World News
Hancock, Giovanni Hancock, in this case
The founding document of the United States is easy to find in international newspapers if you know where to look. You have to begin by focusing on news under the headings of Great Britain or London. Reports from British North America were treated as British news and typically spread to Europe through London newspapers. This was what happened with the Declaration of Independence.
Next, you have to account for the amount of time that it took news to travel in 1776. If you look in a newspaper printed on the other side of the Atlantic on July 4, you will see North American news from April or May. The Declaration of Independence was printed in London newspapers in mid-August. It took a few more days for the news to cross the English Channel and reach printers in the Dutch Republic and German cities. From there, the news was reprinted in different languages in different gazettes through mid-September.
Notizie del Mondo, September 3, 1776, p. 1, New York Public Library via HathiTrust
Take the Notizie del Mondo, or World News, a biweekly newspaper printed in Florence in what was then the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. At first glance, if you are unfamiliar with Italian, the Notizie del Mondo can seem intimidating. It lived up to its name by regularly featuring news from around the world under regional headings in all capital letters, including: AFFRICA (Africa, typically cities on the Mediterranean), PORTOGALLO (Portugal), SPAGNA (Spain), FRANCIA (France), GRAN-BRETTAGNA (Great Britain), PAESI-BASSI (the Dutch Republic), DANIMARCA (Denmark), SVESIA (Sweden), CURLANDIA (Courland), GRAN-RUSSIA (Russia), POLLONIA (Poland), GERMANIA (the German states), PRUSSIA, UNGHERIA (Hungary), BOEMIA (Bohemia), SVIZZERI (the Swiss Confederacy), MOREA (southern Greece), TURCHIA (Turkey), SORIA (Syria), and ITALIA (the other Italian cities and regions). Just as news from British North America could be found under “GRAN-BRETTAGNA,” news from other overseas colonies and trading posts was peppered throughout each issue.
To locate the Declaration of Independence in non-English newspapers like the Notizie del Mondo, one name can serve as a North Star: Hancock, Giovanni Hancock, in this case.
As president of the Continental Congress, John Hancock’s name was printed at the conclusion of the Declaration of Independence. His surname is distinctive enough to catch the eye while scanning through newspapers in most European languages. In the Notizie del Mondo, Hancock’s first name was rendered as “Giovanni,” rather than John.
Hancock’s name did not appear very frequently in news under the Great Britain heading in the Notizie del Mondo. Names like Lord Dunmore and General Washington were much more familiar to Florentine readers. In fact, the first mention of “Giovanni Hancock” in this newspaper in 1776 was on September 3, alongside a translated excerpt of the final paragraph of the Declaration of Independence. The Notizie del Mondo described the Declaration as an act dated July 4 and signed by the “celebre Giovanni Hancock Presidente del Congresso.” This piece of news was copied from a gazette in Leiden, where Hancock was perhaps more celebrated or well-known than he was in Florence.
The Declaration of Independence was printed in full in the Notizie del Mondo on September 14. It was signed by “Giovanni Hancock,” the president of the Continental Congress, as well as Congress’s secretary, Charles or “Carlo” Thomson. The Italian translation of the Declaration was created from a French translation in Leiden. And the translation of the final paragraph in the September 14 issue does not match the final paragraph in the September 3 issue.
Notizie del Mondo, September 3 and September 14, 1776, New York Public Library via HathiTrust
This is an important reminder of the processes and people involved in spreading the news of independence. The printers in Florence could not re-use the same paragraph from the excerpt that they had printed less than two weeks earlier because they typesetting had been taken apart almost immediately, the letters put back in the type case to be reused for other pieces of news from around the world. They could have replicated that paragraph again but either overlooked their previous printing or opted to translate the full text without reference to their earlier excerpt.
It took two months for the Declaration of Independence to travel from Philadelphia to Florence—a distance of more than 4,000 miles and a process that involved multiple translations. And this is just one example of the Declaration in European newspapers, with many more to come.
Notizie del Mondo, September 14, 1776, p. 3, New York Public Library via HathiTrust
Where to See It Online: New York Public Library
