ABSTRACT
Literally Records of the Learned, the Acta was a journal published in Latin in the German city of Leipzig from 1682 until 1782. Consciously modeled on the Journal des sçavans and the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, it sought to make international works available to a German audience and to spread the reputation of German learning abroad by publishing reviews of important books from all of Europe. Such reviews were meant to enable the man of universal learning (the polyhistor) to keep up with the exponential increase in published works. The first editor, Leipzig Professor of Ethics and Politics Otto Mencke (1644-1707), used a wide network of contacts throughout Europe to acquire important books, which were reviewed primarily by northern German scholars, the Collectores. Although he and the Collectores were all Protestants, Mencke strenuously sought to present the works of authors of all denominations fairly and to avoid acrimonious debate. Although the Acta published primarily reviews (89 percent of the total content, according to a survey of 1682-1706 volumes, of which only 30 percent were on scientific subjects), Mencke consciously tried to raise the prestige of the journal by publishing articles on mathematics and natural philosophy (7 percent of the total content, of which 85 percent were on science in the broadest sense). This
heavy emphasis on science was also apparent in articles translated from foreign journals and reprinted in the journal (3.7 percent of the total, 96 percent on science).
