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Earliest newspaper in your collection?
Earliest newspaper in your collection?
Item # 720642
November 16, 1641
NOUVELLES ORDINAIRES, Paris, France, November 16, 1641
* Earliest newspaper in your collection?
The heading translates to: "Special News"."
This issue predates the earliest English language newspaper we have in our inventory. It was the "sister" publication of the "Gazette", the very first regular newspaper published in France, started in 1631 by Théophraste Renaudot but with influential backing by the powerful Cardinal de Richelieu. The 'Gazette' was published for the wealthy, while the 'Nouvelles Ordinairies' was designed for more common folk.
The first letter of the title and the text are very ornate. All text is in French.
Four pages, 6 by 9 inches, great condition.
AI notes: Surviving issues of Nouvelles Ordinaires are exceedingly rare, making them prized artifacts for historians and collectors of early journalism. Published in Paris in the 1630s, these early news sheets were produced in small quantities, often by hand or on limited print runs, and were not intended for long-term preservation, so most were discarded or lost over the centuries. Today, only a handful of copies are known to exist, primarily preserved in institutions such as the Bibliothèque nationale de France and other major European libraries or specialized antiquarian collections. Their rarity is compounded by the fragile nature of 17th-century paper, which deteriorates easily, and by the fact that early newspapers like Nouvelles Ordinaires predated widespread official archiving practices. As a result, each surviving issue offers a unique window into the early practices of news reporting, the circulation of information across Europe, and the daily concerns of Parisian and European readers nearly four centuries ago.
Category: The 1600's and 1700's
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$255.00
