Front-page illustrations and political powers in Early Modern Spanish journalism

Abstract

This paper explores the representation of political powers in the front-page illustrations of Early Modern Spanish newspapers. The knowledge about Early Modern European journalism has undergone a remarkable development in recent decades: however, research on the form of the first newspapers is scarce. The paper presents a corpus of 162 news pamphlets and gazettes published in Seville between 1618 and 1635. An analysis follows considering the presence of engravings on the cover page and their classification. This insight leads to the conclusion that the image did not play a decisive role to draw the attention of readers, even in sensationalist news pamphlets. The illustration is used not to present the events narrated but to stress the genre of the print; about half of the corpus prints have a cover engraving that reproduces a coat of arms, associated with the monarchical power in two thirds of the news sheets: Spanish journalism experienced a growing officialization, prior to the appearance of the first official newspaper of the kingdom, Gazeta Nueva (1661). Also, a small group of news sheets with ecclesiastical or nobiliary coat of arms reveals the interest of local powers in the flourishing of the journalistic market