Untitled - Monoskop

DISPLAY AND ADVERTISEMENT OF PRIVILEGES
or place of issue, and without the name of a publisher or printer, giving only
the formula 'Cum gratia et privilegio' on the title-page (CP 1518, 7). The
author was Stephanus Templerius Aurelius, that is, Etienne Templier of
Orleans, who dedicated it to Michel Boudet, bishop of Langres, and on the
verso of the title-page there are commendatory verses to the reader by lo.
Mottanus Briocensis, Almoner to the King. It may be conjectured
that it was
printed at the author's expense for presentation to his friends and patrons,
under a privilege which he himself had obtained. Perhaps in haste to get it out
while the subject was topical, referring to the position in Anglo-French
relations either in 1518 (as supposed by the BN catalogue) or in 1520 (as
guessed by the BL catalogue), he may have omitted to give details of the
privilege to the printer, who, not himself dealing in the sale of the book, did
not trouble to put his name to it. Thus a law-abiding member of the
book-trade who wished to reprint it would have had considerable difficulty in
contacting the owner of the rights in it, unless he could get in touch with the
author. It does not appear that the poem was in fact pirated. One of the
descriptions of the Field of the Cloth of Gold (PR 1520, 7) was still more
uninformative about the privilege-holder: 'Cum priuilegio / Pour huyt jours'
was clearly stated in the pamphlet, but it has neither author, publisher, place,
nor date.
DELETION OF PRIVILEGE IN CERTAIN COPIES
The privilege was to most authors, and to most members of the book-trade, an
asset to be displayed with pride or at least advertised with care. Some
hesitation in this matter can, however, be detected when a special copy was
ordered for presentation to a great patron or for inclusion in a bibliophile's
collection. For many years after the general adoption of printing such copies
were often required to look as far as possible like an illuminated manuscript,
that is, the text of the book was printed like the ordinary copies for sale to the
general public but decorated by hand and sometimes modified to leave space
for original miniatures, the owner's arms frequently appearing in the scheme
of decoration. The object being to produce a unique copy, for that particular
which drew
person, might it not seem incongruous to include the privilege,
attention to the fact that the book formed part of an edition available in
commerce?
From the beginning, there were differing responses to this question. Les
folles entreprises, by Pierre Gringore, was printed for the author under his
privilege (PR 1505, i) 'par 1'ordonnance de justice' which was summarised in
the colophon. Several copies were printed on vellum. Two of these are in the
Bibliotheque Nationale. Both were prepared for important customers, the
illustrations being illuminated by hand. One, Velins 2244, retains the
colophon advertising the privilege,
which is indeed ruled in red and distin-
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