Untitled - Monoskop

PRIVILEGE-GRANTING AUTHORITIES IN FRANCE
jointly with the procureur du rot was not followed again. The point
had been
settled, in principle. But the Parlement was to be found throughout this period
consulting him on any special occasion when the case under consideration
seemed to call for it, e.g. 'ouy sur ce le procureur general du roy' (PA 1525, 8,
cf. PA 1526, 2). The Cour des Aides when granting a privilege, its only one
during this time, did likewise (PA 1517, 4). The procureur du roi attached to the
Parlement of Toulouse was similarly consulted, on at least one occasion,
about the grant of a book privilege: 'Oye la responce et dire du procureur du
roy' (PA 1517, 3). The procureur du roi who participated in the first grant of a
book-privilege by the Parlement of Paris, Guillaume Roger, had then only just
assumed his functions, his predecessor Jean Burdelot having died in office in
March 1507. He held the position until 1523, so he may have contributed to a
certain consistency of policy towards the granting of privileges. He may also
have helped to ensure some uniformity of practice, in the early stages, between
the Parlement and the private of Paris. He had ex officio to preside over the
private if the office of Prevot fell vacant, and this happened twice, once on the
death in September 1509 ofjacques d'Estouteville, who had been Prevot since
1479, and again on the death ofjacques de Coligny in May 1512, the second
term extending until March 1513 when Gabriel d'Allegre was appointed
Prevot. 1
The precedent thus established by the grant to Eustace de Brie did not
unloose a flood of applications for book-privileges to the Parlement. There
was however an application the following spring. It concerned a translation
into French of the Pragmatic Sanction with a treatise on the plurality of
benefices by Guillaume Perault. The beneficiary was Martin Alexandre 'and
his partners' ('pour Martin Alixandre et ses censors'), and the term allowed
was again one year, the colophon giving the date 12 April 1508 (PA 1508, i).
Parlement of Paris, Grands Jours, Cour des Aides
Signs of development in the Parlement privilege system appeared in 1509.
Four privileges were granted. Two of these were obtained by leading
University booksellers. These two are the first Parlement privileges of which
the complete text is known. In each case an authenticated Extraict des registres
de Parlement is printed prominently in the book itself, an example which was
destined to be followed by most though not quite all subsequent holders of
such privileges. The first was an edition of a work attributed to St Bruno, an
Expositio on the Epistles of St Paul, printed and published by Berthold
Rembolt, a much-respected printer who had originally come to Paris to work
with Ulrich Gering, the proto-typographer of France (PA 1509, i). The
second was a new work by the Scottish scholastic philosopher John Mair or
1 See below, p. 52.
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