Counterfeiting Periodicals in Seventeenth-Century Europe: Engravings, Music, and Binding of the Dutch Mercure galant in the Austrian National Library (1678–1679)

Abstract

Abstract This article analyses in detail a collection of seven counterfeit volumes of the Mercure galant—the main cultural periodical and principal propaganda machine of the late seventeenth-century—kept in the Austrian National Library in Vienna. These counterfeits, which have never been studied before, reveal the efforts and strategies undertaken by the Dutch bookseller Abraham Wolfgang to copy the text, engravings and music in each monthly issue. Analysing this set also reveals the financial and material constraints faced by the Parisian publishers of the original Mercure. Finally, the binding and bookplate reveal important clues regarding the international distribution and readership of Le Mercure galant, as well as its transformation from a periodical to an historical account.