Acknowledgements
Writing this book would not have been possible without the help and support of colleagues, mentors, friends and family members whose generosity, enthusiasm and intellectual input has helped me to conclude this work. I owe my greatest debt to my PhD supervisor, Professor Andrew Pettegree, whose support has left an indelible mark in this work. His passion for and knowledge of the history of the book in Early Modern Europe as well as the interest he took in the subject of this work encouraged me constantly to push the boundaries of my abilities. The many conversations throughout the time that this work was written inspired new ideas in me and helped me put my findings into a larger perspective. Prof Pettegree’s intellectual rigour, dedication to scholarship and ability to contextualise even the smallest findings provided me with an example I strove to emulate.
At St Andrews Prof Pettegree introduced me to the USTC group and allowed me to become part of this esteemed cohort of book historians. The constant exchange on all matters within the field of book history has created a lively and intellectually inspiring atmosphere. I am especially thankful to Nina Lamal and Arthur der Weduwen for their support. Sharing the common goal of compiling a bibliography of the Italian, Netherlandish and German press respectively, we discussed the challenges, practices and findings of such an endeavour on numerous occasions. Both Lamal and der Weduwen generously and frequently shared their insight into the two newspaper cultures. This allowed me to greatly expand my frame of reference and brought about a great deal of perspective. I am deeply grateful for their support, knowing too well that I could not have found the same kind of expertise anywhere else. The sound advice and stimulating ideas I have received from the other members of the USTC, namely Shanti Graheli, Alexandra Hill, Saskia Limbach, Drew Thomas, Sandra Toffolo, Malcolm Walsby, Alexander Wilkinson and Edwin Goi have been important for the writing of this book. Graeme Kemp has helped me any time I needed advice on all things digital. Thanks are in no small part also due to Jane Finucane and Bernhard Struck for their comments and thoughts on this work. I am extremely grateful to the School of History and the University of St Andrews, the Horst-Kliemann Stiftung, the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing, the Dr. Günther Findel-Stiftung, and the Renaissance Society of America for funding my thesis and for providing financial contributions towards travel costs.
Professor Holger Böning and Professor Michael Nagel at the University of Bremen have been constant supporters of my work. My work has greatly benefitted from the support I have received from two of the most distinguished scholars of the history of the German press. Professor Böning allowed me to draw upon his wealth of experience on numerous occasions when he explained the many peculiarities of newspaper publishing in the seventeenth century.
During one of the first meetings to discuss the topic of this dissertation, Prof Pettegree cautioned me that inspecting all surviving newspapers from the first half of the seventeenth century would be a task that ‘included a lot of mileage’. Attempting to record and describe only half of all printed newspapers from this period would already be a challenging endeavour. The complete description of all surviving newspapers would not have been possible without the help of many dedicated individuals in libraries and archives across Europe. I am deeply grateful to Maria Hermes and her team at the State and University Library Bremen. She generously gave me access to not only the microfilmed newspapers kept at Bremen, but also to the records created by the group of scholars who built this priceless collection in the 1950s and 1960s. Her support in finding and accessing rare newspapers extended far beyond what any scholar can expect. I am furthermore thankful to the librarians and staff of the Herzog August Library Wolfenbüttel, namely Volker Bauer, Jill Bepler, and Elizabeth Harding. Some of the scholarship presented in this dissertation has been tried out on audiences in Bremen, Canterbury, London, Montreal, Munich, St Andrews, Trier and Wolfenbüttel and I wish to thank the audiences who shared their knowledge and opinion with me.
I would also like to thank my friends, both at St Andrews and abroad. The companionship of Nikolas Funke, Ann-Marie Hansen, Constanze Keilholz and Charlotte Kempf was a true delight. The companionship and camaraderie of these people helped me sustain throughout the writing of this dissertation. Special thanks are due to Marc Jaffré whose acumen, selfless nature and compassion are second to none. I am deeply thankful to call him my friend.
Finally, I am indebted to my parents and family for their unreserved support and encouragement. Dorothea and Manfred Hillgärtner have shown love and compassion with me and without their faith placed in me, this work would have not been completed. Lastly, I would like to thank Mathilda Banfield. It is in no small parts due to her effort and support that this book has come about.