m on his estates. In
politics he was throughout his life a moderate liberal. In 1824 he set
up a steam printing press in Augsburg, and, about the same time, founded
a literary institute at Munich. In 1825 he started steamboats, for the
first time, on Lake Constance, and introduced them in the following year
on the Rhine. In 1828 he was sent to Berlin, on an important commission,
by Bavaria and Wurttemberg, and was there rewarded with orders of
distinction at the hands of the three kings. He died on the 29th of
December 1832 leaving a son and a daughter as coheirs.

His son, JOHANN GEORG (4), FREIHERR COTTA VON COTTENDORF (1796-1863),
succeeded to the management of the business on the death of his father,
and was materially assisted by his sister's husband, Freiherr Hermann
von Reischach. He greatly extended the connexions of the firm by the
purchase, in 1839, of the publishing business of G. J. Goschen in
Leipzig, and in 1845 of that of Vogel in Landshut; while, in 1845,
"Bible" branches were established at Stuttgart and Munich. He was
succeeded by his younger son, Karl, and by his nephew (the son of his
sister), Hermann Albert von Reischach. Under their joint partnership,
the before-mentioned firms in Leipzig and Landshut, and an artistic
establishment in Munich passed into other hands, leaving on the death of
Hermann Albert von Reischach, in 1876, Karl von Cotta the sole
representative of the firm, until his death in 1888. In 1889 the firm of
J. G. Cotta passed by purchase into the hands of Adolf and Paul Kroner,
who took others into partnership. In 1899 the business was converted
into a limited liability company.

See Albert Schaffle, _Cotta_ (1895); _Verlags-Katalog der J. G.
Cotta'schen Buchhandlung, Nachfolger_ (1900); and Lord Goschen's _Life
and Times of G. J. Goschen_ (1903).

JOHANN FRIEDRICH COTTA (1701-1779), the theologian, was born on the 12th
of March 1701, the son of Johann Georg Cotta (2). After studying
theology at Tubingen he began his public career as lecturer in Jena
University. He then travelled in Germany, France and Holland, and, after
residing several years in London, became professor at Tubingen in 1733.
In 1736 he removed to the chair of theology in the university of
Gottingen, which had been instituted as a seat of learning, two years
before, by George II. of England, in his capacity as elector of Hanover.
In 1739, however, he returned, as extraordinary professor of theology,
to his