Untitled - Monoskop

DISPLAY AND ADVERTISEMENT OF PRIVILEGES
Le Cirier, De iure primogeniturae (CH 1519, 6(4) BN Velins )
419
and another Commynes, the second 1524 edition BN Velins 755
A decision not to advertise the privilege in a special vellum copy may
sometimes have been dictated by fear of incompatibility between it and the
destined recipient. Louise of Savoy, the king's mother, might be less than
pleased to turn over the first page of the Chronicles of the dukes and princes of
Savoy to find an extract from the registers of the Parlement of Paris. Francis I
himself, just after his accession, might think it inappropriate to see promi-
nently displayed the Letters Patent granted for the book by his predecessor,
which indeed, in the view of some experts, would have been no longer valid
unless confirmed by the new sovereign.
Where the text or the mention of a privilege is suppressed for no such
obvious possible reason, especially where details of the place and date of
printing are also sacrificed, it is likely
that both were deemed to smack too
much of mass production to feature in a copy lavishly treated for a particular
patron. To that extent, these suppressions may therefore serve as a reminder
that the privilege was essentially a commercial monopoly at this period, a
characteristic of its nature which might on occasion outweigh any prestige
value it possessed.
164