Early Modern European Newspapers and Periodicals

Timeline

1. 1672–1675Paris · FranceJean Donneau de Visé founded the Mercure Galant in 1672, pioneering a cultural periodical format centered on literary reviews, court anecdotes, and social news, distinct from traditional newspapers focused on political and commercial news. The journal quickly amassed a large middle-class readership and became an important barometer of French cultural taste.
2. 1675–1680London · BritainThe London Gazette, founded in 1665, continued through the 1670s as the official channel of the English crown, its monopoly protected by the Licensing Act. When the Licensing Act lapsed in 1679 without renewal, it briefly opened a window for press liberalization; numerous private newspapers emerged and political polemics intensified, demonstrating the potential of the press as a tool of political opinion.
3. 1671–1680London and Paris · Western EuropeThe Royal Society's Philosophical Transactions (1665) and France's Journal des Savants (1665) continued publication through the 1670s, gradually establishing the journal norms of peer correspondence and abstracted reviews. These two journals formed the backbone of information exchange in the Republic of Letters, transforming scattered correspondence networks into a retrievable system of accumulated knowledge.