Untitled - Monoskop

DATING AND DURATION OF PRIVILEGES
d'Orleans'. Lode had composed two little dialogues in Latin hexametres, one
entitled 'Tymon adversus ingratos' and the other 'De iustitia et pietate
Celeucri Locrorum regis'; he had edited Plutarch's De praeceptis coniugalibus
(itself translated from Greek into Latin) and translated it into French; and he
had translated the treatise of Francesco Filelfo, De educatione liberorum, from
Latin into French, under the title Le guidon des parents en I 'instruction et direction de
leurs enfans. (His publisher, Gilles de Gourmont, had printed the Latin original
of this in 1508.) The Filelfo, an attractive little book, came out in 1513, the
Plutarch about the same time, undated; both give the privilege in full
(CH 1513, 2), complete with the titles of all the books covered by it.
Publishers might make a case for a 'package' covering a whole group of
books, unconnected by the tie of common authorship, and linked only by the
fact that they all formed part of the applicant's publishing programme over
the next few months or years.
A privilege of this kind, printed in full in each of the four books it covered,
was obtained by Michel Le Noir in 1517 (CH 1517, 6). The project was
indeed a notable one, comprising the first editions of L 'instruction d'ungjeune
prince (by Ghillebert de Lannoy), of a modern version of the romance Guerin de
Montglane, of the famous story Le petitJean de Saintreby Antoine de La Sale, and
of an edition of Les passaiges d'oultremer faitz par lesfran^qys, an account of the
crusades by Sebastien Mamerot enlarged and brought up to date with the
Spanish conquest of Granada, all very well printed. The text of the privilege
leaves no doubt that it was granted for all four books on the same occasion,
and that it was to run in each case for three years from the date when the book
was completed ('qu'il puisse et luy soil loysible imprimer ou faire imprimer
lesdictz livres dessusdictz mentionez jusques a trois ans prochainement
venant, a compter du jour et dacte que lesdictz livres seront imprimez, sans
que durant ledict temps aulcuns libraires, imprimeurs ne autres puissent
iceulx livres imprimer ou faire imprimer ne vendre'). Accordingly Le Noir
was able to space out the four editions at his leisure and still get the full benefit
of his three-year privilege, granted on 12 August 1517, for each. According to
the colophons, L'instruction d'ungjeune prince was completed on 26 January 1517
(1518 n.s.), Le petit Jehan de Saintre on 15 March 1517 (1518 n.s.), and Les
passaiges d'Oultremer on 27 November 1518.
Another fully documented 'package' privilege obtained from the royal
chancery by a publisher was that granted to Durand Gerlier in 1519
for the text of the
(CH 1519, 2). Gerlier was the holder of the royal privilege
Concordat concluded between Francis I and the Papacy. When he received
further material relevant to the Concordat (additional papal bulls etc.) to
print with it, he applied for a new privilege. At the same time, he took the
opportunity of including in his application two other books which he planned
to print. One was a translation into French of the Georgics of Virgil, which he
had commissioned from Guillaume Michel de Tours: the other was the
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