The itch grown a disease: Manuscript transmission of news in the seventeenth century

Atherton, Ian

doi:10.1080/01440359808586638

Cited by 26 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Ian Atherton suggests that 'Manuscript was the more important form of written news' right up until the early 18th century: 'it was more plentiful than printed news; it was more accurate, less censored, and regarded as more authoritative.' 68 But in 1715, newspapers were able to offer more 'timely, accurate and authoritative news' than their manuscript counterparts. 69 It was the newspapers that more readily satisfied readers' desires to find out details of the rapidly changing situations in the centres of conflict throughout Britain.…”

Section: Fitting To Print: Newspapers and The Discontinuities Of Formmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inscripting Rebellion: The Newdigate Manuscript Newsletters, Printed Newspapers and the Cultural Memory of the 1715 Rising^*

Davis¹

2022

Parliamentary History

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In this essay, I bring a literary critic's perspective to the study of the continued use of manuscript newsletters in the 18th century. I suggest that by comparing and contrasting the treatment of political news in official manuscript newsletters and printed newspapers during a specific and limited time period in the early 18th century, the beginning of what became known as the 1715 Jacobite Rising, we can see in relief the different affordances of each medium, gain further information about what role scribal news played in conveying political information and understand why it eventually lost traction. Analysing the news coverage in the Newdigate manuscript newsletters and in five newspapers ranging across the political spectrum, I suggest that the 1715 Rising in fact presented an opportunity for newspapers to compete with manuscript newsletters’ established authority as they conveyed news that was occurring in the locations of conflict in a more timely and thorough manner. At the same time, the affordances of the newspaper form also amplified the impression of the 1715 Rising as a disjointed and uncontrollable series of events. The essay concludes by examining the information management that took place in the printed histories produced in the aftermath of the conflict as they wove the newspaper reports together into narratives that minimised the danger that the events of 1715 had actually posed.

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Section: Fitting To Print: Newspapers and The Discontinuities Of Formmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inscripting Rebellion: The Newdigate Manuscript Newsletters, Printed Newspapers and the Cultural Memory of the 1715 Rising^*

Davis¹

2022

Parliamentary History

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“…The genre of the satirical "character sketch"-modeled on the satires of Theophrastus-became especially fashionable in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, and both "character books" and writers that drew on this genre often featured "characters" in part defined by their obsession with news. 56 The anecdote from Percevall with which I started sits in a tradition of mocking those who mis-consume news: both those who (like "little Guzman") take bland statements that are neither "new" nor interesting to be news, and those who gullibly believe untruths. Perhaps the most famous example of a gullible newsreader in early modern literature is Sir Politic Would-Be in Ben Jonson's Volpone, whose interest in the news and desire to be seen as a statesman make him an easy mark for deception.…”

Section: News and Satirementioning

confidence: 99%

Literature and News in the Renaissance

Rolfe¹

2022

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Literature

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The news culture of early modern England was complex and shifting: news moved via printed and manuscript texts, sometimes over wide distances and across national and confessional borders. “News” might cover a range of topics, from “high politics” and reports of military action, to grisly “true crime,” prodigies, and natural disasters—and even to the scandalous doings of one’s neighbors. News was (and is) difficult to delineate as a genre, slipping into gossip, rumor, propaganda, and history. England’s news market—especially its printed news market—changed markedly in the years before the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, and this was reflected in literary texts. Authors drew on topical events; they mocked and satirized figures associated with news dissemination and consumption, and they drew on the processes by which newsreaders acquired and evaluated information.

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“…39 As has occasionally been noted, official accommodation of the news landscape also involved capitalising upon the audience for newsletters in order to secure supplies of domestic intelligence. 40 Government newsletters were not only sold by subscription, but also traded for local intelligence, which probably explains the eagerness with which postmasters and customs officials were added to the list of Williamson's correspondents. One such recipient was Captain Silas Taylor, storekeeper at Harwich, who frequently forwarded information gleaned from Dutch ships, as well as copies of Dutch gazettes, and who clearly expected to receive news in return.…”

Section: IImentioning

confidence: 99%

‘A Knowing but a Discrete Man’: Scribal News and Information Management in Restoration England

Peacey¹

2022

Parliamentary History

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This article builds upon recent interest in scribal news by analysing official uses of manuscript newsletters during the Restoration, in domestic contexts as well as in relation to Anglo‐Dutch affairs. It uses official correspondence and diplomatic archives to trace official attitudes to scribal news, as well as the processes devised for utilising newsletters. In part, this is a study of ‘information management’, and it explores the methods used for acquiring and analysing intelligence, as well as the personnel involved. But it also emphasises that officials were conscious of the shifting landscape of news across the 17th century, and of popular demand for both printed and scribal news. As such, intelligence strategies involved more than just spies and intercepts, in terms of the need to both ‘consume’ and produce scribal news, to develop relationships with intelligencers and journalists, and to exchange information. Mapping this complex news ecosystem enhances our appreciation of the ongoing relevance of scribal newsletters, but it also highlights some intractable challenges faced by the government, in terms of the tensions between disseminating information to friendly correspondents and imperilling some of its most valued intelligencers.

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The itch grown a disease: Manuscript transmission of news in the seventeenth century

Cited by 26 publications

References 23 publications

Inscripting Rebellion: The Newdigate Manuscript Newsletters, Printed Newspapers and the Cultural Memory of the 1715 Rising^*

Inscripting Rebellion: The Newdigate Manuscript Newsletters, Printed Newspapers and the Cultural Memory of the 1715 Rising^*

Literature and News in the Renaissance

‘A Knowing but a Discrete Man’: Scribal News and Information Management in Restoration England

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The itch grown a disease: Manuscript transmission of news in the seventeenth century

Cited by 26 publications

References 23 publications

Inscripting Rebellion: The Newdigate Manuscript Newsletters, Printed Newspapers and the Cultural Memory of the 1715 Rising*

Inscripting Rebellion: The Newdigate Manuscript Newsletters, Printed Newspapers and the Cultural Memory of the 1715 Rising*

Literature and News in the Renaissance

‘A Knowing but a Discrete Man’: Scribal News and Information Management in Restoration England

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

Inscripting Rebellion: The Newdigate Manuscript Newsletters, Printed Newspapers and the Cultural Memory of the 1715 Rising^*

Inscripting Rebellion: The Newdigate Manuscript Newsletters, Printed Newspapers and the Cultural Memory of the 1715 Rising^*