Page not found

Sorry, the requested page could not be found.

In order for us to help you, please copy any error message, providing a brief description of the action that generated the error and the page URL, and contact OUP.

The page you are looking for may have been moved, renamed or deleted.
Please visit the Electronic Enlightenment home page.

Electronic Enlightenment: News-sheet

About newssheets and the EE News-sheet

It is hard to imagine the development of the modern world without the news-sheets, journals, gazettes, broadsheets and newspapers of the 17th & 18th centuries. These organs of communication, discussion and opinion were, in many ways, the public equivalent of the exchange of letters one finds in Electronic Enlightenment. They often served highly polemical roles in the development of social structures and political systems — but the economic imperative of entertainment was never far from view.

News-sheet

Coffee-house news-sheet (18th century).

The Relation aller Fürnemmen und gedenckwürdigen Historien (Strasbourg/Strassburg, Alsace, 1605) is generally regarded as the first truly periodical newspaper. The first English paper was printed in Amsterdam (early 1620s) to avoid restrictions on printing. The Dutch style was soon copied by a group of London publishers, including Nathaniel Butter, Thomas Archer, Edward Allde, Bartholomew Downes, William Newberry and William Shefford. A license to publish news was issued for "N. B." in 1621, and the Corante: or, Newes from Italy, Germany, Hungarie, Spaine and France appeared later that year.

Eight months later (23 May 1622), News from Most Parts of Christendom or Weekly News from Italy, Germany, Hungaria, Bohemia, the Palatinate, France and the Low Countries marked the birth of modern, English newspaper publication.

EE's News-sheet

Each month, we publish a News-sheet reporting on news, updates and changes which may include:

help : login