Mercurius Caledonius

The Mercurius Caledonius - Comprising The Affairs now in Agitation in Scotland With A Survey of Forraign Intelligence was arguably Scotland's first newspaper. It was founded in Edinburgh in 1660 by the playwright Thomas Sydserf, the son of the Bishop of Galloway.[1] It contained domestic news such as reports of parliamentary debates, reports from abroad and reprints of news from London newspapers. [2]

Twelve editions were published between 1660 and 1661, the first having the date "From Monday Decemb. 31 to Tuesday, Jan. 8th, 1661".[3]

According to Francis Groome, Mercurius Caledonius was preceded by The Scots Intelligencer (1643, AKA The Kingdom's Intelligencer) and Mercurius Publicus (1652).[3]

See also

References

  1. ^ "The previous incarnations of the Caledonian Mercury". Archived from the original on 27 February 2014. Retrieved 15 April 2013.
  2. ^ "Rare Books Collections - Newspapers". National Library of Scotland. Retrieved 25 January 2010.
  3. ^ a b Groome, Francis H. (1884). "Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland: a survey of Scottish typography, statistical, biographical and historical". Newspapers. Thomas C. Jack, Grange Publishing. p. 538. Retrieved 22 February 2014.