Handwritten (or manuscript) newsletters are a rather rare subject within the broad field of media history. Still, a number of researchers in different countries have focused on a particular newspaper or news archive. These studies, despite a difference in their focus with regard to geography and time, have shown that there is a rich material to deal with (many archives store a huge amount of handwritten newsletters). The overall picture therefore is that handwritten newsletters clearly have been a common phenomenon in European history since at least the 1500s.
Handwritten newsletters fulfilled varying functions within the emerging public sphere as well as private news networks. Most prominent was probably their role in distributing possibly secretive news alongside or instead of a public newsmarket. They thus reached a more or less secluded group of wealthy and influential members of different elite groups. They were also the basis of academic networks, merchant companies, and alike. They were worthwhile commodities among the literary activities of postmasters and editors. The newsletter’s secretiveness was a means to spread information and thus to avoid or complicate censorship. As such handwritten newsletters were the predecessors to printed newspapers. However, on account of the above mentioned functions, the handwritten newsletters did not disappear with the emergence of their printed twin sister, they specialized.
