An early news-sheet: The Russian invasion of Poland in 1563: An exact facsimile of a contemporary account in Latin, published at Douay, together with an introduction and historical notes, and a full translation into English

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AN EARLY NEWS-SHEET.

A. D. 1563.

[Only 250 copies printed.']

AN EARLY NETVS-SHEE7.

THE RUSSIAN INVASION OF
POLAND IN 1563.

AN EXACT FACSIMILE OF A CONTEMPORARY

ACCOUNT IN LATIN, PUBLISHED

AT DOUAY.

TOGETHER WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND HISTORICAL

NOTES, AND A FULL TRANSLATION

INTO ENGLISH.

LONDON:

CHATTO AND WINDUS, PUBLISHERS.

1874.

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CHISWICK PRESS :— PRINTED BY WHITTINGHAM AND WII.KINS,
TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE.

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INTRODUCTION.

HIS tiny volume is interefting, amongft
other things, as being a fpecimen of
thofe early printed news-flieets which
were the precurfors of modern jour-
nalifm. After the invention of printing, the prefs
was foon employed as a difleminator of current news.
Religious difputations were the principal topics in
the early part of the fixteenth century, and therefore
we find the pamphlets of the time — for thefe were
the firft news-flieets — moftly occupied with the argu-
ments and anathemas of the reformers of Northern

6 An Early News-Sheet.

Europe, and the Catholics of the South. Some very
early tradis, giving news of a more fecular chara61:er,
have recently been found in Germany ; and Seiior
de Gayangos, of the Efcurial in Madrid, informs me
that Spain had news-fheets of a date quite as early
as any which have yet been recorded by Italian and
German bibliographers. To Venice is generally
accredited the earlieft newfpaper. Its commercial
pofition, in the early part of the fixteenth century —
great, although fomewhat on the decline from its
previous fplendour when a branch of the Medici
family refided there — rendered the diffemination of
news necefTary for the trade of the city. The fhips
of Venice then covered all the feas which were
counted as within the conlines of the habitable globe ;
although fcarcely a month palTed but fome adventurous
captain would ftray beyond the limits defined in his
rude chart, and bring back with him to Venice the
news of another land-difcovery in the far Weft or
in the far South. The arrival of thc fhip in the

IntroduBion. 7

Adriatic, the contents of its cargo, the price of com-
modities abroad, together with fome account of the
new ifland,^ its wonderful people and marvellous
produ6ts, would form the ftaple of the news-fheet
of the hour. This document was in manufcript.

* The earlieft accounts of the difcoveries of Columbus were
given in little books of a few pages, very fimilar to thofe quaint
eight-page relations of our own Civil War, which recorded
the defeat at Nafeby, the viftory at Edgehill, the death of
Charles outfide Whitehall, and the other great events of the
hour. It is a fmgular fa£t that the fubftance of all thefe "re-
lations," whether a barn be burnt " by accident of a foldier's
fireing," or 5,000 men flain and half a town levelled to the
ground, was invariably given in eight pages of fmall quarto.
In turning over a bundle of thefe " Intelligencers," it is amufing
to note that when the newfmonger was more ignorant than
ufual, and could neither find words to amplify his material,
nor any additional news to infert, he generally gave the fub-
ftance of the firft page over again on the laft, enforcing it with
repeated ejaculations of " may the Lord help us," " O truft in
God, ye hypocrites," '•' may the ever-blefled God aflift us all,"
" Amen Amen," and fuch like.

8 An Early News-Sheet.

written in a iegible hiind, and copies were affixed
here and there at different points of the city — the
news-rooms — for the immediate perufal of thofe
merchants who chofe to pay a gazzetta^ for the
reading.

In 1536 the Venetian pofieffions and fadtories in
the Eaft were attacked by the Turks, who at this
period were very powerfu!, and in clofe alliance with
Francis the Firft of France. As may be imagined,
the people of Venice were extremely anxious to
hear the news from the fleet j fo the firft regular
monthly journal was eftabliftied by the government
to fupply this information, and men were paid to
read the particulars at the principal points of the
city. But the heads of the Republic were fearful
of the fpread of falfe news and opinions dangerous
to their pofition, fo they ordained that no flieets

* An obfolete Venetian coin, equal in value to one-third of
our penny.

Introdudiion. 9

fhould be iffued but fuch as were fandioned by the
Doge and his Council. Thefe fun^tionaries, liberal
in many things, were yet very jealous of the printing-
prefs ; and it was nearly fifty years after this time that
the firfl printed newfpaper was publifhed in the city
under official authority. A traveller informs us that
fo recently as the beginning of the prefent century
manufcript news-fheets were in circulation amongfl
the poorer claflTes of Venice.

The origin of the now univerfal term Gazette is
thus feen to have come — and very naturally — from
the fmall coin originally paid for its perufal.

Blount, in his Glojfographia^ publifhed in 1656,
gives the following definitions to the word : —

" Gazzetta. — A certain Venetian coin, fcarce worth one
farthing ; alfo, a bill of news, or ftiort relation of the occurrences
of the time, printed moft commonly at Venice, and thence dif-
perfed every month into moft parts of Chriftendom."

At this date the Venice "Gazette" had evidently
become a widely-circulated journal of confiderable

lo An Early News-Sheet.

importance, prefenting its readers with news of a
much more general chara6ter than the mere local
afFairs of the city where it was iflued. Blount's
ftatementthatthe"Gazzetta" wasread everymonth
in moft parts of Chriftendom, receives corroboration
from our own "Diurnals" and "Weekly Intelli-
gencers" of the Civil War period. In a great many
of them we find " Newes from Venice," "The
Gazxette from Venice," "Our News Letter from
Venice," &c.

M. Libri poflefled four old news fheets : —

Avvisi di Giaverino con Narrazione del Campo Chriftiano
e Turchefco, 4to. (o« the title a nvoodcut vieiv).

Fiorenza, 1594.

Aviso nuova della Prefa della Cella chiaraata la Maometta
in Barberia, 410. Roma, 1602.

Relazione della Prefa d'Agliman in Caramania, &c., ^to.

Fiorenza, 161 3.

NuovA e vera Relazione di Quanto e Succeflb tra 1'Armata
Maritima di Venezia e li Corfari di Barberia con la tolta De-
ftruzione di efTi Corfari, 4to. {ivoodcut on title). Roma, 1638.

IntroduSiion. 1 1

In reference to them this diftinguiflied biblio-
grapher gives the foUowing note in his catalogue : —
" Four curious early News-Letters, the prototypes
of the fubfequent Newfpapers or Gazettes, a name
erroneoufly fuppofed to have been given to them from
the commencement, which, however, was not the
cafe, as they derived it from the 'Gazetta,' the fmall
coin ufually paid for their perufal." With all due
deference to the bibliographical knowledge of the
writer, I muft here exprefs a contrary opinion. The
fadt of a "Gazetta" having been printed in 1570,
which is preferved in the Britifli Mufeum, at once
fets afide the conclufion, too quiclcly arrived at,
that a newfpaper of 1594- 1602 was not fo ftyled.
Apart from this we have plenty of other proof.

An acknowledged fuccefs is invariably copied or
caricatured in one way or another. Amongft the
other printed trifles which appeared under the title
of Gazette, foon after the Venice newfpapers were
printed, we find :

12 An Early News-Sheet.

La Gazette.
La Gazette en ces vers
Contente les cervelles,
Car de tout Tunivers
Elle re^oit nouvelles.

Paris^ jouxte la copie impri?nee a Rouen, par
Jean Petit^ 1609.^

There were alfo : —

Gazette fur la culbute des coyons.

A Montalban^ 1617.

La Gazette fran^oife pour le temps prefent.

Troyes^ \bll.

' Brunet fays of this: — " Volume peucommun, quicontient,
independamment du programme d'une Gazette fatiiique en vers,
deux autres fatires dont voici les titres: Les ballieurs (balayeurs)
des ordures du monde, et la Cahalle des matois, plus un Difcours
de la mode et bigarrure du monde, et Les joyeux et attrijlez par
la Blanque." — (Voir fur ce petit recueil la Bibliot/ieque poetique
de Viollet-le-Duc, p. 349.)

IntroduSlion. 1 3

La Gazette des Halles. 1649.

The title was alfo a common one for pamphlets
in this country. Thus we have: —

The Gazette of Health. Lond. 1635.

The new Gazette, or a perfe£t Relation of af-
faires from abroad. ^638.

Maffinger, too, ufes the word to indicate a coin
of trifling value: —

" Since you have faid the word I am content,
But will not go a gazet lefs." —

Maid of Honoury iii. i .

Thefe adoptions of the Venetian title only ferve
to fhow the popularity which attended the Italian
newfpaper.

It feems probable that the term Gazette, or
" Gazzetta," was for a long time peculiar to the
Venice newfpapers, and that the temporary recitals,

14 -^^ Early News-Sheet.

or news-fheets, of other towns, merely gave a pithy
title, or fenfational heading, to attraft the neceflary
attention. "Mercuries," "Advices," "Journals,"
*'News" or "Novelties," "Relations," "Diaries,"
"Summaries," " News Letters," " Chronicles,"
with many other titles of a more fanciful chara6ter,
appear to have been the earlieft attra6tive headings
of ancient newfpapers iflued in this country and on
the Continent.

In the famous Magliabechian Library at Florence,
thirty volumes of manufcript Gazzettas, iflued at
Venice in the fixteenth century, are preferved. In
our own Britifh Mufeum fome of thefe Italian news-
flieets may be found, and the oldeft printed one
amongft them bears, as was remarked above, the
date of 1570. It will be feen that the little news-flieet
here reproduced in facfimile gives a date feven years
earher than this. The reader will pleafe to remark
the thoroughly " penny-a-line " chara6ter of the pro-
du6tion, the want of fufficient news to eke out the

Introdu6iion.

15

four pages, and therefore the diftance apart of each
paragraph, the great ornament at the end, and the
arrangement of dots at the beginning to aflift in
filling up.

J. C. H.

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[Translation.]

Memorable and likewife Horrible Narrative

of the Cruel Expedition of

the Mufcovites.

Translated from the German into Latin.

HE Army of the Mufcovite, fome weeks

ago, invaded the territory of the Pole,

and after fix brave aflaults, carried the

City of Polotzki or Plefki by ftorm, (a

tow^n of Lithuania at a diftance of feventeen miles

from the deferts,) the which they plundered, and,

putting fire to it, levelled with the ground ; and

B

i8 An Early News-Sheet.

from that place they ordered twenty thoufand people,
firft to have their arms and legs chopped ofF, and
then to be ftrangled, a frightful fpe<5lacle to behold !
No words can exprefs the outrages they committed
upon Matrons, Maidens and Children : fixty-two
thoufand and more people from that neighbourhood
were lead into Mufcovia ; Matrons and Maidens
were ftripped naked and (when they were naked
and without any garment) they were led chained
into captivity. Amongft thofe that were carried
off" was likewife the Wayn'oda of the Lithuanian
Milice, otherwife the leader of their army, with his
wife, whofe life the enemy had fpared.

And this matter threw fuch an exceeding terror
into the whole of this province, that Sir Nicholas
Radziwit, who was accounted the firft among the
Lithuanian Chieftains, quitted his eftates on his own
account, leaving them either to the fafe keeping of
his friends or as a prey to his enemies.

This fuccefs of their affairs ftill increafed the

Tranjlation. 1 9

valour of the barbarous and, by their cruelty, already
too formidable enemy. Anon they hurried to the
aflault of the town of KiofF, fituated in another
diftri6l of Poland; the which town, becaufe it is
fituated on the river Dnieper, feemed moft oppor-
tune to them for cutting off" the provifions from
the whole of that diftri6t, whereby the enemy
hoped, that by thefe means it would come to pafs,
that all the other places in the neighbourhood, as
in the former expedition, would fall into their hands,
and become their property, for evermore.

For this reafon they began by fending before them
four thoufand of the fix thoufand Tartars which
were among them, into the deferts and wildernefles,
who were to deftroy every thing far and near by
fire and by fword, up to the very walls of the City;
imagining, perchance, that after having vifited that
whole diftri(5l with fuch a calamity, they would
meet with the fame good fortune in the fiege of this
town as they had done before.

20 An Rarly News-Sheet.

Amongft other things moft dreadful to relate, the
Mufcovite fent word unto the Polifli king, that he
carried about with his army a Bier, fuch as thofe
ufed in burying the dead, which was made of filver,
and that he did not mean to make peace with him,
until either the King's or his own head were placed
on that Bier.

The army with which the Mufcovite makes this
plundering expedition, amounts (if report be true)
to two hundred and fixty thoufand men and more.

May the moft good and moft great God preferve
us from fuch a furious and cruel enemy, and inftil
the right wifdom into thofe Princes of the Holy
Roman Empire, who have the government in their
hands, and may He inftil into the whole of Europe
fuch counfels as be moft proper to revenge the
enormity of this crime and to drive away thofe
pefts !

NOTES.

|HE Czar at that time on the throne of Ruffia
was Ivan IV. Bafilowitch, furnamed " the
Terrible," who was one of thofe curfes fent
into the world, decked in imperial purple,
for no other apparent reafon but to make their fubjedls
miferable. He fucceeded his father in 1533 ; the opening
ten years of his reign he was a minor, and therefore could
only fhow juft enough of his temper to awaken the darkeft
forebodings in the hearts of thofe over whom he was one
day to have an unlimited fway. The firft three years after
he took up the reins of government, he fully realized all
thofe anticipations. But all at once a change came over
him. At the age of feventeen the voice of religion and
humanity found its way into his heart, and for thirteen
years a Trajan was feated on the throne of Ruffia, fo that

24 An Early News-Sheet.

army of 70,000 Poles, commanded by Kourblky and Rad-
zivit, invaded RufTia from the fide of Polofk, whilft Dewlet
Gherai", Khan of the Crimea,at the head of 60,000 Tartars,
penetrated intotheprovince of Riaifan; afteran unfuccefsful
fiege of the capital of that province, the Khan retreated on
receiving the news that the Ruffians were preparing to attack
him. The expedition commanded by Kourbfki and Rad-
zivit was equally unfuccefsful, and the foUowing year an
armiftice was concluded for three years.

Neither of the two powers had obtained any advantage,
but thoufands of houfes were defolate, and thoufands of
families had a gap in them.

And the Poles then as now were a pitiful inftance of the
truth of Virgil's line :

" Quidquid delirant reges, pleftuntur Achivi."

CHISWICK PRESS : PRINTED BY WHITTINGHAM AND WILKINS,

MEMORABILIS.

Etperindeftupendade cru

DELI MOSCOVITARVM

Expeditione narratio , e Germanico
inLatinum conuerfa.

* »

DVJC L

Ex Tjpographia lacoht^Bofcardi,
T/ypographi luratt 'B^ZKS
idaieflatis.

MEMORABILIS ET P ERINDE

{lupendadeMofcouitarumexpeditione

narratio , e Germanico in Latinum.
conuerfar.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

\/f Ofcouitarum exercitus ruperioribus iepti-
manisagrumPolonicu inuafit, &Polot2-
^,alias PlefKJ CLituani» oppidum , quodfede-
cim miliaribus a deiertis {itum e^ ) validi{sima
manu,{exincurrionibusexpugnauit,diripuit,8c
dimifsis ignibus folo equauit :" e6c|ue locifupra
viginti hominum milia,trif^iadmodum fpeda-
culoprimum demenbrari , ac poA ftrangulari
iufsit. Nec vllisfane verbis queat exprimi,quata
in Matronas,in Virgines,in Pueros,Tyrannide
grafTatusfit. E propinquis & vicinisindelocis
fexaginta & amplius hominum milia in Mofco
uiam abduxit : Matronas & Virgines veflibus
exuit,Sc omnes (vti nudae, ac/ineamiduerant^
vindtas in captiuitatem abftraxit. Inter alios ve-

ro clucebatur &Lituamcae militiae Vvaynoda
reuduxexercitus,cum vxore, quibus hoftis vi-
tam condonauerat.

QVaerestam magnamtotiilli Prouinciaetre-
pidationem iniecit ^ vt Dominus Nicolaus
Radtziuit Lituaniae Regularum facile princeps
terris fuis fponte excejfferit, omnemque imperij
fui agrum , feuamicisfeuKoftibuspr«d«reli-
tjuerit.

LJlcrerum fuccefTus bofti Barbaro & nimia
immanitate formidabili animos addidit.
Moxque Kioffaliasin Polonia ciuitatemag-
gredi feflinauit. Quae Ciuitas quia ad flumen
Borifchene fitaScadcomeatum toti illi plags
fubtrahendum,uifa eft op'ortuni{sima,futurum
fperabat hoftis,vt hac rationefacile caetera om-
nia vicina & propinqua loca, perinde vt fiiperi-
ore expeditione luae poteftatis ftiique mancipij
faceret.

TTa<^ueatite omtiia^ (exmillibus Tartarorum
quos {ecum Kabebat quadringenta milia in de
ferta &.folitudines pramifitqui omnia longe la
teq; v{que ad ipfam Ciuitatem flamma & rerro
vaftarent. Ratus fore vt poftquam hac calami-
tate totum eum agrum afflixiffetin Kuius ciui-
tatis oppugnatione pari{ucce{fa& fortunaqua
Ka(5lenus vteretur.

Tnter alia vero relatu tri{liGima , Mofcouita
Regi Poloniae ab {enunciari iufsit , qu6d ipfe
Capulum, quo mortuiefferri folent, eum<^; ar-
genteum,cum Caftris circumueheret , nec ante
in eratiam cum eoreclirecon{litui{fet,quam aut
ip{ius Regis, aut fuum proprium caput illi fer-
culoforet impofitum.

PXercitus quo Mofcouita in Kacexpedition
populaturj^^i vera ed fam a) e(h fexaginta de
centorummiKum,8camplius virorum.

"rNEusOpt. Ma^.}mnctamraeuum & crude-

lem hoOem a nobis auertat, Et Principibus

in Sacro Romano imperio fumma rerum

tenentibus bonam mentem,totic^ue

Europse con{iIia qusBcj; ad hanc

fcelerum immanitatem

vindicandam &

adhas pe-

ftes

pf opulfandas , falubria

fint immitat.

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