An unknown early monthly journal of the Netherlands : Joost Smient and Den Nederlantse Mercurius (1665)

Abstract

This article examines one of the earliest periodicals published in the Dutch Republic, the hitherto unknown Nederlantse Mercurius (1665). Only a single issue of this monthly journal has survived, but its publication history can be enriched considerably thanks to extant newspaper advertisements. This article investigates the Nederlantse Mercurius in the context of the growth of the periodical market in the seventeenth century; in the context of the career and family ties of the man responsible for the journal, the Amsterdam printer Joost Otto Smient, a young publisher launching his first independent venture; and in the context of the European news market.