656 mario infelise
generally persons of elevated social rank, such as princely ministers, cardi-
nals, great merchants, and postmasters. some of these workshops became
veritable news agencies, specialized in the commercialization of informa-
tion. at the same time, they positioned themselves to provide other writ-
ten products as well, such as political and satirical texts that struggled to
find space in the book market for reasons of censorship but which enjoyed
enduring success in manuscript form. recent research on Venetian aris-
tocratic libraries has found, for example, that a Venetian noble with an
important political career focused his studies not only on books but also
notably on writings of diverse genre and provenance that documented the
actual practice of politics.16 many of these were reproduced by hand and
circulated by the gazetteers. the more organized of these newsmen even
possessed actual catalogues of their products which could be reproduced
on commission, with the corresponding prices. in Venice, the writings
most in demand were always ambassadorial relazioni. it is well known
that at the end of each diplomatic mission, every Venetian ambassador
had to present the senate with a report on the court or nation where he
had served. from the 16th century on, these periodical overviews, which
contained political but also geographical and anthropological information
and were composed according to precise formulas of humanist deriva-
tion, aroused notable interest even outside of Venice and despite their
supposed secrecy.
during the 17th century, printed gazettes began to appear alongside
hand-written versions, which nonetheless continued to be compiled until
the late 18th century, often by journalists who were simultaneously work-
ing on printed periodicals. the activity of domenico Caminer, the true
founder of modern italian journalism, is significant in this light, as he was
the author of a multitude of printed periodicals, but until 1780 he contin-
ued to compile well-informed and widely read handwritten gazettes.
Printed gazettes underwent a notable development as a result of the
war against the ottomans in the last decades of the 17th century, and par-
ticularly after the siege of Vienna in 1683, which in the years immediately
following nurtured an unprecedented “news fever” in all ranks of society.
it was just such a combination of hand-written and printed gazettes that
generated conflicting rumors and constituted the principal stimulus for
16 dorit raines, “l’arte di ben informarsi. Carriera politica e pratiche documentarie
nell’archivio familiare di patrizi veneziani: i molin di san Pantalon,” in l. Casella and
roberto navarrini, eds., Archivi nobiliari e domestici. Conservazione, metodologie di riordino
e prospettive di ricerca storica (udine, 2000), pp. 187–210.