The Invention of the Gazette.

How was the gazette invented? This paper addresses the early stages of the evolution of design standardization, from the mid-sixteenth century to the first decades of the seventeenth century (i.e. before the Gazette—first published in France by Renaudot in 1631—established an international standard for the format). It also analyses how the design of the gazette was adopted in Spain via examples arriving from Italy during the last decade of the sixteenth century. In addition to confirming the vitality of the news networks that connected European populations since the early modern age, the main hypothesis put forward in this work is that a standard model for the design and structure of Spanish gazettes had already been established in the 1620s. This standardization made the product familiar to readers and served as a criterion with which to differentiate it from other formats, periodicals or otherwise. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]