Untitled - Monoskop

GRANT OF PRIVILEGE AND PERMISSION TO PRINT
The Parlement itself never expressed any opinion on the merits of the books
for which it granted privileges.
On occasion, the Parlement might authorise the publication
of one
contentious work and forbid another. Thus on 18 March 1517 it allowed a
petition by Bonaventura Nepveu for permission to publish his Tractatulus dictus
deffensorium Fratrum Minorum de Observantia (Paris, Regnault Chaudiere, 1517,
1
8 ) and forbade the publication of Boniface de Ceva's pamphlet on the other
side, in the long-running dispute before the Parlement between the rival
groups of Franciscans. This was not a privilege: reprints of Nepveu's work
were not forbidden.
THE PREVOT OF PARIS AND ROYAL OFFICERS IN THE
PROVINCES
In the court of the Prevot at the Chatelet of Paris publications of a very slight
and ephemeral nature were sometimes granted privileges, though for a short
period of time. But there are also instances of publishers obtaining a simple
conge or permission for small books and pamphlets on affairs of current public
interest. A flurry of such publications reflected public interest in Louis XII's
campaigns in Italy and the concern of royal publicists that the king's actions
should be supported by his people. 2 The firm in Lyon or Paris which was first
with news of events and with informed discussion of them might well hope to
sell a large number of copies quickly. Among them was L 'Arme'e du roy qu 'il avoit
centre les Venitiens, an account of the battle of Agnadello, printed by Martin
Alexandre in Paris 'sous le congie de monseigneur le prevost ou son
lieutenant' (PR 1509, 4*), and the (Euvre nouvellement translatee de Italienne rime
celebrating the king's spectacular entry into Milan, printed with 'conge et
licence' by Noel Abraham in Lyon (PR 1509, 5*). Apparently this was
something less than a privilege, since no mention is made of forbidding other
members of the book-trade to print or sell these items. What good, then, was a
conge to the applicant? Was it likely to give him at least some initial advantage,
and to that extent deter possible competitors from immediately copying it?
Certainly prospective purchasers might opt for an edition which advertised a
conge. It was evidence of official approval, and guaranteed that the contents
were neither subversive nor wildly inaccurate. Its main use on the other hand
may have been to secure the position of the publisher, who, in dealing in such
'hot' news, may sometimes himself have feared to disseminate material which
might prove to be unwelcome to the authorities. Another possibility is that the
1 Sainte-Genevieve D.8". 1 1.066 Res. (piece 2). The arret, in the form of Letters Patent in Latin
issued as by the king in Parlement, is printed at the end, on ff. xxx verso and xxxi.
2 See J. P. Seguin, L'information en France de Louis XII a Henri II, Travaux d'Humanisme et
Renaissance, 44 (Geneva, 1961), pp. 29-30; Bernard Quilliet, Louis XII, pert du peuple (1986),
P- 393-
I 12