Johann Gottlob Immanuel Breitkopf was the son of Bernhard Christoph Breitkopf (1695-1777), who had established a music printing and publishing firm in Leipzig in 1719. He was noted in particular for his use of divisible and movable types, which he introduced in 1754-5, and published works by, among others, Telemann, Marpurg, Mattheson, Leopold Mozart, Haydn, C P E Bach, Carl Stamitz and Reichardt. The firm also sold musical instruments. Gottfried Christoph Härtel (Schneeberg, 27/01/1763 - Cotta, near Leipzig, 25/07/1827) joined the firm in 1795; the next year he bought the business – thereafter known as Breitkopf & Härtel – and was appointed Breitkopf`s sole heir. In the late 1790s Härtel negotiated with Mozart`s widow, Constanze, hoping to buy the composer`s musical estate; although the manuscripts were eventually sold to the Offenbach publisher Johann Anton André, Breitkopf & Härtel nevertheless published a `complete` edition of Mozart`s works, beginning in 1798. Lit.: Elvers, Breitkopf & Härtel 1719–1969: ein historischer Überblick zum Jubiläum