The Journal des sçavans (later renamed Journal des savants), founded by Denis de Sallo, was the earliest academic journal published in Europe, that from the beginning also carried a proportion of material that would not now be considered scientific, such as obituaries of famous men, church history, and legal reports.[1] The first edition appeared as a twelve page quarto pamphlet[2] on Monday, 5 January 1665.[3] This was shortly before the first appearance of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, on 6 March 1665.[4]
The journal ceased publication in 1792, during the French Revolution, and, although it very briefly reappeared in 1797 under the updated title Journal des savants, it did not re-commence regular publication until 1816. From then on, the Journal des savants became more of a literary journal, and ceased to carry significant scientific material.[1][5]