The Reporting of Italian Archaeological Discoveries in EighteenthCentury American Weeklies (1740-1799)

The chapter examines the reporting of news from Italy regarding archaeological discoveries in 18th-century American weeklies. News about Italian antiquities circulated in America through various text types, such as news reports, letters from correspondents, and extracts from travellers’ manuscripts, which were originally published in London newspapers. Drawing on Bednarek and Caple’s Discursive News Values Analysis (2017), I investigate the linguistic features of newsworthiness in a database of 59 news articles taken from the Early American Newspaper Series 1 (1690-1876) for the period from 1740 to 1799. The study explores: 1) how the spread of narratives about Italian antiquities shaped the representation of Italy as a site of classical grandeur; and 2) how news from Italy contributed to the preservation or redefinition of America's cultural connection to Europe during a period of major political changes. The results suggest an ambivalent response to Italian news, determined by the evolving national identity of the Americans.