Justus Perthes | |
|---|---|
 Justus Perthes | |
| Born | Johann Georg Justus Perthes (1749-09-11)11 September 1749 |
| Died | 2 May 1816(1816-05-02) (aged 66) Gotha,Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, Holy Roman Empire |
| Occupation | Publisher |
| Known for | Founding the publishing houseJustus Perthes Geographische Anstalt Gotha |
| Children | Wilhelm Perthes |
| Relatives | Friedrich Christoph Perthes (nephew) |
Johann Georg Justus Perthes (11 September 1749 – 2 May 1816) was aGermanpublisher and founder ofthe publishing house that bears his name.
He was born in theThuringian town ofRudolstadt, the son of aSchwarzburg court physician. From 1778 he worked as a bookseller in nearbyGotha, where he founded thecartographic publishing firmJustus Perthes Geographische Anstalt Gotha in 1785. In this, he was joined in 1814 by his son Wilhelm Perthes (1793–1853), who had been in the publishing house of Justus's nephewFriedrich Christoph Perthes atHamburg. On Justus' death in Gotha, Wilhelm took over the firm and laid the foundation of the geographical branch of the business for which it is chiefly famous, by the first publishing of theHand-Atlas from 1817–1823 afterAdolf Stieler (1775–1836).[1]
Wilhelm Perthes engaged the collaboration of the most eminent German geographers of the time, including Stieler,Heinrich Berghaus (1797–1884),[2]Christian Gottlieb Reichard (1758–1837), who was associated with Stieler in the compilation of the atlas,Karl Spruner (1803–1892), andEmil von Sydow (1812–1873).[1]
The business passed to his grandson Bernhardt Wilhelm Perthes (1821–1857),[3] who was associated withAugust Heinrich Petermann under whose direction the well-known periodicalPetermanns Geographische Mitteilungen was first edited in 1855, andBruno Hassenstein (1839–1902);[1] and in the next generation to his son Bernhard Perthes (1858–1919), who was born after his father Bernhardt Wilhelm had died.
Since 1785 the firm also issued theAlmanach de Gotha, a statistical, historical and genealogical annual (inGerman andFrench) of the various countries of the world (first published by Carl Wilhelm Ettinger, Gotha, in 1763); and in 1866 the elaborateGeographisches Jahrbuch was produced under the editorship ofErnst Behm (1830–1884), on whose death it was continued under that of ProfessorHermann Wagner.[4]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Perthes, Johan Georg Justus".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 21 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 261–262.
