Untitled - Monoskop

PRIVILEGE-GRANTING AUTHORITIES IN FRANCE
search of a privilege. In the first half of 1518, when the royal court was in the
Loire valley, privileges were obtained by Enguilbert de Marnef (CH 1518, i)
and by the scholar Vincent Doesmier (CH 1518, 3) at Amboise and by Jean
Petit (CH 1518, 4) at Angers. A particularly long absence from Paris on the
part of the king, from 13 October 1520 to 9 December 1521, is reflected in the
small number of privileges issued by the chancery during this period.
Dr Gabriel de Tarregua of Bordeaux received a grant for his medical works
on 10 November 1520 at Amboise (CH 1520, 10), and he or his representative
may have been glad not to have to journey further in winter to find the royal
court and the chancery. Jean Petit of Paris, or his agent, on the other hand,
had to track them down as they were setting out for Burgundy when he
secured a privilege on 2 April 1521 at Sancerre (Cher) (CH 1521, 3). Journeys
of this kind were quite beyond the means of most authors and publishers,
involving much expense in travel and an absence of days or even weeks from
their profession or their business. Even Saint-Germain-en-Laye, where the
royal court often settled for fairly long periods, and which is by modern
standards within easy reach of Paris, was rarely sought out by applicants:
Regnault Chaudiere applied there twice within a few weeks in 1519 (CH 1519,
4 and CH 1519, 5) and Enguilbert de Marnef once three years later
(CH 1522, 6). Two authors, Nicole Bohier (CH 1519, 5) and Jean d'lvry
(CH 1519, 7) pursued the court a little further down the Seine when it was at
Carrieres (Seine-et-Oise).
The residence of the royal court and the chancery in Paris in the winter of
1521-2 is marked by several applications by Paris publishers (CH 1521, 4;
1521, 5; 1522, i), but by April both were in Lyon: there in June advantage was
taken of the presence of each by a Lyon publisher to obtain a privilege
(CH 1522, 3) and by the mathematician Oronce Fine (CH 1522, 4). In July
Jacques de Mortieres of Chalons-sur-Saone got a grant for his translation of a
work by Mantuanus (CH 1522, 5). No doubt he also had the opportunity of
presenting it personally to Marguerite, duchess of Alenc.on, the king's sister,
to whom it is dedicated, as she was in Lyon then with the court.
There is a particularly long gap in the last part of the period here under
consideration, after the grant of privileges in the spring of 1523 at Paris, on
23 March (CH 1523, 2) and on 2 April (CH 1523, 3). No further privileges
are known to have been issued by the chancery in 1523. Only one is known
with certainty for 1524, the grant obtained at Avignon on 23 September by
Geofroy Tory (CH 1524, 2), though two other books published that year
advertise a royal privilege, which may have been granted earlier (CH 1524, i,
and CH 1524, 3). None at all is known for 1525 until October-November
when there are four (CH 1525, i, 2, 3 and 4), and, after that, none until July
1526 (CH 1526, i).
This disruption can be explained at least to a large extent by the events of
the reign. The king was only very briefly in Paris in the summer of 1523 (22-4
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