among the nearly 50,000 German inhabitants at that time. One of these sons, his cousin Karl Ernst Weitbrecht (1747–1797), also worked there as a typographer and it is entirely possible that he made the necessary local contacts possible.

Weitbrecht initially took over the management of the foreign bookstore at the Russian Academy of Sciences and three years later opened his own typography and book trade shop on Nevsky Prospect , an already important boulevard in St. Petersburg. Weitbrecht quickly acquired the reputation of an experienced bookseller and specialist in antiques and was subsequently promoted to the rank of court book dealer in 1775.

The largest part of his assortment included books that were commissioned by the free business community. In addition, like the other foreign typographers and booksellers based in St. Petersburg, he was increasingly busy printing and publishing musical works and musicological specialist literature for a culture-hungry middle and upper class. In addition, he traded in musical instruments, technical accessories, writing and music paper and other items of everyday use as well as topographical and military maps. Theater and concert tickets were also sold in his music stores, and private teachers and educational institutions were found. This made Weitbrecht one of those who played a key role in building up music publishing in Russia.

One year later, in 1776, he and the publisher and typographer Johann Karl Schnoor (1738–1812), who came from Holstein and who has also been active in St. Petersburg since 1770 , founded the private typography "Weitbrecht & Schnoor", both of which opened a branch in 1778 expanded in Moscow . In 1781 Weitbrecht released his partner Schnoor so that he could support the head of the Senate Typography Bernhard Theodor Breitkopf (1749-1820), son of the Leipzig music publisher Johann Gottlob Immanuel Breitkopf , in his work. Johann Jakob Weitbrecht now continued his business alone and expanded his contacts with government authorities and important private individuals.

As a result of a decree by Tsarina Catherine II of August 27, 1784, which included a concession to set up a private printing company for the printing of Russian-language fonts, Weitbrecht finally founded Imperial Typography for the needs of the Imperial Cabinet and the Foreign Council. This made it possible for Weitbrecht to significantly expand its range of products. Furthermore, Weitbrecht printed and published the “Journal de la musique” for piano between 1785 and 1794, each with 13 pieces of music per booklet. After his death in 1803, his private print shop was maintained until 1814.

literature

• Gennadij Fafurin: The publisher and bookseller Johann Jakob Weitbrecht (Russian), in: Norbert Franz and Ljuba Kirjuchina (eds.): St-Petersburg - the accurate German ; Peter Lang-Verlag, Frankfurt a. M., 2006; ISBN 978-3-631-55041-0

Web links

• Felix Pourtov: The audience in German music stores in St. Petersburg from the end of the 18th century to the first quarter of the 19th century - Weitbrecht biography on p. 58/59