Description

A very rare newspaper, printed in Modena in Audust 1680 represents latest events, as reported from Rome, Naples, Genova, Venice, Milan, Madrid, Paris, Brussels, Vienna, Warsaw, Cologne, Hamburg, Den Hague and London, with an account on the Ottoman Empire.

This issue reports on the plague in Prague, realtions between Ottomans and Venecians and Ottomans and Austrians etc.

Demetrio Degni, the first modern journalist in Modena

Demetrio Degni, born in Barletto, Apuglia, came to Modena in 1671, where he soon opened a press. His first prints are known in 1677.

Modona, which started appearing in circa 1677 was the first newspaper with international news, as we understand it today, in Modena. There was a predecessor, Modana, printed by Cassiani with the news on the battles of Francis I of Modena, published in 1658 in four numbers only.

There were aproximately 1700 issues of Modona printed. Each issue of the newspaper is extremely rare today, as they were printed irregularly, often as weekly, without attractive illustrations, on two pages only and would be disposed of, as soon after the news were out of date.

In Worldcat we could only trace one issue in institutions worldwide (issue 28 in Biblioteca Casanatense, Rome, OCLC 1004666772). The 1988 biography of Degni mentions circa 120 preserved numbers of circa 1700 in the State Archive of Modena (Archivio di Stato di Modena). We could not trace any issues on the market or in the auction records.

References: Salvatore Adorn. Demetrio DEGNI, Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani. Volume 36 (1988) (http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/demetrio-degni_(Dizionario-Biografico); Rosa Lupoli. Demetrio Degni primo “giornalista” Modenese. Quaderni Estensi, IV (2012) (http://www.quaderniestensi.beniculturali.it/qe4/33_QE4_andarpercarte_lupoli.pdf).