book publishing and the circulation of information 655
Information and JournalismWhile i have focused so far on the novelty of print, we must not forget
the endurance of the manuscript in sectors that maintained a notable
production even after gutenberg’s invention. it is widely known that
Venice, in the very years in which it was becoming one of the most
prolific european publishing centers, was also a focal point for the
collection, production, and diffusion of political and military news, such
that the tool destined to be the principal vehicle for such news in the
following centuries, the gazette, is generally attributed Venetian origins.13
But the gazettes, or avvisi, as these periodical sheets dedicated to news-
gathering were commonly called, long remained hand-written, and it was
only well into the 17th century that they began to appear in print. even
those responsible for compiling them often had a role in the production
of the manuscript. in this sector the advantages of the manuscript with
respect to print were beyond doubt, and for two principal reasons: greater
production speed and less censorship.14
this custom of compiling and sending out sheets that collected letter
excerpts and news of general interest is documented even in the 15th
century.15 over the course of the 16th century the demand for these
newsletters tended to increase, especially in the bigger cities. in Venice,
those who worked in the news industry often operated within small work-
shops of copiers. they collected the pieces of news and compiled them
in a weekly avviso. these newsletters were then recopied by hand a cer-
tain number of times and sent out by post to their subscribers, who were
13 Peter Burke, Early Modern Venice as a Centre of Information and Communication, in
John martin and dennis romano, eds., Venice Reconsidered. The History and Civilization
of an Italian City-State 1297–1797 (Baltimore/london, 2000), pp. 389–419. an original study
regarding the multiple implications of communication and information can be found
in filippo de Vivo, Information and Communication in Venice: Rethinking Early Modern
Politics (oxford, 2007).
14 on the organization of the transmission of political information, see my studies:
Prima dei giornali. Alle origini della pubblica informazione (secoli XVI e XVII) (rome/Bari,
2002); “from merchants’ letters to handwritten Political Avvisi: notes on the origins of
Public information,” in robert muchembled and e. William monter, Cultural Exchange in
Early Modern Europe, vol. 3: Correspondence and Cultural Exchange in Europe 1400–1700,
ed. f. Bethencourt and f. egmond (Cambridge, 2007), pp. 33–52; and “news networks
between italy and europe,” in B. dooley, ed., The Dissemination of News and the Emergence
of Contemporaneity in Early Modern Europe (london, 2010), pp. 51–67.
15 georg Christ, “a newsletter in 1419? antonio morosini’s Chronicle in the light of
Commercial Correspondence between Venice and alexandria,” Mediterranean Historical
Review 20 (2005), 35–66.