Untitled - Monoskop

GROUNDS FOR SEEKING AND GRANTING PRIVILEGES
vocatur deffensorium curatorum'). It had indeed been printed in France at
least four times by 1500, three times by itself and then with a reply to it (which
had not been printed before) by R. Chonoe, the latter edition prepared by
Josse Badius Ascensius and printed by Trechsel at Lyon in 1496. All these
may well have been out of print by 1512, but though not themselves
privileged, they disqualified the text from being included in a collection of
FitzRalph's sermons published under privilege. Whether Le Sueur, or Jean
Petit, decided to exclude it on these grounds from Petit's application for a
privilege, or whether its inclusion was refused by someone in the chancellor's
office who looked through the list of proposed works submitted by Petit, there
is no means of telling. But the decision to exclude it, from a collection of works
by FitzRalph in which it would have been very appropriate, is not easily
accounted for in any other way.
Where a marked improvement could be claimed by the applicant in the
completeness and correctness of the text, even when most of the text at least
was already in print, a privilege might be granted. Thus in 1526 Galliot du Pre
published an attempt at a collected edition of the works of Alain Chartier.
Chartier was one of the most respected authors of the early fifteenth century.
His works circulated in a large number of manuscripts, and some of them had
already been printed well before 1500. The nearest approach to a hitherto
unpublished text included by Galliot was Le debat dugras et du maigre, otherwise
known as Le debat des deux fortunes d'amours, of which he said on the title-page
'qui n'auroit encores este imprime': it had in fact been printed before, but only
in an anthology called thejardin de Plaisance in 1501,' which he might possibly
have missed. Galliot's preamble admitted candidly that most of the book had
long since been in print, but maintained that hitherto the available editions
were incorrect and mutilated in many places ('Et si on disoit d'aventure que le
livre a este par longtemps devant ceste moderne saison veu et regarde, je le
concede. Toutesfois il estoit mal correct et tronque en divers lieux...')
Accordingly the Prevot's privilege (PR 1526, 2(2)) made clear that other
printers could continue to reprint the traditional text, but not Galliot's
corrected text ('ledit livre ainsi corrige comme dit est, sur la coppie dudit
suppliant').
Most privileges were granted by the authorities on the simple principle of
ensuring a fair return for expenditure of time, money and skill. A distinct
intention of promoting literature and learning is slow to find expression,
before 1527, even in royal Letters Patent. Concern for public utility is voiced
occasionally: 'Pour le bien et utilite de la chose publique laquelle desirons de
tout en tout estre bien observee et gardee en bonne politique et justice comme
protecteurs d'icelle', in a law-book written with the convenience of the royal
officers in mind (CH 1511, 2): 'desirans subvenir a noz subjectz selon
1'exigence des cas, et le bien, prouffit et utilite des noz subjectz et de la chose
1 The poetical works of Alain Chartier, ed. J. C. Laidlaw (Cambridge, 1974), p. 155.
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