Other languages

• Dutch: krant 
• French: journal 
• German: Zeitung 
• Italian: giornale 
• Polish: gazeta, prasa codzienna, dziennik
• Spanish: periódico, diario 

Material form

Subject

Description

A periodical publication covering a broad range of current events and usually including advertisements, issued frequently, especially daily or weekly. Early modern newspapers often bore terms like gazette, coranto, aviso or tidings in their titles. While handwritten news sheets (e.g. avisos) and printed news pamphlets already appeared throughout the 16th century, the earliest newspapers (i.e. printed periodicals) date from the 17th century. The German Relation aller Fürnemmen und gedenckwürdigen Historien, issued weekly by Johann Carolus in Strassbourg from 1605 onward, is considered the earliest in Europe. Other countries quickly followed suit. The Dutch Courante uyt Italien, Duytslandt, &c., published in Amsterdam since 1618, was the first newspaper that appeared in folio- rather than quarto-size. 

Related terms

aviso, coranto, gazette, relation

Sources

P. Arblaster, A. Belo, C. Espejo, S. Haffemayer, M. Infelise, N. Moxham, J. Raymond, N. Schobesberger, ‘The Lexicons of Early Modern News’, in: J. Raymond and N. Moxham (eds.), News Networks in Early Modern Europe (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2016), 64-101.

V. Bauer, H. Böning, (eds)., Die Entstehung des Zeitungswesens im 17. Jahrhundert. Ein neues Medium und seine Folgen für das Kommunikationssystem der Frühen Neuzeit (Bremen 2011).

E. Bogel and E. Blühm, Die deutschen Zeitungen des 17. Jahrhunderts. Ein Bestandsverzeichnis mit historischen und bibliographischen Angaben, 3 vols., (Bremen etc. 1971–1985)

H. Böning, Welteroberung durch ein neues Publikum. Die deutsche Presse und der Weg zur Aufklärung (Bremen 2002).

H. Droste, The Business of News (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2021).

S. Gøril Brandtzæg, P. Goring, C. Watson (eds.), Travelling Chronicles: News and Newspapers from the Early Modern Period to the Eighteenth Century (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2018).

J. Hillgärtner, News in Times of Conflict. The Development of the German Newspaper, 1605–1650 (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2021).

J. Hyde, J. Raymond, M. Rospocher, Y. Ryan, A. Schaffer, H. Salmi, Communicating the News in Early Modern Europe. Cambridge Elements series (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, forthcoming 2023).

P. Molino and K. Keller, Die Fuggerzeitungen im Kontext. Zeitungssammlungen Im Alten Reich und in Italien (Wien 2015).

A. Pettegree, The Invention of News: How the World Came to Know About Itself (New Haven/London: Yale University Press, 2014).

J. Raymond, ‘News’, in: J. Raymond (ed.), The Oxford History of Popular Print Culture, Vol. 1 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), 377-397.

J. Weber, ‘Strassburg, 1605: The Origins of the Newspaper in Europe’, German History 24.3 (2006), 387-412.

A. der Weduwen, Dutch and Flemish Newspapers of the Seventeenth Century, 1618-1700, 2 vols. (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2017).

A. der Weduwen and A. Pettegree, The Dutch Republic and the Birth of Modern Advertising (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2020).