Untitled - Monoskop

GROUNDS FOR SEEKING AND GRANTING PRIVILEGES
Praise of Folly described it as 'ung livre intitule Erasme des louenges de folie,
lequel n'auroit encores au paravant este imprime' (PR 1520, 5), and Bernard
Aubry, proposing a work of Johannes Dullaert, said of it 'lequel n'avoit este au
par avant ce imprime (PR 1521, 4). The form in which Parlement privileges
were normally recorded gives no indication of this or any other argument that
had been used by the applicant, but in one of the earliest grants to be given by
court for a learned work the book is described as 'Ung livre intitule Dionysius
Cisterciensis Sur les quatre livre de sentance , lequel ne fust jamais
imprime que maintenant par luy [Poncet Le Preux]' (PA 1511, 2). And
where, which was usually the case, the 'Extraict des registres de Parlement'
which the publisher had printed in the book made no mention of the fact that
the work was being printed for the first time, he sometimes made this clear on
the title-page: thus the title may be followed by a formula such as 'nunquam
antehac impressus' (PA 1518, i).
Where the publisher decided not to print or summarise the privilege at all,
but to put only 'Cum priuilegio regio' or 'Cum priuilegio' on the title-page, he
might think it prudent to advertise that his book was a first edition by
including a mention on the title-page or in the colophon. The Speculum morale of
Johannes Vitalis, or Vidal Du Four, bore only the words 'Cum regio
priuilegio' on the title-page, with no other details (CH 1513, 5), but the
publisher specified that the Speculum was 'hucusque non impressum'. Berthold
Rembolt described the collection of St Gregory's writings on the New
Testament as 'nunquam antea typis excusum' (CP 1516, i), and in the same
year Jean Granjon advertised John Mair's Insolubilia as nunquam prius impressa
(CP 1516, 3), while among later examples we find Francois Regnault
publishing the Sermones quadragesimales of Cleree as 'alias nusquam impressi'
(CP 1520, 18).
The circumstances in which the Parlement was prepared to consider
granting a privilege for a work which had been printed before are illustrated
by a grant obtained on 21 April 1514 by Galliot Du Pre (PA 1514, 4). This
concerned the treatise De beneficio or Tractatus benefoialis of Jean de Selve,
doctor of civil and canon law, and himself a conseiller of the Parlement, a book
which became something of a standard work, still reprinted in the seventeenth
century. Galliot du Pre's application was for a reprint of the book (which had
been published first in 1504). The reprint was however to be a revised edition
and to include a new feature, namely an index or repertory, which would of
course make the book more useful to those who wished to consult it but
involve time and expense to compile. It was also to eliminate a number of
inaccuracies which had marred the first edition. ('Lequel, reveu et corrige,
ledit Galliot a fait reimprimer et y adjouster une table ou repertoire, pource
que la premiere impression estoit sans table et y avoit plusieurs faultes et
incorrections.') The Parlement granted this application, though for two years
only and not for three as Galliot had requested - a scaling down of the favour
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