The Gazette de Londres: Disseminating news and exercising news management through translation

This article compares the contents and language of the preeminent English Restoration newspaper, the London Gazette, with its French edition the Gazette de Londres. Founded in 1665, and coming out twice a week, the London Gazette was the sole periodical newspaper in England from August 1666 to February 1688. Unquestionably successful, the London Gazette formed an integral part of Restoration life in the capital and beyond. The analysis of eleven numbers of both the English and French versions of the newspaper in the summer of 1669 shows that far from being a straightforward verbatim translation of its English counterpart, as has been previously thought, the Gazette de Londres presents some significant differences from the London Gazette both regarding layout and contents which shed light on news translation generally in the early modern period as well as news management in Restoration England.