Gazette, account of public affairs. This handy usage was invented at the beginning of the 17 ^th century in Venice, during the time when Italy was still the center of European negotiations and Venice still the sanctuary of liberty. These news-sheets, produced once a week, were called gazettes , from the name gazetta , a small coin harking back to one of our demi-sous, which was legal tender in Venice. This example was then imitated in all the great cities of Europe.

Such journals have been established in China since time immemorial: the gazette of the empire is printed there every day by order of the court. Even if this gazette is true, it must be believed that it does not contain all truths. Moreover they shouldn't all be there.

The doctor Théophraste Renaudot gave France its first gazettes in 1631; and he had the exclusive license [ privilège ] which was in his family’s patrimony for a long time. This license became an important object in Amsterdam; and the majority of gazettes in the United Provinces are still a revenue source for the families of several magistrates, who pay for the writers. Just the city of London itself has more than a dozen gazettes every week. They can only be printed on stamped paper, not an irrelevant tax for the state.

The newspapers of China only look at the empire; those of Europe encompass the universe. Albeit that they are often filled with false news, they can, however, supply good material for History; because usually the errors of one gazette are rectified by subsequent issues, and that one finds almost all authentic pieces that even sovereigns have had inserted there. The gazettes of France have always been reviewed by the ministry and that is why authors have always employed certain formulae that do not seem to be socially proper. By giving the title of monsieurs only to certain persons, and that of sieur to others, authors have forgotten that they do not speak in the name of the King. What is more, these public journals have never been soiled by mendacity; and have always been written rather correctly. The same cannot be said for foreign gazettes . Those of London, excepting those from the court, are often filled with the indecency which that nation’s liberty permits. French gazettes produced in foreign countries have rarely been written with purity and sometimes have done no small service in corrupting the language.

One of the big flaws into which they slide is when authors, seeing that the contents of the Council of State’s ordinances are expressed according to ancient formulae, believe that these formulae conform to our syntax and they thus imitate them in their accounts; it’s as though a Roman historian were to have employed the style of the Twelve Tables. Only in the style of the laws is it permitted to say, the King would have recognized, the King would have established a lottery . But the journalist must say, we learn that the King has established and not would have established a lottery , etc... we learn that the French have taken Minorica and not would have taken Minorica . This style of writing must have the greatest simplicity; epithets are ridiculous .

If the law court has an audience with the King, they shouldn’t say this august body had an audience, these fathers of the country have returned at exactly five o’clock . Titles must never be prodigious, they should only be given on occasions where it is necessary. Her Highness dined with Her Majesty, and Her Majesty then took her Highness to the theater, after which her Highness played with Her Majesty and the other highnesses and their most excellent husbands partook of the meal that Her Majesty gave to their highnesses. This servile affectation must be avoided. It’s not necessary to add that injurious terms must never be employed, whatever the possible pretext.

In imitation of political gazettes , literary gazettes began to be printed in France in 1655; the first journals were, in effect, only simple announcements of books recently published in Europe; soon afterward they were joined with moderate critiques. We don’t want to anticipate art here; we’re only speaking of literary gazettes that overburdened the public, given the numerous journals already in all European countries, where the sciences are cultivated. These gazettes appeared in Paris from around 1723 under many different names, Novelist of Parnasse, Observations on Modern Writings, andc. Most were done expressly to earn money and as these didn’t earn enough to take on authors, satires usually made up the bulk of the writings. They often mixed with odious personalities; malignity made sales; but reason and good taste, which always prevails in the long run, made them fall into contempt and into oblivion. Article by M. de Voltaire .

One type of very useful big-city gazette , of which London has given the exemplar, is that which announces to its citizens everything going on that week for their interest or for their amusement; spectacles, numerous works in every genre; all that individuals want to sell or buy; the price of tradable goods, that of foodstuffs; and, in a word, all that can contribute to the commodities of life. Paris has partly imitated this example for some time.