Untitled - Monoskop

9 OWNERSHIP, ENFORCEMENT AND
EFFICACY OF PRIVILEGES
OWNERSHIP AND TRANSFER OF PRIVILEGES
Within fifteen years of the end of the period under consideration, book-
privileges were being made the object of a formal transfer of ownership before
a notary. fi( contract between Nicolas de Herberay, seigneur des Essarts,
author of Amadis de Gaule, and his publishers Jean Longis and Vincent
Sertenas, dated 12 July 1540, provided that he would authorise them to
publish and sell the book under the six-year privilege which he had obtained
from the king at Paris on 2 July 1 540. Under a further contract, dated 1 9
November 1540, he agreed to give them the copy of the three first books as
soon as possible, and delivered to them, in the presence of the notaries, the
Letters Patent from the king; in return, the publishers undertook to pay him,
in instalments, the sum of eighty gold ecus, and to give him twelve unbound
copies of each volume, refraining from putting any on sale until the author
1
had presented a copy to the king. The lawyer Pierre de Rebuffi made a
somewhat similar contract in 1545 with Galliot Du Pre, for a revised edition of
his commentaries on the Concordat. That the author should hand over to the
publisher the privilege, and the confirmation of it, which the king had given
him, was part of his side of the bargain: in return, Galliot paid him twenty
gold ecus in cash, and promised to give him at the coming Whitsun five ecus
more with twelve bound copies of the book and a bound copy of Bohier's
Decisiones and of the Histoire ecclesias tuque? For a subsequent edition, Rebuffi in
1551 judged it unnecessary to go before a notary. Instead, he gave Galliot Du
Pre a signed statement assigning to Du Pre the rights conferred on him by his
privilege, dated 9 May 1 549, which Du Pre carefully reproduced
in the book:
Permisi ego subsignatus Galioto a Prato bibliopolae ut a Calend.Septemb. Anni M.D.LI
in decennium superiore priuilegio concesso utatur.
P.Rebuffus lurium Doctor, & comes subscripsi. 3
Where an author had not himself secured a privilege, but had a suitable book
ready to be printed, it might be stated in the contract that his publisher should
1 Annie
Parent, Les metiers du livre a Paris au xvi' siecle (1535-1560) (Geneva, 1974^, pp. 300-1, citing
Minutier Central xix 155, 12. 7. 1540 and 19.11.1540.
2
Ibid. p. 31 1, citing M.C. vm 71, 17.3.1545.
3 BN 8". Ld 7
24-c. Rebuffi's ten-year privilege is printed on the verso of the title-page.