Untitled - Monoskop

PRIVILEGE-GRANTING AUTHORITIES IN FRANCE
'permission, faculte et licence', and a five-year privilege, it was on condition
that he show the book when printed (or perhaps rather in proof) to the
authorities for it to be checked before putting it on sale. The privilege was
granted on I April 1523 (n.s.) and the book complete with 'Cum priuilegio'
and the arms of Toulouse on the title-page was finished on 23 June: it is dated
1522, no doubt because Le Blanc had begun to print it before Easter, as soon
as he had the privilege, therefore within 1522 (o.s.).
The Parlement of Toulouse was to continue granting privileges after the
period here being studied, mainly it seems for books of special use or interest
within its own jurisdiction. Thus a commentary on the Adagia of Erasmus by
Joannes Maurus, a schoolmaster at Montauban, was published with a
three-year privilege granted by the Parlement and signed by the conseiller
Jacques Rivirie, on 2 March 1527, to Maitre Gilbert Grosset, 'Librayre de la
Ville et Cite de Montalban'. The little book was dedicated to Sanche
Hebrard, another conseiller of the Parlement (PA 1527, i).
There is documentary evidence, as has been seen, for the Parlement of
Toulouse giving privileges for books, from 1512 onwards. There is on the
other hand no sign of a Toulouse publisher having obtained a privilege from
the royal chancery or from the Parlement of Paris. Louis XII granted a
privilege at Lyon on 25 August 1511 for a book of which the publishers were
Jean Robion of Lyon and Jean de Clause of Toulouse, but the beneficiary was
Jean Robion (CH 151 1, 2). A strong presumption therefore exists that the few
Toulouse publications which appeared 'Cum priuilegio', without any further
particulars, were privileged by the Parlement ofToulouse and I have ventured
so to classify them in the Register.
An isolated case occurs in 1521 of a Toulouse publication being privi-
leged by the Prevot of Paris. This was the Aurea summa de fuga vitiorum,
edited by the Toulouse Dominican Jean Vignier or Vignerius, dedicated to
Jean de Basilhac, bishop-elect of Carcassonne, and a member of the
Parlement of Toulouse, and published by two Toulouse booksellers,
Anthoine Maurin and Gaston Recolene. For some reason, the publishers
employed a Paris press to print it, that ofJean (II) Du Pre. It seems likely
that Jean Du Pre, who by this time had experience himself of obtaining
to obtain one on their behalf
privileges, was commissioned by the publishers
(PR 1521, 2).
The Parlement of Rouen, designated as such in 1515 but formerly the
Echiquier of the duchy of Normandy and still generally known under that title
in the early sixteenth century, likewise presided over an area within which
book-production and the book-trade were important. Rouen itself was a
thriving centre of printing, especially the printing of liturgical books, and
exported extensively to England and other foreign
flourishing university, and did some printing and publishing
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countries. Caen had a
as well as