Untitled - Monoskop

HOW RECKONED
To sum up: the practice of the royal chancery, beginning with privileges of
two years, soon stabilised at three years (over 58 per cent), though by 1526
some shorter and some longer grants had been made; the sovereign courts
treated three years as a maximum, and two years as a norm; the Prevot of
Paris and other royal officers usually granted two or three years for books, and
sometimes much less for pamphlets and newsletters. It appears therefore that
two or three years, depending on the estimated cost of producing the book,
was regarded by the authorities in France up to 1526 as the standard duration
for a book of any consequence.
Five years after the end of the period under consideration here, the city of
Basle decided, instead of issuing endless individual privileges, to make a
general rule for its own printers. Henceforth no Basle printer should reprint
another Basle printer's copy until three years from the date of publication.
The city was one of the greatest international centres of the European printing
and publishing industry, and the authorities must have taken careful advice
before making such a decree, as it was to be strictly enforced. The duration
was evidently calculated, it has been remarked, to allow an edition of a
successful book to be sold. 1
In the light of this rule, French practice in the
period up to 1526 in determining the duration of privileges may be considered
reasonable.
HOW RECKONED (DATE OF GRANT, DATE OF PUBLICATION,
ETC.)
Whatever the duration of the privilege, its useful life from the point of view of
the beneficiary depended on the date from which it was reckoned. At the
opening of the period with which we are here concerned there could be no
doubt about the reckoning. Letters Patent issued in the name of the king or by
his officers took effect from the date when they were sealed, and judgements of
the courts took effect as soon as they had been given. Authors and publishers,
seeking a new kind of favour from a long-established system, at first took this
for granted. And indeed, if the work, whether book or pamphlet, which they
sought to protect was ready or almost ready to put on sale, they
had no reason
to wish for anything else. It was not, however, always to the applicant's
that the concession should be reckoned from the date when it was
advantage
obtained. The most convenient moment for him to apply to the royal
chancery, to the Parlement, or the Prevot or Bailli of his area, or the moment
when his application succeeded, might be well ahead of the date when he
1
Basel St. A. Ratsbiicher A 6, 22 V
18 October ,
1531, quoted by Martin Steinmann, Johannes
Oporinus (Basle/Stuttgart, 1966), p. 56. Dr Steinmann comments, 'Die Frist war oflenbar so
berechnet, dass die Auflage eines erfolgreichen Buches abgesetzt werden konnte', and he adds,
'Die Bestimmung wurde streng befolgt.' Three years was stated by Willem Vorsterman of
Antwerp in 1514 to have been the recognised though unofficial time which printers in Brabant
allowed a colleague to sell a new book. See above, pp. 15-16.
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