The Basel Avisblatt was a weekly advertising paper for the city of Basel that provides a wide range of insights into urban society and its economies.
 

Over the years, the paper appeared under the following titles:

• Avis-Blättlein (1729–1732)
• Hoch-Obrigkeitlich privilegiertes Donnerstag-Wochenblättlein (1733–1749)
• Wöchentliche Nachrichten aus dem Berichthaus zu Basel (1750–1840)
• Avis-Blatt Basel (1841 – March 1845)

As part of the project "Printed markets: information, data, and news in the Basel 'Avisblatt', 1729-1844", funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, we have digitised all issues of the Avisblatt from 1729 to 1844 and prepared them for use in a variety of ways.

There are different ways to access the content of the paper and the processed data:
 

1. Simple and advanced search in a database containing about 862'000 ads and notices, providing full text and comprehensive serach options.
For optimal use, we recommend that you read the information regarding keywords, text recognition, and the Avisblatt sections as well as the help regarding search terms (regular expressions).

2. Browse through and read all volumes and individual issues of the Avisblatt from 1729 to 1844.

3. Download the text and metadata of all advertisements and notices for in-depth data analysis, including our processing and analysis scripts, as a R-package on GitHub.

SNSF-project "Printed markets"
 

The project "Printed markets: information, data, and news in the Basel 'Avisblatt', 1729-1844", funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, was conducted from 2019 to 2023 under the direction of Professor Susanna Burghartz at the Department of History at the University of Basel. All data made available here was compiled as part of this project. On this website you will find more detailed information on the projekt, introductory remarks on the source and its processing, as well as information on the various fields of work, the project team and the publications produced as part of the project.