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World's Oldest Newspaper 1674 Gazette Over 335 Years Old...
World's Oldest Newspaper 1674 Gazette Over 335 Years Old...
Item # 628132
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June 30, 1673
THE LONDON GAZETTE, England, June 30, 1673
* Oldest continuously published newspaper in the world
This single sheet issue is over 340 years old. Various news from London and other parts of Europe also with some interesting advertisements as well. This title is the oldest continuously published English language newspaper in the world which began in 1665 and is still in existence today. A complete newspaper measuring about 7 by 11 1/2 inches and is in nice condition. Made of rag paper which was used back in the day (no wood pulp).
Fine and very early newspaper. Can easily be framed.
Background: "When in the autumn of 1665 Charles II sought shelter in Oxford from the Great Plague, he and his courtiers wanted newspapers to read, yet feared to touch "The Intelligencer" or "The News," which, coming from London, might be infected. Therefore Leonard Litchfeld, the university printer, was authorized and ordered to bring out a local paper. On Tuesday, November 14, 1665, the first number of "The Oxford Gazette" appeared, and it continued afterwards through eleven weeks on Thursdays and Mondays. It was meagre enough, but, though comprised in only two double-columned pages of folio, each number contained nearly as much matter as one of Roger L'Estrange's papers, and it soon became a formidable rival to those papers, especially as Thomas Newcombe, the old printer of the Commonwealth organs, was allowed to reproduce its sheets in London "for the use of some members and gentlemen who desired them.
The plague was soon over and King Charles went back to Whitehall, but he was pleased with the Oxford effort and it was soon succeeded by "The London Gazette, which made its first appearance, labelled as No. 24, on February 5, 1666, and which has been kept alive, altering its size and character from time to time, down to this day."
Category: The 1600's and 1700's
No Longer Available
