Criticism and the Circulation of News: The Scholarly Press in the Late Seventeenth Century

INTRODUCTION: WONDROUS NEWSAmong celestial phenomena, comets may be rivalled only by eclipses for the vividness of their appearance and their traditional role as portents. This was certainly true of the comet that appeared shortly before dawn on 14 November 1680. One German observer took note of its "terrible appearance", adding that it seemed "as though the heavens were burning, or as if the very air was on fire". In England, where comets were serious business, especially in the wake of recent political and religious turmoil, the arrival of the comet of 1680 added fresh fuel to the prevalent anti-Catholic hysteria, which had already been considerably stoked in the aftermath of the so-called "Popish Plot" in 1678.' But alongside such traditional associations with potential calamities and the tottering of dynasties, the comet of 1680 was something else as well. It was, quite literally, news. "Everyone is talking about the comet, which is without a doubt the most considerable novelty at the start of this year", wrote Jean Paul de la Roque, editor of the Journal des scavans, in the first issue of January 1 68 1 . La Roque elaborated by presenting a brief history of its sightings dating back to the preceding November, and he urged the collection of observations from different points on earth, which would produce a parallax effect and thus permit calculation of the comet's distance from earth. No doubt trusting that further news about the comet would be eagerly attended to by his readers, La Roque also promised to publish its "entire history" in an upcoming issue. And finally, he added a short homily on the question of whether comets can presage calamities. Such beliefs had been common among ancient peoples, La Roque conceded. But once it had become known that they were celestial phenomena just like any other, beliefs about comets as foreshadowings of misfortune came to be understood only as "popular error".2Over the next six months, La Roque returned to the comet several times, providing notices of books written about it or extracts from letters that discussed it in one context or another. 3 He began in the very next issue, recounting the story of a wondrous egg that had been laid by a hen in Rome. La Roque opened the account by solemnly assuring readers that no one who undertook to present "extraordinary facts" to the public could be too careful in verifying their authenticity. For this reason, he continued, he had not published any reports from Rome "of the egg which has made so much noise in the world" until such stories had been verified by persons as eminent as "Madame la Grande Duchesse & M. l'lnternonce", together with several others. According to the testimony of his correspondents, on the night of 2 December a hen that had never previously produced any eggs, "after having sung in an extraordinary fashion, and having made a great racket", laid an unusually large egg, marked "not with a comet, as the people [la Peuple] have believed, but with several stars". To lend additional credence to the story, La Roque added an engraving that displayed the egg's markings. He concluded by observing that this was not the first such prodigy in Italy to be associated either with a comet or an eclipse.4Thus, having denied only one week previously the popular belief that comets have anything to do with calamitous events, La Roque happily conceded - or at least, he appeared to concede - their involvement with the production of prodigies.5 We need not inquire too closely into his thinking or motivations here; it suffices to note that for a journalist like La Roque, the comet was a priceless opportunity to feed his audience dramatic, eye-catching news, be it astronomical or ovoid. And in fairness, it must be noted that the Journal des scavans under La Roque tended only somewhat more toward credulity than did its rival journal, the Philosophical transactions, under Henry Oldenburg. The Philosophical transactions, in fact, was not around in 1680 and 1681 to report on the comet or any of its prodigious offspring. …