At the Michaelis Fair in 1788, the schoolbook publishing house, which had been founded shortly before by Joachim Heinrich Campe, published the barely 3 1/2 quire strong booklet 'On the Artistic Imitation of the Beautiful'. The author, Karl Philipp Moritz, had been known to the German public for ten years as a versatile writer. His 'Journey of a German in England in 1782' and the first parts of his autobiographical novel 'Anton Reiser' were widely read and admired. In Berlin, especially, where Moritz was a professor at the gymnasium, much was expected of the literary future of the young man. His ability to captivatingly portray his unique experiences, as well as his thorough studies, were demonstrated by the 'Attempt at a German Prosody' and the 'Magazine for Empirical Soul Science' that he founded.

The Verlag der Wissenschaften publishes historical literature by well-known and lesser-known scientific authors. This makes works that have long been out of print accessible again to interested readers. This book on the artistic imitation of the beautiful is an unaltered, high-quality reprint of the original edition from 1888.