Untitled - Monoskop

PRIVILEGE-GRANTING AUTHORITIES IN FRANCE
question was Linguae vasconum primitiae, by Bernard Dechepart, cure of Saint-
Michel-le-Vieux, the first text ever to be printed in the Basque language. 1
Other Parlements are to be found occasionally granting book-privileges
during the following thirty years after 1526, but the publications concerned
are all, it appears, directly connected with the work of the courts and the
administration of justice within the Parlement's jurisdiction. Thus the
Parlement of Brittany, sitting at Nantes on 7 September 1535, granted
Thomas Mestrard, bookseller of Rennes, a two-year privilege in its own
constitutions and ordonnances: this confirmed a grant made to Mestrard at the
previous session of the Parlement, held at Rennes, which he had been unable
to use because he had not succeeded in securing copies of the texts in time. 2
Again on 30 September 1539, at Nantes, the Parlement gave Mestrard, in
partnership with Philippe Bourgoignon, a three-year privilege for the royal
constitutions et ordonnances, published by the Parlement, and on i October 1 540
at Rennes gave Mestrard a two-year privilege in its own constitutions et
ordonnances existing or to be determined during the current session. 3 Even the
short-lived Parlement of Chambery, set up during the French rule in Savoy,
granted a privilege, for five years, for its own Stile et reiglement sur le Faict de la
Justice (8 August 1553), valid within its own ressort, at the request of Pierre de
4
Portonariis, a printer of Lyon.
THE PREVOT OF PARIS AND ROYAL OFFICERS IN THE
PROVINCES
The routine administration of justice and the keeping of the peace under the
king was the responsibility of officers called Baillis, or, in some provinces,
Senechaux, whose jurisdiction covered a wide area. These officers, often men
of rank and importance, who might also be royal councillors, each had a
Lieutenant, usually possessing high legal qualifications, and a staff of grejfiers
and financial officials, as well as having at their disposal forces which today
would be called police. The court of each such officer had its own notaries and
advocates, and a.procureur du roi. Within each bailliage or senechaussee each main
town or district had a Prevot. The Prevot of Paris was himself so important
that he was more than the equivalent of a Bailli or Senechal in the provinces
and took precedence over them all. His court was held in the Chatelet, a
stronghold of which the only vestige to survive at the present day is the Tour
Saint-Jacques, but which in the sixteenth century dominated the right bank of
the Seine, opposite the Parlement on the He de la Cite. The policing of Paris
1
'545> 4- BN Res. Y" i. The extract from the registers of the Parlement of Bordeaux, dated the
last day of April 1545, signed 'Collation est faicte, De Pontac', is printed at the end (f. G4 r
).
2 G. Lepreux, Gallic, typographica, serie departementale, Vol. iv, Province de Bretagne (1913),
Documenta, no. 947 (pp. 23).
3 Ibid. Documenta, nos. 949 (pp. 56) and 952 (pp. 8-9).
4 F. Mugnier, Marc-Claude de Buttet, poete savoisien (1896), pp. 956.
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