About

Primary Sources on Copyright (PSOC) is a digital archive of primary materials relating to the history of copyright from the invention of the printing press (c. 1450) to the Berne Convention (1886) and beyond. The UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded the initial phase (completed in 2008 with a launch conference at Stationers’ Hall). This focussed on key materials from Renaissance Italy (edited by Joanna Kostyło), France (edited by Frédéric Rideau), the German speaking countries (edited by Friedemann Kawohl), Britain (edited by Ronan Deazley) and the United States (edited by Oren Bracha).

We continue to add new materials. Primary sources from Spain (edited by José Bellido) were published in 2012; the Netherlands followed in 2015 (edited by Stef van Gompel and Marius Buning). Jewish Law sources (edited by Neil Netanel) were published in 2016. In 2018, Elena Cooper joined Ronan Deazley as editor of the British sources, adding documents concerning the visual arts in the nineteenth century. From 2019, Portuguese and Brazilian sources were added by Patrícia Akester and Victor Drummond. In 2021, Jane Ginsburg started to edit a selection of Vatican documents. In 2023, Marius Buning was appointed editor for Scandinavia and a cooperation with his ERC project Before Copyright at the University of Oslo began.

Following a conference with the national editors in Glasgow in October 2023, Katie Scott and Amy Thomas were appointed co-editors for France and Scotland. In 2024, Noam Bizan was appointed as sub-editor and the AHRC committed ongoing funding for PSOC within CREATe’s status as UK research infrastructure. A managing board was constituted (Lionel Bently, Marius Buning, Elena Cooper, Martin Kretschmer (chair), Bartolomeo Meletti).

• Information about the process of selecting documents can be found under Methodology.
• Information about the editors can be found under Editors.
• Information about conferences, publications and impact can be found under Dissemination.
• Technical information can be found under Tech FAQs.

In 2010, Cambridge based publisher OpenBook published a companion volume: "Privilege and Property, Essays on the History of Copyright", containing an introductory essay by the editors: The History of Copyright History. 

We hope you enjoy exploring the uncharted waters of copyright history!  

Professor Lionel Bently, University of Cambridge
Professor Martin Kretschmer, CREATe, University of Glasgow

General Editors, Primary Sources on Copyright

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Please cite this resource as:

Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900), eds L. Bently & M. Kretschmer, https://www.copyrighthistory.org/

When citing individual documents, please cite as:

[document] in Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900), eds L. Bently, M. Kretschmer & [national editor], https://www.copyrighthistory.org/