Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 15.djvu/659

PERIODICAL. proposed to establish a weekly journal in which should be “made known what was happening in the republic of letters.” His project came to nothing; but in 1664 Denis de Sallo, Sieur de la Coudraye, under the name of Sieur de Hédouville, obtained the privilege of issuing a periodical of this kind, and the first number of the Journal des Savants appeared on January 5, 1665. Its plan included reviews of new books, reports of scientific discoveries, obituary notices, and general information of interest to the learned world. Sallo associated with himself a number of scholars, among them the Abbé Gallois, who succeeded him as editor. The freedom or—as it appeared to an age not accustomed to the ways of the reviewer, arrogance—with which the new journal criticised both books and (what was more serious) ecclesiastical affairs promptly brought it into trouble, and after the appearance of the thirteenth number it was suppressed. Colbert, however, who recognized its value, decided to reëstablish it, and on Sallo's refusal to consent to the demanded abridgment of his freedom, placed it (1666) in the hands of the Abbé Gallois, who conducted it negligently, issued it very irregularly and practically abandoned it in 1674. In 1675 publication was resumed under the editorship of the Abbé de la Roque, who was succeeded in 1687 by L. Cousin. In 1701 it passed under the editorial control of a commission of literary men and was conducted in this way until 1723. After a year of suspended animation it was reissued under the auspices of the Abbé Bignon and the Abbé Desfontaines. Another interruption of publication was caused by the Revolution in 1792, and an attempt to revive it in 1796 was a failure. It was finally reëstablished (April 15, 1816) under the Restoration and placed under the supervision of a commission representing the different classes of the Institute. Seven years after the appearance of the Journal des Savants was founded the second French literary periodical, the Mercure Galant of Jean Donneau de Vizé, which, under a variety of titles, continued—with interruptions—to exist until 1825; in 1717 it received the name of Mercure de France, by which it is commonly known. In addition to criticism, poetry, and other literary material, it dealt with topics of the most diverse kinds, including current news, and it has, accordingly, a place in the history of journalism. Among its editors were Thomas Corneille, whom Vizé associated with himself in 1690, and Marmontel. In the same year (1672) with the Mercure Galant, Claude Blondeau and Gabriel Guéret began the first legal periodical, the Journal du Palais; in 1679 appeared the Nouvelles découvertes sur toutes les parties de la médecine (3 vols.) of Nicholas de Blegny—memoirs published by an ‘academy’ at whose head Blegny had placed himself—which may be regarded as the first medical journal; and in 1680 was issued by the Abbé Jean-Paul de la Roque the first prospectus of a religious periodical—the Journal ecclésiastique. The publication of the last named was forbidden, and in 1690 La Roque began the Mémoires sur l'histoire ecclésiastique, of which however, only one volume was issued. A medical journal—Les Journeaux de Médecine, etc.—which he started in 1683 was equally unfortunate. Other notable periodicals of French origin (but printed in Holland) dating from the seventeenth century are the Nouvelles de la république des

lettres, founded by the celebrated Pierre Bayle in 1684, and conducted by him for three years (it survived until 1718); the Histoire des ouvrages des savants of Henri Basnage de Beauval, begun in 1687 and continued until the middle of 1709; and the Bibliothèque universelle et historique of Jean Leclerc, the noted critic, which was issued in 1686-93.

. The last quarter of the same century saw the beginnings of the literary and of the scientific periodical in England also. As the first example of the former is commonly reckoned the Mercurius Librarius; or a Faithful Account of All Books and Pamphlets, the first number of which appeared in April, 1680. It was announced as a ‘catalogue’ to be published “weekly, or one in fourteen days at least,” and it was in fact nothing more; it contained advertisements, or paid notices of new books, and possessed nothing of the literary character. Of greater importance was the Weekly Memorials for the Ingenious, issued 1681-83, which obtained much of its material from the Journal des Savants. Between 1685 and 1700 appeared for brief periods several learned publications of the periodical type, derived chiefly from Continental sources. Of a more strictly English character was the Athenian Gazette (later called the Athenian Mercury)—a kind of ‘Notes and Queries’—published weekly from March, 1689-90, to February, 1695-96, by the bookseller John Dunton, with the assistance of Richard Sault and others. The Gentleman's Journal, or the Monthly Miscellany, of Peter Anthony Motteux, a forerunner of the modern literary magazine, was issued 1692-93 (2 vols.); it contained verses by Prior, Sedley, Mrs. Behn, Oldmixon, D'Urfey, and others, and miscellaneous prose. The History of the Works of the Learned, a review dealing mainly with Continental books, was issued from 1699 to 1712. Its publication was resumed in 1737 and was continued until 1743.

In Germany a beginning was made in 1663 with the Erbauliche Monatsunterredungen of Johann Rist, which was followed in 1670 by the first scientific annual, the Miscellanea Curiosa Medico-Physica of the Academia Leopoldina. But the most celebrated of all the periodicals which date from this period is the first German literary journal, the Acta Eruditorum Lipsiensium (written in Latin), founded by Prof. Otto Mencke in Leipzig, the first number of which appeared in 1682. It was modeled after the Journal des Savants and the Italian Giornale de' Letterati (see below), and included extracts from new books, reviews, and independent articles. Mencke associated with himself in this work many of the most learned men of the time, among them Leibnitz, Seckendorff, and Thomasius, and the Acta became the supreme critical authority in German literature. On Mencke's death in 1707 he was succeeded in the editorship by his son, J. B. Mencke; and in 1732 his grandson, F. O. Mencke, began a new series under the title Nova Acta Eruditorum. The Acta came to an end in 1782, when the belated volume for 1776 appeared. Outside of the countries above mentioned, Italy alone has possessed learned periodicals dating from this period—the Giornale de' Letterati of Francesco Nazzari, founded in 1668 and published until 1679, another with a similar title issued from 1686 to 1697 by Bacchini and