Rumour, Newsletters, and the Pope’s Death in Early Modern Rome

Abstract

The history of news in early modern Europe has recently become a major focus of scholarly attention. This chapter seeks to understand the interplay between rumours and newsletters by interpreting local events in papal Rome during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It examines the rumours, news, and populace's reading of events leading up to the pope's death. No event garnered as much attention in Rome as the possibility of the reigning pope's death. Rumours, spread primarily by word of mouth, can be difficult to trace. Print played a negligible role in the dissemination of rumour and news concerning the pope's death for a variety of reasons. The chapter examines the local nature of news by contextualizing it among the events, often ritualized, which sparked off rumours of the pope's death in Rome. News of the pope's death interested a variety of people. Keywords: newsletters; pope's death; Rome's civic government; rumours