---
title: "Isis (journal, 1816)"
chunk: 5/5
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isis_(journal,_1816)"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T03:11:31.596695+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

== Circulation ==
In the initial period from August 1816 to February 1817, the circulation of Isis, which cost eight thalers a year, was 1500 copies. On March 4, 1817, Brockhaus reduced the print run to 1100 copies due to a lack of sales and reduced it by a further 100 copies a week later. When the actual sales figures were known in June 1817, there was a further drastic reduction of 650 copies. In 1825/1826, only 400 copies were printed. This was followed by a slight increase to up to 500 copies for the next few years until 1830. After that, the circulation fell continuously and was around 200 copies in the last ten years of Isis' existence. This relatively low circulation was nothing unusual. For example, the circulation of the Jahrbücher für wissenschaftliche Kritik, one of the most important journals for scientific reviews, was around 500 copies in the years from 1827 to 1846 and that of the Medizinische Annalen, edited by Johann Friedrich Pierer, was 500 to 700 copies.

== Research ==
In 2001, the German historian of science Dietrich von Engelhardt characterized Isis as "a first-rate scientific and cultural-historical document from that transitional epoch from idealism and romanticism to positivism and realism", the analysis of which was still pending. Since 2006, the Institute for the History of Medicine, Natural Science and Technology at the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, headed by Olaf Breidbach, has been investigating the significance of Isis for scientific communication and the popularization of the natural sciences in the first half of the 19th century, as well as its economic structure, in a project funded by the German Research Foundation. In a three-year project that began in July 2006, Claudia Taszus initially focused on the company documents found in the Fröbel court printing works. This was followed in 2009 by a project aimed at cataloguing the correspondence between Oken and the Brockhaus publishing house. The activities funded by the German Research Foundation also include the project carried out by the Thuringian University and State Library and the Ereignis Weimar-Jena. Kultur um 1800 at the University of Jena, the digitization, indexing and online presentation of Isis.

== References ==

== Articles in Isis ==

== Bibliography ==
Brockhaus, Heinrich Eduard, ed. (1876). Oken's "Isis". Friedrich Arnold Brockhaus. Sein Leben und Wirken nach Briefen und anderen Aufzeichnungen. Leipzig: Brockhaus. pp. 165–201.
Degen, Heinz (1955). "Lorenz Oken und seine Isis um die Gründungszeit der Gesellschaft Deutscher Naturforscher und Ärzte". Naturwissenschaftliche Rundschau. 8: 45–150, 180–189.
von Engelhardt, Dietrich (2003). "Lorenz Oken und das Wartburgfest 1817 mit einem Abdruck des konfiszierten Heftes 195 der Isis". NTM Zeitschrift für Geschichte der Wissenschaften, Technik und Medizin. 11 (1): 1–12. doi:10.1007/BF02908582.
Kertesz, G. A. (1986). "Notes on Isis von Oken, 1817–1848". Isis. 77 (3): 497–503. doi:10.1086/354208. JSTOR 231611.
Schweizer, Claudia, ed. (2004). Lorenz Okens "Isis". Johann Wolfgang von Goethe und Kaspar Maria von Sternberg. Naturforscher und Gleichgesinnte. LIT Verlag Münster. pp. 179–198. ISBN 3-8258-7579-2.
Taszus, Claudia (2009). Breidbach, Olaf; Poggi, Stefano (eds.). Okens Isis. Pressefreiheit, Restriktionen und Zensur in Mitteldeutschland in der ersten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts. Jahrbuch für Europäische Wissenschaftskultur. Vol. 4. Stuttgart: Steiner. pp. 205–241.
Taszus, Claudia (2009). Lorenz Okens Isis (1816–1848). Zur konzeptionellen, organisatorischen und technischen Realisierung der Zeitschrift. Blätter der Gesellschaft für Buchkultur und Geschichte. Rudolstadt: Jahrgang. pp. 85–154.

== External links ==
Volumes 1-5 (1817–1819), volumes 6-41 (1820–1848) of Isis in the Biodiversity Heritage Library