Untitled - Monoskop

THE PREVOT OF PARIS AND OFFICERS IN THE PROVINCES
(PR 1517, i ) for granting the privilege, which is dated 2 March 1516- that is,
1517 n.s. ('Presentem cuius trutinauit lima libellum / Ne quis eum prohibens
bibliopola premat / Quam bene iussisti faciens rata vota precantis / Possit ut
expensas sic releuare graues.')
The participation of the Lieutenant Civil, Louis Ruse or Ruze,
in the
granting of privileges by the Prevot is attested not only by complete grants
authenticated by his signature (e.g. PR 1516, i; 1517, i; 1520, 4; 1523, 3;
1525, i) but by many references to his authority in the Latin summaries of
privileges favoured particularly by Badius. The latter often attempts to weave
into the summary some flattery of the Lieutenant Civil, e.g. 'suffragio literarum
bonarum doctissimi et dulcissimi praesidii L. Ruzei' (PR 1520, 10), and on at
least one occasion the book is actually dedicated to him (PR 1519, 3). Ruze
was indeed a man of some learning, to the point of receiving letters in Greek
from Bude, and he may have given some impetus to the fashion among
academic publishers like Badius, and among literary men, for resorting for
privileges
to the Prevot.
That change of fashion is signalled in 1516 by requests submitted to the
Prevot by two authors resident in Paris, very different from each other but
both of some standing and both making their first application for a privilege.
One was Guillaume Michel de Tours, who obtained a grant for his pious
allegorical fantasy La forest de conscience (PR 1516, 2). The other was Dr de
Celaya, a Spanish member of the Faculty of Theology, who sought protection
for philosophical works, which appear to be his current courses of lectures: he
went for a privilege for three of these works in succession, the first two within
a month of each other (PR 1516, 3 and PR 1516, 4), the third six months later
(PR 1517, 3). For his next works, Celaya left it to his publisher, Hemon Le
Fevre, to apply for a privilege, and Le Fevre went to the Parlement (PA 1517,
9), perhaps because a group of three different books was involved. On the
other hand, when Guillaume Michel de Tours entrusted Hemon Le Fevre as
his publisher with the task of obtaining a privilege for his next allegory, Le
siecle dore, in 1522, Le Fevre went to the Prevot (PR 1522, i).
From 1516 too some notable libraires jures of the University of Paris
favoured the Prevot as a dispenser of privileges. Jean de La Garde, for
instance, had five grants from the Prevot as against two from the chancery
and two from the Parlement. Among others were Josse Badius, Galliot Du
Pre, Francois Regnault, Pierre Le Brodeur, Toussaint Denys, Jacques
Nyverd, Damien Higman, Gilles de Gourmont and Conrad Resch. All these
are to be found on other occasions applying to the chancery or to the
Parlement of Paris. Jean Petit, however, seems to have obtained only one
privilege from the Prevot in the years up to 1526, and Bonnemere, Chaudiere,
Chevallon, Gerlier, Granjon, Gromors, Kerver, Le Noir and Roce appear
never to have obtained privileges from this source.
53