Untitled - Monoskop

THE PREVOT OF PARIS AND OFFICERS IN THE PROVINCES
conge represented a failed application for a privilege, a sort of consolation
prize. The only case which would support such an interpretation is much
later, in 1527 (PR 1527, 4): then, the Lieutenant Civil of Paris refused an
application for a privilege but granted a permission and conge. Conges without
privileges were never issued by the Parlement or the royal chancery, only by
the local courts, and they are few in number, though more may have been
given than have survived. The holders had thought them worth paying for,
and that is all that can be said for certain.
There are traces ofsuch conges being granted by royal officials other than the
Prevot of Paris. The news sheet entitled La coppie des lettres que Monsieur le
mareschal de Trevoul a envoiees au Roy, dated on internal evidence May 1511,
bears the words at the foot of the title-page, 'Fait par le congie de justice'
(PR 1511, i). The printing of this pamphlet has been assigned tentatively to
Rouen; 1
if that is correct the authorisation probably came from the Bailli of
Rouen. The Style of the court of the Bailli of the duchy of Berry and of the court
of the Prevot of Bourges, published in 1512 'par 1'auctorite, congie et licence'
of the Bailli himself (PR 1512, i), may be an example.
Another is an account
of the state entry into Paris of Louis XII's bride, princess Mary of England (6
November 1514), of which some copies display a permission granted by the
Prevot de 1' Hotel, in the following terms:
De par monsieur le prevost de 1'hostel.
Nous avons permis et donne conge a Guillaume Varin suppliant de faire imprimer
1'entree de la Royne Et la vendre et distribuer. Fait a Paris le Roy y estant le .x. jour de
Novembre. Mil cinq cens et .xiiii. Par nous Jehan de Fontaine / seigneur d'Aulhac /
conseillier chambellain du roy nostre sire / et prevost de 1'hostel dudit seigneur.
(PR 1514, 4*)
The jurisdiction of the Prevot de 1' Hotel extended to the whole royal
household and all persons following the court, and to all cases and all crimes
arising within it, up to ten leagues round the royal residence. 2 He may not
have regarded it as within his competence to forbid anyone except Guillaume
Varin to print an account of the new queen's entry into Paris, but his
authorisation must have given Varin's edition the status of an official one and
been good publicity. It is possible that Varin had some connection with the
royal household: he is not known to have been a publisher or printer in Paris.
The first grant by the Prevot of Paris to be printed verbatim by the
beneficiary gives both permission and privilege, the publication in question
being the text of the treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye which had just been
signed between the kings of France and England. It reads,
U De par le prevost de Paris
ou son lieutenant criminel.
II II est permis a Guillaume Sanxon libraire povoir faire imprimer la copie des lettres
1
Seguin, L'information en France de Louis XII a Henri II, no. 42, p. 68.
2 R. Doucet, Les institutions de la France au xvir siecle (1948), i, pp. 11718.