One way to sell news in early modern Europe: combine extraordinary topics that were published elsewhere before, and then republish them in a new pamphlet.
Severe weather, a ghost story, a wonder flour!
Meet the pamphlet of 1684 here: t1p.de/kvn2a #bookhistory
The selection and combination of three extraordinary topics was an easy task for an experienced publisher. To start with, you needed to buy and read other pamphlets or news prints of the time. Media echoes of interesting stoiries were omnipresent and easy to spot. Have a look:
The severe weather, with thunder, heavy rainings and lightning, was all over the German news in 1684. Even if you missed the news reports in newspapers, there were also extra pamphlets devoted to the topic available. Like this one:
Next topic: the ghost story. A classic theme uploaded during the Reformation times that was reinvented all over. In 1684 you could choose your favorite ghost story from many publications, old and new alike. The chosen story of the three-topic-pamphlet came likely from this source
The third topic: the wonder flour. Publishers knew: a miracle story was often a good selling choice. "Wunder Mehl", wonder flour, was one of these good selling topics. Miracles around flour was an established theme - for example from this 1678 #Liedflugschrift:
But the direct source for the three-topic-pamphlet of 1684 was this other pamphlet highlighting the story of the "Wunder Mehl" a few weeks earlier, still in 1684:
Combining news parts was a media selecting practice, a well known observation work done by early modern publishers and authors alike. The media effect: echoes of news stories were travelling in Europe. #NewsHistory #BookHistory
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