Corantos were early informational broadsheets and precursors to newspapers. Beginning around the 14th century, a system developed where letters containing news and philosophical discussion were sent to a central collecting point to be bundled and redistributed to various correspondents. The banking house of Fugger was particularly known for its organized system of collecting and routing these letters, which often could be seen by outsiders. This method of disseminating news continued until the 18th century. The term "newspaper" was not coined till 1670; Prior to that, a variety of terms were used to describe this genre, including "paper", "newsbook", "pamphlet", "broadsheet", and "coranto".

Page from a coranto from 2 December 1620
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