Connected News

Abstract

This article reconstructs and compares the geography of information of the Fugger Zeitungen. By comparing the famous German collection of newsletters with two other manuscript collections (those of the Dukes of Urbino and the Grand Dukes of Tuscany), it seeks to understand how the avvisi and Zeitungen were edited and translated in a time in which an independent newsletter market was developing to meet the information needs of the German-speaking public.

KEYWORDS:

• Handwritten newsletters
• translation
• Fuggerzeitungen
• early modern news
• Avvisi
• entangled Histories

Acknowledgements

The central arguments of this article have been discussed with Cornel Zwierlein, to whom I am particularly indebted. David Barnes, Vitus Huber, Mario Infelise, Katrin Keller, Hannes Ziegler and the two editors of this special issue, Helmers Helmer and Michiel van Groesen, kindly read and commented earlier versions of this article. I thank all of them along with the two unknown reviewers of the JMH for their most useful suggestions. A special thank also to the colleagues of the Medici Archive Project in Florence. The maps were designed by Giacomo Trombi. Some of the results presented here have also been published in the book, Die Fuggerzeitungen im Kontext. Zeitungssammlungen im Alten Reich und in Italien (Wien, Böhlau, 2015) (co-authored by myself and Katrin Keller).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Österreichische Nationalbibliothek (ÖNB), Cod. 8949–8975 (the last volume also contains three Zeitungen from August 1605). The entire holding is now digitalised and accessible in http://fuggerzeitungen.univie.ac.at/faksimiles (Accessed August 30, 2016).

2. Zwierlein, Discorso und Lex Dei, 574–5; Zwierlein, “Fuggerzeitungen”; Barbarics-Pieper, Handwritten Newsletters, 55; and Bauer, Zeitungen, 366–8.

3. See on this, Keller-Molino, Die Fuggerzeitungen im Kontext, 11–8.

4. ÖNB, Cod. 8951–8959. For a description of the other volumes, see Bauer, Zeitungen, 59–60.

5. ÖNB, Cod. 8974. On this exception, see ibid., n. 51, p. 62.

6. ÖNB, Cod. 8960.

7. ÖNB, Cod. 8961–8973 and 8975. In these and the previous volume (8960) there are still some Italian avvisi, mainly sent from Lyon, see on this Keller-Molino, Die Fuggerzeitungen im Kontext, 107–8.

8. See on this Bauer, Zeitungen, 103.

9. Kleinpaul, Fuggerzeitungen, 59–63; Bauer, Zeitungen, 103 and 149–59.

10. Austrian Science Fund (FWF) Project P 23080-G18: “Die Fuggerzeitungen. Ein frühneuzeitliches Informationsmedium und seine Erschließung” (The Fugger newsletters. An early modern information medium and it’s indexing) carried out by Katrin Keller, Paola Molino, Nikolaus Schobesberger. The database is available at http://fuggerzeitungen.univie.ac.at/ (Accessed August 30, 2016).

11. Infelise, Prima dei giornali, 13 and 106–21; Pieper-Barbarics, “Handwritten Newsletters,” 55–65, Pettegree, The Invention of News, 110–6.

12. Zwierlein, Discorso und Lex Dei, 574 and ff. and his later article, Zwierlein, “Fuggerzeitungen.” For a closer definition of the oursourcing process see Zwierlein, Discorso und Lex Dei, 248–72, whereas for a discussion on the cultural transfer in the contest of avvisi and Zeitungen Zwierlein, “Komparative Kommunikationsgeschichte.”

13. The term “Gazzetta” here applies to a group of four or five newsletters sent together, like the “gazzetta di Venezia” in ASF, MdP 3082, f. 620v (La gazetta per F.). For a broader discussion of the term, see Infelise, “From Merchants’ Letters,” 47–52.

14. Barbarics-Pieper, “Handwritten Newsletters,” 58–65.

15. On the geography of the Fuggerzeitungen, see Schobesberger, “Räume,” 69–77. On the contribution of the avvisi to a new perception of space, similar to that of mapping, see Infelise, Prima dei giornali, 106–08.

16. See, for instance, Schröder, Die ersten Zeitungen, 3–5, 10–13, 28–30; Weber, “The Early German Newspaper,” 71–72; Böning, “Handgeschriebene”, and the detailed discussion and criticism in Keller-Molino, Die Fuggerzeitungen im Kontext, 29–31 and 36–9. A similar point in Barbarics-Pieper, “Handwritten Newsletters,” 53–5.

17. Generally on the relationship between the Avvisi and the history of the press, Infelise, Prima dei giornali, 79 and ff.

18. De Vivo, Information and Communication, in particular 80–4; Dooley, De bonne main, 1317–22.

19. Dooley, Social History, in particular 9–12; Delumeau, Vie économique I, 25–36; De Vivo, Information and Communication.

20. See Eisenstein, The Printing Press, and the points made in Grafton-Eisenstein-Johns, AHR Forum, 84–128. See also Rospocher, Dall’oralità alla stampa, 151–56. Concerning information and the news, see De Vivo, “Public Spheres,” 118–9.

21. For a discussion on how the Habermasian public sphere can be applied to seventeenth-century England, see Raymond, “Perfect Speech,” 43–69. For a general discussion on the model for the history of early modern Europe see Rospocher, Beyond the Public Sphere, 18–24.

22. A criticisms of this homogeneity in Sachsenmaier, Multiple Modernities, 43–5.

23. See Van Damme, “Farewell Habermas.” Available on https://dossiersgrihl.revues.org/682#text (September 6, 2016); and Rospocher, Beyond the Public Sphere, 10–11 with further references.

24. ‘[…] le régime de spatialité, c’est-à-dire la manière d’être avec l’espace ou plus précisément avec la distance.’ Quoted in Retaillé, “Afrique, géographie spontanée,” 15.

25. Inspiration for this idea came from Besse, “Le Lieu”; Romano, “La prima storia della Cina,” in particular 90–1. There is a similar concept in Woolf, “News, History,” 84–8.

26. Retaillé, “Afrique, géographie spontanée,” 15.

27. Bauer, Zeitungen, 189–205.

28. On this, see Behringer, “Fugger and Kommunikation,” 245–8, 265; Bauer, Zeitungen, 129–32.

29. Bastl, Das Tagebuch, 304–9; Barbarics, Tinte und Politik, 75–82.

30. Häberlein, Die Fugger, 111–5.

31. Hildebrandt, Die “Georg Fuggerischen Erben”, 122–8, 140–64.

32. Different than in Keller-Molino, Die Fuggerzeitungen im Kontext, 106, I consider here the number of newsletters for each year and not in each volume.

33. ‘Al Signore Daniel Malpiero è stato questa settimana tagliata la testa dicono, per che egli scriveva tutto quello che si faceva in Pregadi al Signor Duca di Ferrara, il quale gli davali cinquecento scudi l’anno per tale effetto’ cit. ASF, MdP 3084, f. 514v. Malipiero was arrested with his father-in-law, the mathematician Francesco Barozzi, under accusation of necromancy, sorcery and possession of forbidden books. Barozzi confessed and was released soon after, whereas Malpiero was found out to be engaged in the traffic of news and executed.

34. Giansante, “Cappello,” 742–3.

35. Bongi, “Le prime gazette,” 317; Fattorello, Le origini, 10–11; Infelise, Prima dei giornali, 154–8; Infelise, Roman avvisi, 214–7; and Zwierlein, Discorso und Lex Dei, 265–72.

36. ASF MdP, filza 4027, fol. 181r:

Et infine Sua Santità si diffuse, a lungo, in narrare le cause, et occasione della giustitia fatta il sabbato passato, in persona di quell’ Annibale Cappello, per essempio di coloro, che ardiscono scrivere il falso, et in luogo d'heretici, con detrimento della religione cattolica, et con dettrattione de gradi, et persone d’ogni sorte. Et il dolore che sentiva interno, delli Arcani de concistori pervenuti sino all’orecchi d’heretici, et inimici della nostra santa fede. Non vietando però il palesare le publicationi delle chiese proposte, delle bolle che si leggono, et d’altre cose necessarie, et utili sapersi per ben publico.

37. Romanin, Storia documentata, 132.

38. On the Avvisi di Venezia and information on Venice, see Infelise, Prima dei giornali, in particular p. 112; De Vivo, Information and Communication, 4–8 and passim. On Rome, see Infelise, “Roman avvisi”; Dooley, “De bonne main”. On the parallelism of the two centres, see Petitjean, L'intelligence, 12–6, 177–212.

39. Schobesberger, “Räume,” 77–78.

40. Bauer, Zeitungen, 158–9.

41. For a comparative view that also considers these collections, see Barbarics and Pieper, “Handwritten newsletters.”

42. Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana (BAV), Urb. lat. 1038–1112. The collection has been widely used by historians, see, for instance, Von Pastor, Geschichte der Päpste, from Volume VI; Dooley, “De bonne main”; and also in recent times Fragnito, Storia di Clelia Farnese. For a detailed history of its formation Zwierlein, “Fuggerzeitungen,” in particular 179–82.

43. On this, see Ancel, “Étude critique,” 116–24; Zwierlein, “Komparative Kommunikationsgeschichte,” 97–101; ibid., “Fuggerzeitungen,” 179–82.

44. The letters from and to the Roman agents are now preserved in the ASF, DU Classe I, filze 144, 145, 146, 163 and 164.

45. See the list of primary sources.

46. On this history, see Panella, Archivio, V–XVII.

47. A copy of the index is available in ASF, Indice della Segreteria Vecchia N295 I–XXII.

48. For the Urbinati, this corresponds to BAV, Urb. lat. 1046 (1578), 1056 (1588) and 1069 (1601); for the Fuggerzeitungen, ÖNB Cod. 8951, 8961 and 8974. Having taken into consideration samples for three months (January, June and November for each year), the sum of all the newsletters taken into account is 283 Urbinati (86, 96, 101). For the Avvisi Medicei, the volumes are those listed in the list of primary sources. Since these are extremely patchy it does not make sense to choose single months to compare, but it is necessary to consider entire years. Summing together all the newsletters preserved in each volume, we obtain 182 newsletters for the year 1578 (compared to 320 Fuggerzeitungen), 340 for the year 1588 (642 Fuggerzeitungen) and 104 for the year 1601 (566 Fuggerzeitungen). As a whole, this comparison is based on 626 Avvisi Medicei and 1528 Fuggerzeitungen. Maps 4–6 show data for those cities from where more than the 0.5% of either Zeitungen or Avvisi were sent.

49. On Graziosi, also see Zwierlein, “Komparative Kommunikationsgeschichte,” 98–101.

50. See, for instance, the following paragraph from the Avviso di Roma of 16 January 1588 (BAV, Urb. lat. 1056, fol. 21v) L’Abbate Lippomani Clarissimo Venetiano si è posto in habito di Prelato … and then on a separate sheet (fol. 23r) under the keyword L’Abbate the following comment: L’Abbate: Chi non vede et non sente come questo povero di cervello si pavoneggia di tal Protonotariato e non gustò il maggior piacere del mondo.

51. ASF, MdP filze 3084 and 3085.

52. See, for instance, ASF, MdP filza 3084, ff. 78r–79v (Bartolini), ff. 215r–216v (Accolti); ff. 593r–594v (addressed to Belisario Vinta, in fol 595v). Some letters of news especially for the year 1587 are also signed by the agent in Ferrara, Perseo Cattaneo (as in f. 249r).

53. Ebd., f. 524r or the letter written on 26 March 1588, ebd. fol. 618r:

L’ultima di V. S. delli XVIIII la quale mi è stata al solito grata, et gioconda. Mi rincresce, che questa volta non posso darli ragguaglio dell’ultimo prezzo di quella pezza di broccato, di che ne li mandai la mostra; per che quel mercante, che me la fece vedere ab extra, non ne ha per anco potuto cavar la sustantia. Ma spero, che s’ella sarà di quell gran valore, che mi fù detto, che se ne venirà a qualche buona risolutione.

54. Ibid.

55. Ebd., f. 510r and f. 516r.

56. On this, see Keller-Molino, Die Fuggerzeitungen im Kontext, 173.

57. ASF, MdP, filza 4578 (Avvisi di Germania) contains many more avvisi from Graz for the years 1601–1604 than from Vienna or Prague. Also the Urb. Lat. 1069 (1601), for the three months considered, contains 7 avvisi from Graz and only 2 from Prague.

58. For the period considered in this research, see Nuntiatur des Girolamo Portia.

59. Following a comparison of the Zeitungen from Cologne and Antwerp bearing the same date, preserved in ÖNB, Cod. 8961 and the avvisi from the same places preserved in BAV, Urb. Lat. 1056 and ASF, MdP 3085, we can conclude that the two Italian volumes contain for the most part almost identical translations of the sometimes identical but sometimes slightly different original German Zeitungen preserved in the Fuggerzeitungen collection.

60. Bauer, Zeitungen, 103–5 with further references; more general on newswriters in Barbarics-Pieper, “Handwritten newsletters,” 62–4 and Infelise, “News Networks,” 55–62.

61. Lankhorst, “Newspapers in the Netherlands,” 153.

62. Bauer, Zeitungen, 189–201.

63. Infelise, “Roman avvisi,” 221.

64. Bauer, Zeitungen, 265–301.

65. See Keller-Molino, Die Fuggerzeitungen im Kontext, 164–75, with a relevant example on pp. 168–70.

66. ÖNB, Cod. 8974. As Octavian Secundus Fugger died in 1600, these newsletters were collected by Philipp Eduard, who might have kept both the Italian and the German versions. In this respect, the similarity of this volume to its bilingual predecessors is only apparent.

67. See also Bauer, Zeitungen, 150–9.

68. ÖNB, Cod. 8974, fol. 6v–7v (avviso); ÖNB, Cod. 8974, fol. 264r–264v (Zeitung) and ÖNB, Cod. 8974, fol. 269r (Zeitung).

69. ÖNB, Cod. 8974, fol. 6v.

70. ÖNB, Cod. 8974, fol. 264r.

71. ÖNB, Cod. 8974, fol. 264v.

72. ÖNB, Cod. 8974, fol. 7r.

73. ÖNB, Cod. 8974, fol. 269r.

74. Cod. 8974, ff. 7rv. The same use of different sources can be noted for the last report from Florence.

75. This is the adjective used by Thomas Schröder to define the style of the first printed German newsletters, in Schröder, “The Origins,”146.

76. There is a similar interpretation in De Vivo, Information and Communication, 12–7.

Additional information

Funding

The research for this article was partly supported by the Austrian Historical Institute in Rome.

Notes on contributors

Paola Molino

Paola Molino, Department of Early Modern History, Ludwig-Maximilian University, Geschwister-Scholl-Platz 1, 80539 Munich, Germany.