ABSTRACT
This chapter has three purposes. It seeks, first, to introduce the early financial and commercial newspapers that were published in Italy over the two-and-a-half centuries prior to the 1780s; second, to instill an enthusiasm for them that may translate into a willingness to help identify and locate additional examples of these newspapers; and, finally, to justify both enterprises by explaining why these early newspapers are worth our attention. In treating the origins and development of the business press in sixteenth-, seventeenth-and eighteenth-century Italy the essay will proceed in three stages: it begins by describing and illustrating the types of business newspapers that were published in Italy; then, it discusses the publication histories of these newspapers; and finally, it explores the economic importance of these newspapers not only for contemporaries but also for those like us who study the period.1
