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A Critique of Periodicity in Early Modern Journalism. The First Spanish Serial Gazette: Gazeta de Roma in Valencia (1618–1620)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 June 2015

Carmen Espejo
Affiliation:
Facultad de Comunicación, Avda. Américo Vespucio, 41.092 Sevilla, Spain. E-mail: carmenes@us.es; frbaena@us.es
Francisco Baena
Affiliation:
Facultad de Comunicación, Avda. Américo Vespucio, 41.092 Sevilla, Spain. E-mail: carmenes@us.es; frbaena@us.es

Abstract

In this paper we propose a methodological critique of the History of Early Modern Journalism. Our proposal recommends a review of the ‘micro’ concept applied to research in The History of Early Modern Journalism. The current study on the Gazeta de Roma in Valencia (1618–1620) is a sample of this microscopic procedure, and is an important and revealing example that enables us to reinterpret the concept of periodicity. We will discuss the value of periodicity as a demarcation. The contemporaries of the first European newspapers applied characteristics and criteria other than periodicity: a ‘newspaper’ was then a serial document that informed progressively about the news from a certain area at that time, the continuity of which was recognizable thanks to certain typographical resources, in the absence of the header concept.

Type
Focus: Early Modern Print Culture in Europe
Copyright
© Academia Europaea 2015 

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References

References and Notes

1.In the United Kingdom, the Burney Collection has more than 1200 printed titles and almost a million digitized pages of British newspapers from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In France, the repertoire of Gazetier Universal currently offers nearly 600 headers published during the Old Regime, as well as two useful dictionaries of newspapers and journalists, while Gallica. Bibliothèque Numérique contains the practically complete digital collection of the Gazette (1631–1792) and of Le Journal des sçavans (1665–1797). In Austria, the Fuggerzeitungen project has catalogued and digitized more than 16,000 handwritten newspapers addressed to the Fugger family, between 1568 and 1605, which are conserved in the National Library of Vienna. In Italy, the Biblioteca Digitale dell’Archiginnasio includes a wide collection of Le Gazzette Bolognesi (1645–1796). In Spain, the Biblioteca Digital Siglo de Oro (BIDISO) has digitized nearly 2000 publications of news pamphlets, avvisi and gazettes published in the Iberian Peninsula from 1500 to 1800. In Portugal, the Hemeroteca Digital – Hemeroteca Municipal de Lisboa allows the online consultation of the Gazeta de Lisboa in different periods of its publication (1715–1726, 1728–1740 and 1810). Other European initiatives are: Relation, the oldest newspaper in the world, printed in Strasbourg in 1605; Koninklijke Bibliotheek, Den Haag, which includes a Dutch newspaper published in 1618 in its digital collection; and Vedomosti, the first newspaper printed in Russia (1702–1727).Google Scholar
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