''Den danske Mercurius'' was a

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...

newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as p ...

, first published on 1 August 1666, by Anders Bording. He founded his versified newspaper, published in

with the title ''Den Danske Mercurius''. The newspaper was published on the order of the Sovereign. Its publishing was a turning point in the history of Danish journalism. It was published on a monthly basis with two

quarto Quarto (abbreviated Qto, 4to or 4º) is the format of a book or pamphlet produced from full sheets printed with eight pages of text, four to a side, then folded twice to produce four leaves. The leaves are then trimmed along the folds to produc ...

pages. It contained domestic and international news written in Alexandrine verse style, accompanied by reasoning in the form of small poems. Regarding the messages from Denmark itself, news from the Royal Danish court took up the most space, but many other news topics were mentioned too, e.g. the arrival of foreign diplomats, appointments, meteorological phenomena and fires. The name of the newspaper, ''Mercurius'', referred to the messenger of the gods in

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

and

Roman mythology Roman mythology is the body of myths of ancient Rome as represented in the literature and visual arts of the Romans. One of a wide variety of genres of Roman folklore, ''Roman mythology'' may also refer to the modern study of these representa ...

, and had already been used for foreign newspapers, (e.g. the ''Mercure Francais'' from 1605), but in its form the Danish newspaper was an imitation of the versed '' La muze historique'', which

Jean Loret Jean Loret (ca 1600-1665) was a French writer and poet known for publishing the weekly news of Parisian society (including, initially, its pinnacle, the court of Louis XIV itself) from 1650 until 1665 in verse in what he called a ''gazette burles ...

wrote for mademoiselle de Longueville, later the Duchess of

Nemours Nemours () is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. Geography Nemours is located on the Loing and its canal, c. south of Melun, on the Moret–Lyon railway. Nemours – Saint-Pierre ...

, from 1650. ''Den Danske Mercurius ''continued its published for 14 years after the 1677 death of its founder, Bording, but its quality was diminished due to the lack of its founder's talent. After 1677, it was published by Jesper Als and Ahasverus Bartholin.

References

* ''Den Danske Mercurius'', C.A. Reitzels Forlag, 1984. . Fotografisk reproduktion af alle årgangene af avisen. * ''Den Danske Mercurius'' 1666–1677, Munksgaard, 1973. . Udvalg af ''Den Danske Mercurius''. * P.M. Stolpe - Dagspressen i Danmark, bind 2, Rosenkilde og Bagger, 1977, s. 31–65. Fotografisk reproduktion af udgaven fra 1879. * Jette D. Søllinge & Niels Thomsen, De danske aviser, bind 1, Odense Universitetsforlag, 1988. . s. 77–79.. Defunct newspapers published in Denmark 1666 establishments in Denmark Publications established in 1666 {{denmark-newspaper-stub