Grosses vollständiges Universal-Lexicon

The bookseller and publisher Zedler published this book in Leipzig under the name:Great Complete Encyclopedia of All Sciences and Arts Which So Far Have Been Invented and Improved by Human Mind and Wit: Including the Geographical and Political Description of the Whole World with All Monarchies, Empires, Kingdoms, Principalities, Republics, Free Sovereignties, Countries, Towns, Sea Harbors, Fortresses, Castles, Areas, Authorities, Monasteries, Mountains, Passes, Woods, Seas, Lakes ... and also a Detailed Historical and Genealogical Description of the World's Brightest and Most Famous Family Lines, the Life and Deeds of the Emperors, Kings, Electors and Princes, Great Heroes, Ministers of State, War Leaders... ; Equally about All Policies of State, War and Law and Budgetary Business of the Nobility and the Bourgeois, Merchants, Traders, Arts.Zedler himself called his encyclopedia "Zedler's Encyclopedia" (Zedlersches Lexikon).

[2] From volume 18 onward, for example, the encyclopedia contains numerous biographies of living people, presumably because of Ludovici's appointment as editor around the same time.

[6] The Grosses vollständiges Universal-Lexicon is sometimes considered the first modern encyclopedia in the German language.

Initial production was funded through subscription, where buyers paid in advance and received a discount on the volume that was later delivered.

The Bavarian State Library's digitisation center in Munich (Münchener Digitalisierungszentrum, MDZ) has digitized the encyclopedia completely, including the four supplements, in the form of images and PDF files.

Zedler 's Universal-Lexicon is considered the most important German-language encyclopedia of the 18th Century. Contrary to the claim on the title page shown here, the first volume had already appeared at the Leipzig Michaelmas Fair of 1731.