Acta Eruditorum.1682-1731. Lipsiae, 1682-1731. (call number: Z55-D106) --

It was in 1665, in Great Britain and France, that the publication of academic magazines started. They served as the means to convey the atmosphere of academia in 17th century Europe, which was called the "Respublica Litteraria." Young Leibniz immediately planned to publish a magazine Nucleus librarius semestralis (1668) also in Germany, but failed. This Acta Eruditorum which was first published in Leipzig in 1682 was the first academic magazine there.

It was published and edited by Otto Mencke (1644-1707), a scholar from Oldenburg. After his death, his son Johann Burkhard Mencke (1675-1732) took over.

It was a monthly magazine whose official language was Latin, and it carried reviews of new publications, original papers on science and mathematics, and Latin translations of papers which were carried on other magazines. The total number of contributions during the period when the father Otto was the editor (1682-1706) came to 4,406 (3,924 reviews, 316 original papers, and 166 articles in translation), and the total number of contributors was 182, from 37 different cities, including foreign cities such as Paris and Leiden.

The main purpose of this magazine was to carry reviews (or rather, abstracts and introductions of the authors) of new publications, reflecting the character of the city where book markets were held twice a year. Heinrich Pipping contributed 304 reviews, Veit Ludwig von Seckendorf, 235, and the editor Otto Mencke 219 ; while scholars such as Johann Bernoulli, Georg Heinrich Lehmann, and Leibniz contributed many original papers. (The picture below shows the first paper contributed by Leibniz. He deals with mensuration and describes the Leibniz series 1-1/3+1/5-1/7...=pi/4.)

The reviews in the magazine deal with books published in various countries : 31% in Germany, 28.5% in the Netherlands, 15.5% in Great Britain, 12% in France, and 9% in Italy.

Otto energetically collected publications from all over Europe for review, as did his son Johann Burkhard. The catalog of their collection, Bibliotheca Menckeniana, was published in 1727, and 13,000 titles of it are held in the Sächsische Landesbibliothek.

There are 163 European libraries which hold the complete set of this magazine as our library does, and the total number of printed copies is estimated to be around 800-1000.