Pauls Daija (National Library of Latvia)
In 1769, Johann Friedrich Steffenhagen, a surgeon, who was born in Swedish Pomerania, acquired a printing house in Mitau/Jelgava . By the end of the 18th century, his publishing house was considered the best in the Baltic provinces. It had an excellent reputation in the Russian Empire. Steffenhagen was an innovator in terms of the business model: he was among the first publishers in the Baltic provinces who followed the principles of a free market in publishing. His activities in motivating and persuading authors in private meetings, as well as following the recent trends in poligraphy were combined with a keen eye for public demand. Among the books published by Steffenhagen are the works in Russian, German, Estonian, Lithuanian, Polish, French, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. However, the books published in the Latvian language were the most succesful. Steffenhagen passionately embraced the ideas of the Enlightenment in regards to peasants and published fiction, manuals and almanacs for Latvian peasants, who at that time were still serfs. Hence, his publishing house became a centre of popular education. At the Rara Department of the National Library of Latvia, a comprehensive archive of Steffenhagen’s publishing house has been preserved. In my paper, I examine these materials and demonstrate the impact the publishers had on spreading the ideas of the Enlightenment.