Untitled - Monoskop

PRIVILEGE-GRANTING AUTHORITIES IN FRANCE
privilege was not in itself a sufficient protection, from the commercial point of
view. That at least was the declared opinion of Jean Petit, as recorded just
after the end of the period here studied, in 1527. In that year Petit was the
chief promoter of a magnificent missal for the use of Evreaux, embodying a
revision by the bishop or his staff and published by his order, displaying on
the title-page the words 'Cum priuilegio Regis et eiusdem diocesis episcopi ne
quispiam usque ad quadrennium eiusmodi imprimat vel imprimi faciat'
(CH 1527, 2). On the verso appear, printed in full, Letters Patent granted to
Petit for this edition, given at Paris on 7 November 1527. In them, the
recapitulation of Petit's requete to the chancery runs as follows,
De la partie de nostre ame Jehan Petit libraire jure en 1'universite de Paris Nous a este
expose que puis nagueres Nostre ame et feal conseiller 1'evesque d'Evreux par luy ou
ses officiers et commis a fait corrigier et amender et reduire au vray us et coustume de
son eglise les messels pour dire le divin service selon 1'eglise cathedrale dudit Evreux.
et amend es il a baillies audict
Lesquels messels audict usaige d'Evreux ainsi corriges
exposant pour les imprimer en luy donnant permission de ce faire, et que aultre que
ledit exposant ne les puisse faire ou imprimer selon ladite coppie. Mais ledite exposant ne
les ose imprimer ne faire lesfrais qu 'ily conviendra faire, s 'il n 'a de nous permission de les imprimer,
etprevillege que aultre que luy ne les puisse imprimer ledit temps de six ans / sur ladite coppie. Affin
que ledit exposant se puisse aucunement rembourcer desdits frais, mises et impenses
humblement requerant sur ce icelluy privillege. (italics mine)
The royal chancery responded with a privilege, but for four years from the
date of the grant, not the six years which Petit said he had been given by the
bishop. The same year Petit was the principal publisher of an equally grand
missal for the use of Rouen, Missale rothomagense, completed on 8 October 1527.
This has only 'Cum priuilegio regis' on the title-page, but the privilege,
printed on the verso, refers to Petit having first received the revised copy from
the archbishop of Rouen with permission 'et previllege que aultre que ledict
exposant ne les puisse faire ou imprimer selon ladicte coppie de sept ans
advenir', and it continues, exactly as in the Evreux missal just described,
'Mais ledit exposant ne les oze imprimer' etc. The royal privilege must indeed
have been granted by the same Letters Patent as that of the Evreux missal, for
both are for four years, both are dated Paris, 7 November 1527 and they are
signed by the same secretary. No doubt the six-year privilege of the bishop of
Evreux, and the seven-year privilege of the archbishop of Rouen (Georges II
d'Amboise) were recommendations which weighed heavily with the royal
chancery in considering Petit's request, yet four years was in itself a
substantial privilege and exceptional for a service-book, and it was not
prepared to extend the duration to the full term of years which episcopal
authority proposed.
Not only the royal chancery but the sovereign courts were by then applied
to by publishers who desired an exception to be made to the unwritten rule
that liturgical books did not qualify for privileges. The same year as the
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