Hot News: The Florence Resident Reports on the Great Fire of London

Abstract

AbstractThis paper analyses the European impact and circulation of news concerning the Great Fire of London in 1666. The study dwells on the diplomatic correspondence and manuscript newsletters of Italian diplomats residing in England, on the testimonies of contemporary observers, and on the production of printed news publications. In particular, it analyses the role played by the Tuscan resident in London, Giovanni Salvetti Antelminelli, while investigating the functioning of the information‐gathering process as well as the material and cultural resources put in place in the effort to report news about a disaster. In this regard, the event has been contextualised within a much larger period comprising the pandemic crisis of 1665 and the military campaign carried out by the English Crown during the Second Anglo–Dutch War. The analysis of the European media landscape during this period illuminates the mechanisms related to circulation and transmission of news and the relationship between internal political propaganda, as well as the response and the positioning of external observers in regard to an unexpected occurrence. Finally, comparison of sources allows us to stress the essentially dialectical nature between manuscript newsletters and printed news publications during the early modern period.