Untitled - Monoskop

THE ROYAL CHANCERY
indeed two who are later to be found signing book-privileges in the royal
chancery in France: Pierre Garbot, who signed a grant to Guillaume Eustace
in 1514 (CH 1514; 3), and Robert Gedoyn, afterwards the secretaire des finances,
who signed a grant at Blois in November 1512 (CH 1512,4) and subsequently
several others (CH 1518, 5; 1519, 4; 1519, 6). *
Continuity can also be shown between the privilege-system in Milan and in
France in the case of authors. Giovanni Francesco Conti, called Quinziano
Stoa, was crowned poet laureate by Louis XII in Milan in 1509, and his
neo-Latin poem Orpheos (BN Res.mvc 706) came out in 1510 at Milan under
the king's privilege applying to the whole of the duchy, which is summarised
at the end of the text. But Stoa followed the king to France, and by 1514 he was
publishing a new poem, in praise of Paris, Cleopolis, together with a reprint of
Orpheos, issued by Jean de Gourmont, with a privilege obtained from the
Parlement of Paris (PA 1514, 8), and dedicated to the chancellor of France
Antoine Duprat. The Milan connection may well have stimulated privilege-
consciousness among French authors frequenting the royal court, though it
did not create it. Eloi d'Amerval (CH 1508, i), Nicole Bohier (CH 1509, i)
and Jean Lemaire de Beiges (CH 1509, 2) had already obtained royal
privileges before Louis XII's conquest of the duchy.
The first applicant - or the first successful applicant - to Louis XII in the
sixteenth century for a particular book was Eloi d'Amerval, author of the Lime
de la deablerie, who was choir-master of Sainte-Croix of Orleans, that is, of the
cathedral. Although little is known of him at the present day, he might easily
have been known personally to the king, who had been duke of Orleans before
his accession, or at least to members of the royal court. The Deablerie was his
only work, a satire on contemporary society, which perhaps developed from
organising plays (to be performed by the choir school) of the irreverent kind
which was allowed at certain seasons of the year. Evidently he set store by it,
and was going to reap the sole benefit from it for as long as he could. The work
did in fact have a certain success, for his publisher Michel Le Noir reprinted in
a different format some years later, and Alain Lotrian, who only set up in
business in 1525, thought it worthwhile to issue another edition of it. 2 In the
mean time, Eloi chose a moment when the court and the chancery were at
Blois, not far from Orleans, and duly obtained his privilege (CH 1508, i). Le
Noir for his part may have been induced to give the prominence that he did to
the privilege, or even have suggested it to Eloi, because he had himself lost a
lawsuit four years before to an author whose book he had published without
permission. 3
.
All Letters Patent issued by the royal chancery went out in the king's name
1 For the activity of Garbot in the Milan chancery there is evidence starting with a document
signed by him in Milan on 26 October 1499 (Pelissier, Les sources milanaises, p. 5); for that of
Gedoyn, a document signed by him in Milan on 12 July 1501 (ibid. p. 16).
'
2 3 BL 85.6.21 and 85.6.20. See below, p. 36.
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