Untitled - Monoskop

TWO OR MORE BOOKS; PACKAGE PRIVILEGES
Protocol formulary or stille in use by the notaries of the court of the Prevot
of Paris, the Chatelet. Accordingly the privilege was granted to him for
'lesditz concordatz avecques icelles bulles et nos lettres ainsi a luy baillees
que diet est pour y adjouter, ensemble les dessusdictz Georgicques et
formulaire'.
Durand Gerlier had good reason to wish to advertise his privilege for the
Concordat, and it is not surprising to find him printing the whole privilege
word for word, all four pages of it, in the translation of the Georgics when he
irrelevant to readers of
published it. It must none the less have seemed mainly
the Georgics. And not all publishers attached this amount of importance to
printing the whole text of a privilege, including details of books other than the
one in hand.
The 'package' privileges already described are authenticated by the full
text of the original Letters Patent printed in one or more of the books in
question. There are however three other and more far-reaching 'package'
privileges, two granted to Jean Petit and one to Regnault Chaudiere, which
are not overtly advertised in this way by the beneficiaries: Petit alludes to
them only in printed summaries. The existence of these three 'package'
privileges becomes apparent only after comparing with each other the
privileges referred to in several individual books issued by the same publisher.
Nothing at first sight suggests that the privilege, summarised in one of these
books, included any other publications than the one at which the reader is
looking. Only scrutiny of the details shows that several different books refer to
exactly the same Letters Patent, identified by the same place and date, the
same secretary's signature, the same duration of the privilege and the same
concession that the duration should be reckoned from the eventual date of
publication of the book. There was no possible motive for concealing the
'package': the decision in Petit's case to omit the full text of the Letters Patent,
and to suppress the titles of the other books enumerated in them, seems to
have been dictated by considerations of saving work and saving space, which
must have outweighed whatever advantage there might have been in advertis-
ing the other books in this way as available or forthcoming or in preparation.
Chaudiere prints the whole document except for the titles of other books
covered by the same privilege.
The first clue to the existence of his first and largest 'package' privilege is
provided by Jean Petit in a publication of 1512, the Lent sermons of Jean
Raulin, one of the most popular and respected preachers in Paris at the time
(CH 1512, 1(1)). Petit had obtained a Parlement privilege for this volume of
Raulin's sermons on 5 March (PA 1512, i), for two years where he had
requested three. Only a few days later, at Blois on 12 March, he succeeded in
getting a grant from the royal chancery which not only gave him the desired
three years but covered other books as well (CH 1512, i). He did not publish
the royal privilege in its entirety in the Raulin Lent sermons, but he had the