Untitled - Monoskop

PREFACE
My interest in sixteenth-century book-privileges, especially in France, goes
back more than thirty years. Every instance that I met in my reading of
French sixteenth-century literature, and in bibliographies and catalogues
where they were mentioned, was noted. When the privileges in my files began
to run into thousands, the question arose, what sort of book could result? The
choice lay between a study of the subject throughout the century, which would
be relatively superficial and leave many questions unanswered, and a more
limited work, in which one reign or one period of years within the century
would be thoroughly covered. The latter seemed to be more useful. And the
first quarter of the century was the obvious choice. It was the crucial
formative period in the development of book-privileges in France. It was the
period when the system developed under the economic pressures which
authors and publishers were experiencing, not under government legislation.
It corresponded to a span of years of comparative peace and stability, ending
with the defeat of Francis I at Pavia. And for the practical point of view it
offered the possibility of something like completeness of treatment: the
number of books being printed in France was large but not wholly unmanage-
able, whereas from 1530 onwards it increased enormously.
The sources used are listed in the Select bibliography, but a note on the
method followed in tracing privileges may be of interest. For Paris-printed
books, I worked through all the volumes of Philippe Renouard's Imprimeurs
parisiens, the manuscripts of which are deposited in the Bibliotheque Nation-
ale. This work contains a fully bibliographical description of every edition
printed in Paris in the sixteenth century known to Renouard, including the
mention of a privilege when there was one, though with no details of it. Only
the sections on Josse Badius Asccnsius and on Simon de Colines were
published by the author. The Bibliotheque Nationale began to publish
but the four volumes which
1964, revising and adding to it where necessary,
it in
have so far appeared have not progressed beyond the printer Blumenstock,
with fascicules on Breyer, Brumen and Cavellat. This revision has added few
editions not recorded by Renouard, but has provided some useful particulars.
Brigitte Moreau's Inventaire chronologique des editions parisiennes du xvie siede, of
which the first volume, covering 1501 to 1510, came out in 1972, is now
complete up to 1530. This constitutes a year-by-year survey of all Paris