Untitled - Monoskop

THE ROYAL CHANCERY
3) , 'nous humblement requerant sur ce luy impartir nostre grace' (CH 1 520, 7) .
In response to such petitions, when granted, the Crown used terms in use
since the reign of Charles V, like permission, conge and licence, but usually in
close conjunction with the intention of permitting the applicant to be the only
person entitled to publish the book or books in question for a fixed period, e.g.
'donnons, permettons et ottroyons de nostre grace especial par ces presentes,
conge et licence et permission qu'il puisse et luy loyse, luy seul et non aultre,
faire imprimer ledit livre' (CH 1508, i); 'A iceluy avons permis et . . .
octroye
de nostre especialle plaine puissance et auctorite royalle que le livre dessusdit
imprime il puisse .
faire vendre et adenerer
. . sans que pendant ledit temps
aucun marchant ou librayre autreque celuy ou ceulx qui auront charge dudit
suppliant le faire ou faire faire imprimer pendant ledit temps'
(CH 1515, i); 'octroions et permettons de grace especiale par ces presentes,
que durant le temps de trois ans prochains venans il puisse seul faire imprimer
. . . sans que durant ledit temps aultre quelconque se puisse entremettre de
imprimer lesdictes euvres' (CH 1516, 2); 'permettons et octroyons que luy
seul puisse imprimer, vendre ne adenerer en nostre royaulme, pays et
seigneurie ledit livre' (CH 1520, 7).
Occasionally the petitions to be allowed to publish the book, and to be
given the sole rights in it for a space of time, are presented as two separate
issues. Galliot Du Pre in a petition of 1519 asked first 'que luy voulsissions
iceulx livres permectre imprimer et vendre en nostre pays, royaulme et
ailleurs', then represented the high cost of printing them and asked for other
editions to be prohibited for four years; the grant accordingly first gave him
permission to print and sell the books as often as should seem good to him,
and then proceeded to forbid other editions to be printed or sold for four years
(CH 1519, 3). All royal grants imply permission and approval, but none was
sought except with the intention of also obtaining a privilege. It is the more
curious that the term 'privilege' itself, though understood and freely used in
the book-trade as a commercial term, and familiar to all lawyers, is late
making an appearance
in the Letters Patent. The earliest use of it seems to be
in response to Durant Gerlier's petition for printing the Concordat and other
works: 'Se il nous plaisoit luy permettre et octroyer privilege et grace', which
speaks of 'noz presens grace, otroy et privillege' (CH 1519, 2); the next known
example, four years later, speaks of 'lettres de privillege et provision'
(CH 1523, i).
Did the legal requirement introduced in 1 52 1 , that no new work concerning
religion should be published without first having been passed by the Faculty
of Theology, have any visible effect on the 'permission' element in grants
issued by the royal chancery? Did the Letters Patent thereafter record having
seen evidence of such approval, or make the privilege conditional upon such
approval being obtained? As far as can be judged from the grants for religious
books made by the chancery from 1521 to 1527, this was not the case.
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