Untitled - Monoskop

DISPLAY AND ADVERTISEMENT OF PRIVILEGES
roman type, even for Latin, when left on his own to make a living in the Paris
book-trade. None the less the tradition thus begun was not wholly forgotten.
And some of the leading Paris university printer-publishers, notably
Henri (I) Estienne and Josse Badius, when they began to do business in the
early years of the sixteenth century, adopted roman type when printing
classical or humanist Latin, and led a movement, which was eventually to
prevail, towards extending its use to all academic and educational printing.
The privilege being a document drawn up in French, most printers set it up
in lettres bdtardes. If the rest of the book was also in French, the printer might
continue with the same type. Thus in the case of Huon de Bordeaux (CH 1513,
3) the only extra prominence he gave to the privilege was to it space out with
more ceremony. In a theological or philosophical work, printed in lettres de
forme or lettres de somme, with numerous abbreviations well understood by the
readers of such books, the display of the privilege in lettres bdtardes served to
emphasise that this was something different and to draw attention to it (e.g.
PA 1509, i ). What was to be done, though, if the book itself was to be set up in
roman type, and not in gothic at all?
In the early years of the book-privilege system in France, the decision
seemed obvious. Letters Patent or 'Extraicts des registres de Parlement', if
printed in full, were set up in gothic, whatever the choice of type for the rest of
the book. A good example is Symphorien Champier's Periarchon (CH 1515, 2),
which Antoine Bonnemere printed entirely in roman, except for the words
'Cum priuilegio regis' on the title-page and the text of the privilege itself at the
end. Examples of this practice can be found right up to the end of the period
(e.g. PA 1524, 10). If a French summary of the privilege is given, there is less
reluctance to use roman, but the heading or opening words may be in gothic.
Thus Henry Estienne provided a summary of the privilege for the 1513 edition
of Sigebert of Gembloux in which he was partner to Jean Petit the privilege
holder: this summary, like the book itself, is printed in roman, but it is
preceded by the words 'Privilege pour ce present livre', displayed in a large
lettredeforme (CH 1512, i (7)) which also features on the title-page to print the
words 'Cum priuilegio' where everything else is in roman (see Plate 6).
Nicolas des Pres, printing for Claude Chevallon and Gilles de Gourmont
the Aurea opuscula of Jacques Almain, set the whole of the Letters Patent in
roman, like the text of the book, except for the closing formula and the
secretary's signature, 'Par le Roy a la relation du conseil. Ainsi sine Guiot.'
which are in a much larger gothic type (CH 1518, 3). Printing the following
year for Conrad Resch.the Tractatus noticiarum of Gervase Waim, des Pres
made his concession to tradition in a different way: the whole of the first line,
'Francoys par la grace de dieu roy de Fran /', is printed in large gothic type,
all the rest of the document in roman (CH 1519, i).
collected articles under the title La lettre et le texte, Collection de 1'Ecole Normale Superieure de
Jeunes Filles, no. 34 (1987), pp. 161-87.
146