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Rare issue of the Oxford Gazette... Death toll from the Great Plague...
Rare issue of the Oxford Gazette... Death toll from the Great Plague...
Item # 697267
December 28, 1665
THE OXFORD GAZETTE, England, Dec. 28, 1665
* Earliest & Rarest of newspapers to be had
* Great Plague of London - epidemic deaths
This is an extremely famous--and rare--title being the predecessor of the famous "London Gazette", the oldest continually published English language newspaper in the world. This is the #13 issue.
Because of the Plague at this time, the Royal Court had removed itself from London to Oxford when this newspaper began, so issues #1 thru #23 were published simultaneously in Oxford & London and when the contagion had subsided & the Court returned to London this newspaper went with it and renamed itself "The London Gazette" with issue #24, and the rest is history.
The content is entirely taken up with reports from various parts of Europe, most with a military theme. The back page has a note from Dublin: "The small pox is much in this city and fevers, which seize upon several in the same house, yet (God be praised) not many die, of the Plague none, either here nor in any other parts of this Kingdom."
Also, the bottom of the back page has the weekly death toll noting: "The accounts of the weekly bill of mortality runs thus. Total 330. Plague 152. Decreased 195." (see)
Complete as a single sheet issue, 7 by 11 1/4 inches, a few very tiny worm holes at the bottom, in very nice, clean condition.
Certainly a very scarce newspaper and a cornerstone issue for any early newspaper collection, being an early issue of the world's oldest continually published newspaper.
Category: The 1600's and 1700's
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