Untitled - Monoskop

HOW RECKONED
which there were only vague plans. The Parlement made an exception for a
small number of serious new works on scholastic philosophy of which Jean
Granjon, one of the university's libraries jures, was in each case joint or sole
publisher: it specified that the first (PA 1509, 3) should run 'depuys le jour
qu'il sera acheve de imprimer', the second, for two books (PA 1516, 8), 'a
commencer au jour qu'ilz seront parachevez de imprimer', and later
(PA 1517, 6) directing that the grant should be reckoned 'a commencer du
jour que lesdicts livres seront paracheves de imprimer'. The 1517 publication
was a massive work, nothing less than the Reportata or lectures of Duns Scotus
on the four books of the Sentences, edited by three leading philosophers of the
Paris Faculty of Theology. Each of the four parts constituted a large folio
volume, separately dated, and it was well into the following year before
Granjon had completed the whole undertaking. The Parlement was probably
able to inspect the edited manuscript from which Granjon proposed to print,
and perhaps specimens of the printed pages of the first volume. It is
understandable that the Parlement should make a special concession for a
publication of such importance to all students of scholastic philosophy, which
would be slow and costly to produce.
Another exceptional case was the privilege granted by the Parlement to
Fradin on 20
Constantin Fradin of Lyon (PA 1520, 2). This was obtained by
December 1520, and it specified that his term of two years should run from the
year 1521 ('jusques au terme de deux ans commengant a 1'an mille cinq cens
.xxi.'). Fradin could well have pleaded that, as he had to travel back to Lyon
in mid-winter, and would not be able to begin printing until the Christmas
holidays were over, it would be a serious diminution of his grant to insist on
as two books were included in the
reckoning it from 20 December, especially
privilege. The Parlement probably meant 1521 o.s. which would give him
until Easter (20 April 1521). And in fact one of them, the Arismethique of
Etienne de La Roche, was not completed until 2 June. The 'package' privilege
obtained by Claude Chevallon (PA 1519, 4) was to run 'jusques a deux ans
finiz et accompliz, a commencer du jour que ledit livre sera acheve de
imprimer' in the case of each book. But for this provision, the privilege would
have expired before all the books had been published, for the last did not come
out until 1523, though Chevallon may well have been able to show them all in
manuscript to the Parlement in 1519. The Parlement also allowed Badius and
Petit to reckon their privilege for the works of Hugh of St Victor from the date
when tKe book should be completed ('jusques a deux ans a compter du jour
qu'ilz seront parachevez'), which to some extent made up for the reduction of
its duration from the six years requested by the publishers to two years
(PA 1526, 2). These concessions did not signal a change of policy on the part
of the Parlement. Simon de Colines asked in an application in 1524 for a
privilege to run 'jusques a deux ans apres ladicte impression parachevee'
(PA 1524, 10), and again in 1525 (PA 1525, 8): on both occasions the
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