Printing Italian-Language Newspapers in the Holy Roman Empire and the Making of a Transalpine public sphere (1657-1729)
Image: Public Domain
Who: Dr Nina Lamal, Researcher NL-Lab & Huygens Institute, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
When: 26th March 2026, 15:00 CET
Where: Online
We are very pleased to announce the second lecture in our young researcher and innovator series will be given by Nina Lamal.
Foreign-language newspaper publications in early modern Europe have received uneven scholarly attention. Most studies have focused on French-language titles, particularly those produced by Huguenot editors in the Dutch Republic, which have survived relatively well.
Newspapers published in other languages outside their Sprachraum during the second half of seventeenth century remain largely overlooked.
A significant bibliographical discovery allows us to shift this imbalance. As I am completing a bibliography of seventeenth-century Italian newspaper, I have identified the first Italian-language newspaper printed outside the Italian peninsula within the German Sprachraum. This newly identified title predates the existence of Italian-language newspapers in Amsterdam (1668) and Vienna (1671), marking an earlier and previously unrecognised phase of printing Italian newspapers in Europe. While early modern newspapers typically emerged in large, politically and
commercially significant cities, such as Amsterdam and Vienna, this publication appeared in a different context altogether. It challenges established chronologies and expands our understanding of news networks.
The analysis of its content, distribution, and readership reveals the newspaper’s dual role in serving local Italian(ate) audiences and international readers. By presenting this previously unknown title, the paper demonstrates how Italian-language newspapers contributed to the formation of ‘a transalpine public sphere’: connecting diverse urban centres and their hinterlands, as well as connecting diverse linguistic and political communities. This finding invites further archival investigation into other under-documented foreign-language publications from this
period, suggesting that the current historiography may significantly underestimate the scope of early modern multilingual press activity.
Guests are welcome! To receive the Zoom link, please register your email address with the YRI team until a day before the event: yriteam.pcpsce@gmail.com
This lecture is part of:
Voices in Print: Young Researchers and Innovators Lecture Series 2026.
Knowledge, Power and Public Sphere 1500-1800
Organised by the PCPSCE Young Researchers and Innovators Team and Launched February 2026.
Lectures are livestreamed and later uploaded to the PCPSCE YouTube channel.
Previous lectures: