Criticism and the Circulation of News: The Scholarly Press in the Late Seventeenth Century

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: WONDROUS NEWSAmong celestial phenomena, comets may be rivalled only by eclipses for the vividness their appearance and their traditional role portents. This was certainly true the comet that appeared shortly before dawn on 14 November 1680. One German observer took note its terrible appearance, adding that it seemed as though the heavens were burning, or if the very air was on fire. In England, where comets were serious business, especially in the wake recent political and religious turmoil, the arrival the comet 1680 added fresh fuel to the prevalent anti-Catholic hysteria, which had already been considerably stoked in the aftermath the so-called Popish Plot in 1678.' But alongside such traditional associations with potential calamities and the tottering dynasties, the comet 1680 was something else well. It was, quite literally, news. Everyone is talking about the comet, which is without a doubt the most considerable novelty at the start this year, wrote Jean Paul de la Roque, editor the Journal des scavans, in the first issue January 1 68 1 . La Roque elaborated by presenting a brief its sightings dating back to the preceding November, and he urged the collection observations from different points on earth, which would produce a parallax effect and thus permit calculation the comet's distance from earth. No doubt trusting that further news about the comet would be eagerly attended to by his readers, La Roque also promised to publish its entire history in an upcoming issue. And finally, he added a short homily on the question whether comets can presage calamities. Such beliefs had been common among ancient peoples, La Roque conceded. But once it had become known that they were celestial phenomena just like any other, beliefs about comets foreshadowings misfortune came to be understood only error.2Over the next six months, La Roque returned to the comet several times, providing notices books written about it or extracts from letters that discussed it in one context or another. 3 He began in the very next issue, recounting the story a wondrous egg that had been laid by a hen in Rome. La Roque opened the account by solemnly assuring readers that no one who undertook to present facts to the public could be too careful in verifying their authenticity. For this reason, he continued, he had published any reports from Rome of the egg which has made so much noise in the world until such stories had been verified by persons eminent Madame la Grande Duchesse & M. l'lnternonce, together with several others. According to the testimony his correspondents, on the night 2 December a hen that had never previously produced any eggs, after having sung in an extraordinary fashion, and having made a great racket, laid an unusually large egg, marked not with a comet, the people [la Peuple] have believed, but with several stars. To lend additional credence to the story, La Roque added an engraving that displayed the egg's markings. He concluded by observing that this was the first such prodigy in Italy to be associated either with a comet or an eclipse.4Thus, having denied only one week previously the popular belief that comets have anything to do with calamitous events, La Roque happily conceded - or at least, he appeared to concede - their involvement with the production prodigies.5 We need inquire too closely into his thinking or motivations here; it suffices to note that for a journalist like La Roque, the comet was a priceless opportunity to feed his audience dramatic, eye-catching news, be it astronomical or ovoid. And in fairness, it must be noted that the Journal des scavans under La Roque tended only somewhat more toward credulity than did its rival journal, the Philosophical transactions, under Henry Oldenburg. The Philosophical transactions, in fact, was around in 1680 and 1681 to report on the comet or any its prodigious offspring. …