The article analyzes two periodicals from the period 1763–1773. One of them, Gazette de France, was edited in Paris. The other, Nouvelles des divers endroits (Gazette de Berne), was published in Berne, Switzerland. Both of them appeared in French. They were official papers of the rulers and enjoyed popularity not only in native, but also in foreign countries. Without any doubt, they made huge influence on the worldview of aristocracy and bourgeoisie of French-speaking Europe.
The article counts and discusses the messages that contained information on Lithuania, its cities, regions and personalities in these two newspapers.
Both newspapers received very little information from Lithuania itself. Merely several persent of all messages on Lithuania were from the Grand Duchy. Correspondents residing in Poland, first of all in Warsaw, were the most important informers. It means that Lithuania was in a complete shadow of Poland. There was no need to keep a correspondent in Lithuania, because all information sooner or later used to reach the political center of the Commonwealth, i. e. Warsaw. In addition, Gazette received plenty of messages from correspondents in Danzig, whereas Nouvelles received a lot of information from the cities of Northern Germany. Lastly, in both newspapers the phenomenon of Courland is observed. This small region became one of the most important information centers, which sent plenty of messages on the events in the region and in Lithuania particularly to the western European newspapers.
In spite of the fact that at the end of the 18th century Lithuania was a very weak state, the amount of information concerning this country was very large in the newspapers. It was calculated that 3–5% of all messages published in the newspapers contained at least some information on the Grand Duchy. Such a huge interest in Lithuanian issues both in France and in Switzerland was caused by many important political events (wars, confederations, King’s elections, etc.) which struck Lithuania in 1763–1773.
 

Numeriai:

2011 - T.57
Nr.1, Nr.2, Nr.3, Nr.4

2010 - T.56
Nr.1-4

2009 - T.55
Nr.1-2, Nr.3-4

2008 - T.54
Nr.1, Nr.2, Nr.3, Nr.4

2007 - T.53
Nr.1, Nr.2, Nr.3, Nr.4

2006
Nr.1, Nr.2, Nr.3, Nr.4

2005
Nr.1, Nr.2, Nr.3, Nr.4

2004
Nr.1, Nr.2, Nr.3, Nr.4

2003
Nr.1, Nr.2, Nr.3, Nr.4

2002
Nr.1, Nr.2, Nr.3, Nr.4

2001
Nr.1, Nr.2, Nr.3, Nr.4