Coranto

For the family of dances, see Courante.

Page from a coranto from 2 December 1620

Coranto is a term used to describe early informational broadsheets, precursors to newspapers. Beginning around the 14th century, a system developed where letters of news and philosophical discussion would be sent to a central collecting point to be bundled and sent around to the various correspondents. The banking house of Fugger had an organized system of collecting and routing these letters, which often could be seen by outsiders. This system would not die until the 18th century. The term "newspaper" was not coined till 1670. Prior to this a welter of terms were used to describe this genre including: paper, newsbook, pamphlet, broadsheet, and coranto.

External links

• Coranto at Encyclopædia Britannica