‘Dopo i giornali’: avvisi, gazzette e relazioni in un Flugblatt del 1632
abstract
The article describes a Flugblatt - a leaflet- published in 1632, in order to emphasize how images and texts convey the complexity of information during the Thirty Years War (1618-1648). By reproducing the main figures and the activities of a Kramladen, a workshop in which various types of information products are written and sold – newsletters, gazettes, reports, calendars and pamphlets of all sorts - the engraving and the associated texts reveal, on the one hand, the techniques and the potential of printed and handwritten news, as well as its possibility to reach a wider audience, benefiting from the same circuits of travelling theaters and peddlers. On the other hand, however, the Flugblatt presents itself as a caricature of the world of news and reveals the growing skepticism of the European public towards the profession of the newswriter and the reliability of printed news, increasingly associated with war propaganda.
Keywords: Thirty Years War • Newsletters • Propaganda • Printing • Early Modern Information • Flugblätter