Rag Linen | Online Museum of Historic Newspapers

This collection documents the history of the printed newspaper.  It begins shortly after Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press in the 15th century and continues through European news printing experimentation in the 16th and early 17th centuries, through the earliest printed newspapers (meeting the modern definition) of the late 17th century, and concludes with the advent of American newspaper publishing in the 18th century. Each piece from the collection contains brief historical background and a photo, which you can click to enlarge. For an alternate view of the collection, click here and scroll horizontally (east/west).

In the 1450s, Johannes Gutenberg launched the first media revolution with the inventions of the printing press and movable metal type. These two inventions paved the way for mass production of books and publications for the first time in history. The widespread availability of the printed word on topics such as art, philosophy, politics, science and religion profoundly influenced European intellect and culture, which was the critical movement known as the Renaissance. “One of the first printed works that might qualify as news was an Italian report on a [medieval] tournament printed in about 1470 (the press had arrived in Italy in 1464),” according to A History of News (Stephens, 1997). Similar in age and geography to what Stephens describes as the first printed news is the rare leaf shown above, which was printed in Italy circa 1470 by Wendelin Da Spira with the first movable type ever used in Venice. To help underscore the age of this printed leaf, consider this: The ink pressed on this page was done so before Michelangelo was born (1475), before the Spanish Inquisition began (1481), before Christopher Columbus’ first voyage across the Atlantic (1492), before Vasco de Gama sailed from Europe to India (1497-1499), and before Leonardo da Vinci painted The Last Supper (1498).

Throughout Europe during the 1500s, experiments were made in printed news, such as illustrated news broadsides that appealed to a mostly illiterate population. This engraved news broadside by Frans Hogenberg, the father of illustrated journalism, is dated November 4, 1576, and illustrates with contemporary hand coloring the Sack of Antwerp during the Eighty Years’ War, known as the Spanish Fury. The Spanish Fury was “one of the most notable deeds of blood upon record — [7000] human beings butchered and houses burned — how the city was plundered,” as reported 300 years later in the November 25, 1876 issue of the New York Times. According to the Hollstein Studies in Prints and Printmaking, Frans Hogenberg moved from England to Cologne in 1570 and founded a publishing house. With a large staff, Hogenberg’s scope of work moved beyond maps, cityscapes and portraits. Starting in 1570, Hogenberg began work on broadsheets illustrating historic political and military events that took place in Europe during the 16th century. Knowing that Hogenberg’s illustrated journalism career began in 1570, only his engravings of events dated after 1570 can truly be considered news broadsides because they were published in a timely manner, often only weeks after the event occurred. His pre-1570 work is more accurately labeled historical broadsides.

With strict government control of the presses, handwritten letters and the spoken word were the most common news transmissions during this time. In this example from 1614, letters from Cesar de Vendome, illegitimate son of Henri IV, to his half-brother Louis XIII are printed for circulation. Henri IV was King of France from 1589 to 1610 and Louis XIII reigned from 1610 to 1643. In these letters, Cesar de Vendome complains to then French King Louis XIII about the way the court has treated him as he had been imprisoned and his property confiscated for his participation in the aristocratic revolts of 1614. This led to increased animosity between the two. In this instance, a manuscript news letter had become printed news.

It wasn’t until the Thirty Years’ War, 1618 to 1648, that news began to be printed more regularly to satisfy an intense hunger for information about current events. By 1621, weekly news pamphlets or single-sheet corantos were being printed across Europe. According to Breaking News (Kyle and Peacey, 2008), Thomas Scott anonymously published Vox Populi, or Newes from Spayne. “It was a highly critical attack on the foriegn policy of James I and his negotiations with Catholic Spain to marry his son, Charles, to a Spanish Princess.” The pamphlet was “designed to look like a news report from the Spanish ambassador to his superiors in Madrid, and widely believed to be accurate. The government hunted for its author and attempted to stop its publication. Hastily and poorly printed editions flowed off the presses before the government pressure halted production. Quickly though they handed the text to scriveners and manuscript copies continued to circulate. Printed news had become manuscript news.”

In England, a 1586 Star Chamber decree from the Elizabethan era required all news publications to be licensed and censored. “Hence printed publications of domestic news tended to be restricted to sensation, disasters, crimes, proclamations and the monarch’s speeches. Foreign political news could usually be reported in detail. Domestic political commentary was avoided,” according to Pamphlets and Pamphleteering in Early Modern Britain (Raymond 2003). With strict control of the press, these earliest forms of printed news were almost exclusively comprised of foreign news, such as the Swedish Intelligencer, the fourth part, printed in 1633 by Nathaniel Butter and Nicholas Bourne. Nathaniel Butter is recognized for having published the first English language news bulletin, Corante, in 1621. While Butter and Bourne dominated early news publishing, the popularity of newsbooks became quickly apparent and publishers soon began dating and numbering each issue.

It wasn’t until the outbreak of the British Civil Wars (1642 – 1651) between the King and Parliament when restraints of news printing weakened. This breakdown in command ushered in a new era of newsbooks, such as the distinct a Perfect Diurnall of the Passages in Parliament, which was edited by Samuel Pecke, considered by many historians as the first English journalist. A Perfect Diurnall, published both domestic and foreign news from 1642 through 1655 with no text-dividing columns. It was among the first to regularly use woodcut illustrations and influenced several imitator “diurnals”. The Civil Wars also witnessed a war of words via the presses with Royalist and Parliamentarian newsbooks “wildly spinning the news of the conflict and both parties’ rationales for power,” according to Ranters and Corantos, an article by Richard Byrne in The Nation, January 12, 2009.

Soon after the British Civil Wars commenced, Mercurius Aulicus began publishing in Oxford as the official organ of the Royalist supporters with financing from the Crown. According to The Writing of Royalism, 1628-1660 by Robert Wilcher, Mercurius Aulicus “was not a ‘printer’s private enterprise’ like the London diurnals, and has a significant place in the history of journalism as ‘England’s first official newsbook’.” The newsbook was edited by John Berkenhead, yet to turn 30. According to biographer P.W. Thomas, Berkenhead’s edgy and sardonic style of journalism eclipsed that of Peter Heylyn, a high-powered academic who served as the paper’s principal editor.

To rival the Royalist propaganda of Mercurius Aulicus, Parliamentarians began printing their own newsbook. Mercurius Britanicus first published in the summer of 1643 with every intention of returning equally contentious attacks and accusations. Mercurius Britanicus launched the journalism career of 23-year-old Marchamont Nedham, who used his editorial privilege to ruthlessly attack King Charles I. After the Royalists surrendered Oxford on June 24, 1646, Mercurius Aulicus ceased printing and all remaining copies were ordered by the King to be donated to the library of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Meanwhile, Nedham’s printed attacks on the King proved too harsh, particularly during delicate war negotiations in 1646, so Parliament imprisoned him for two weeks. After his release, Nedham re-emerged in 1647, having officially flipped sides to edit Mercurius Pragmaticus, a new Cavalier newsbook. In 1649, after Oliver Cromwell lead the Parliamentarians to victory and King Charles I was beheaded, Nedham was incarcerated for six months. Upon his release, Needham turned yet again to realign with the Roundheads and began publishing Mercurius Politicus, one of the officially-licensed newsbooks of the English Commonwealth.

From March 1645 to October 1649, the Moderate Intelligencer, written by John Dillingham and published by Robert White, was one of the most reliable and well respected newsbooks because of Dillingham’s unmatched connections to both parliamentary and army leaders; thereby, providing a more moderate and impartial — perhaps fair and balanced — perspective, which was a fresh journalistic style that was quickly overshadowed by more aggressive and biased reporting.

The period from 1649 to 1660 in England is often referred to as the interregnum, or a period of political and military discord between monarch reigns. After the execution of King Charles I, England’s government was ruled by council, Oliver Cromwell, Richard Cromwell and council again, before General George Monck supported the restoration of Charles II in 1660. John Berkenhead, of Mercurius Aulicus fame during the 1640s, surged back onto the journalism stage in 1660 after Charles II returned from exile along with many other Royalist supporters. Berkenhead’s enduring loyalty to the royalist party earned him the position of chief licenser and surveyor of the press. As licenser, Berkenhead had full Royal-appointed authority to censor any unlicensed publications. Berkenhead was succeeded in October 1663 by Roger L’Estrange.

Around the same time as Berkenhead’s selection, Henry Muddiman was appointed editor of the official newsbook, which was titled Parliamentary Intelligencer on Mondays and Mercurius Publicus on Thursdays. “It had not yet occurred to anyone to issue the same title more than once a week,” according to The News Revolution of England (Sommerville, 1996). The Licensing of the Press Act of 1662 officially ended the freedom of the press that was enjoyed during the 1640s and 1650s until 1679 when it expired. “The final phase of the Renaissance witnessed rapid change within the newspaper industry, and the period after the collapse of censorship in 1679 saw the appearance of titles and trends which would shape the modern newspaper,” according to Breaking News (Kyle and Peacey, 2008).