ABSTRACT
Of all the genres in the early modern book world, news was the area where printers looked forward as much as they looked back. A changing and challenging form of print which demanded that printers kept up to date with the latest techniques, as well as the latest events, news printing evolved as part of a complicated hybridized information culture led by consumer demand. Cheap, deliberately provocative and out to snare the reader’s attention, news pamphlets showcased the ingenuity of the printer, and as such give the modern reader great insight into the concerns and tastes of the Elizabethan print consumer. Frequently polemical, more often than not didactic, if not downright preachy, early modern news pamphlets gave the public what it wanted: sensation, danger, information and ultimately the hope of resolution in uncertain times. Elizabeth’s reign was part of a wider continental struggle for Europe’s soul. This was the era of the French Wars of Religion and the Dutch Revolt, the Council of Trent and the Battle of Lepanto. Heathens were on the edges of Europe and heretics were on both sides of the channel. People needed to know what was happening, to keep their place in the conflict and to work out the significance of each battle, each siege, each declaration. They needed to know how God was working in the world, both in England and abroad. This chapter examines how readers in Elizabethan England kept up to date with the major happenings in the wider world through translations of foreign language news texts. 1 These pamphlets had a multi-faceted societal role: they informed readers about events happening on the continent, which served to confirm their understanding of the ongoing battle between the forces of good and evil, whilst also allowing printers to make money and develop new techniques of establishing a relationship between the book and the reader.
