News in the Middle Ages

This book is about the idea and reality of news in the Middle Ages. In this period, news circulated among all levels of society. Major news stories were disseminated widely. Other news items of interest to a limited social group or within a particular locality were more restricted in their transmission. But everyone had an appreciation for and interest in news – as it pertained to them. Then, as now, news was an important part of how people interacted: the communication of new information based on shared interests reinforced long-term relationships and enabled strangers to connect. News was – and is – an essential part of humanity’s social environment. That there was news in the medieval period is, generally, accepted by historians, but, sometimes, only grudgingly so. This is because the history of news is intimately tied up with the history of printed news and newspapers, and with ideas of technological innovation, democracy, and modernity. For scholars working on news in the early modern and modern periods, there is a sense that news in the era before print must have been very different. In some ways it was, but in other ways it wasn’t. This book provides an informed overview of news in the Middle Ages, highlighting similarities and differences with later periods, and offering new ways of understanding how news functions in human societies, particularly those without the technology of print. It makes use of previous work on medieval news, and combines this with fresh insights drawn from the primary sources and prompted by engagement with scholarship on later periods. It is not the first word on news in the medieval period and it should not be the last. This book is the start of a conversation that, its authors hope, will see news in the Middle Ages fully incorporated into the history of news.