Newsbooks were the 17th-century precursors to today's
newspaper
A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written 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 politics, business, sports a ...
s.
Originating in
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
and
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
, they are distinct from the earlier news periodicals, known as
corantos {{About, , the family of dances, Courante
Corantos were early informational broadsheets, precursors to newspapers. Beginning around the 14th century, a system developed where letters of news and philosophical discussion would be sent to a central ...
, which were sourced from
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
.
History
The first newsbook was published in November 1641, and in the years 1641-2 there were 171 different editions available. The newsbooks were strongly partisan until
Parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
regained control of the press in September 1649.
Newsbooks often contained satirical poems, or otherwise formal reports of major news events.
See also
*
Gilbert Mabbot
Gilbert Mabbot, alternately Mabbott (1622—c. 1670), was the official licenser of the press from 1647 to 1649 and himself a pioneering journalist and publisher of newsbooks during the English Civil War period.
Background
Mabbot was the son of E ...
References
4
NEWSBOOK: ''Most viewed news website by youth''.
* {{cite book, title=The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21). Volume VII. Cavalier and Puritan., XV. The Beginnings of English Journalism, author=Berkenhead, Dillingham, Audley, Nedham, Smith, Rushworth and Border., url=http://www2.bartleby.com/217/1503.html
Newspapers published in England
1641 establishments in England
Newspapers published in Scotland
1641 establishments in Scotland