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Newspapers published under the same name on a regular schedule first appeared in Venice, Italy, in the 16th century. Handwritten newspapers called  avisi , or gazettes, appeared weekly as early as 1566. They reported news brought to Venice by traders, such as accounts of wars and politics in other parts of Italy and Europe. Venetian gazettes established a style of journalism that most early printed newspapers followed—short sets of news items written under the name of the city they came from and the date on which they were sent. The oldest surviving copies of European newspapers are of two weeklies published in German in 1609—one in Strassburg (now Strasbourg, France) by Johann Carolus, the other in Wolfenbüttel, Germany, by Lucas Schulte.   Newspapers spread rapidly throughout Europe. One-page weeklies appeared in Basel, Switzerland, by 1610; in Frankfurt, Germany, and Vienna, Austria, by 1615; in Hamburg, Germany, by 1616; in Berlin, Germany, by 1617; and in Amsterdam,