PRIMARY SOURCES

ON COPYRIGHT

(1450-1900)


This is a freely-accessible, publicly-funded digital archive that collects together significant documents relating to the history of copyright law and practice. The documents have been selected by national editors, with the input of an editorial advisory board. Key documents are, where appropriate, transcribed and translated. The editors have written commentaries, explaining the reasons for selecting documents and their significance. The project was launched in 2008, initially funded by the AHRC in relation to 5 countries. Since 2024 it is supported by the AHRC as UK research infrastructure. The archive now extends to more than 20 (including historical and religious) jurisdictions and over 700 primary source documents. They can be browsed by date/language/jurisdiction, or searched.


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All documents: Keyword book trade

Back | 104 results(* indicates core document)

1469* Johannes of Speyer's Printing Monopoly (Italy) Commentary: [1]
1477* Tax Exemption for Books (Spain) Commentary: [1]
1486* Marco Antonio Sabellico's Printing Privilege (Italy) Commentary: [1]
1501* Imperial Senate privilege to the Sodalitas Celtica (Germany) Commentary: [1]
1502* Licensing Rules (Spain) Commentary: [1]
1503* Aldus Manutius's Warning against the Printers of Lyon (Italy) Commentary: [1]
1515* Galliot Du Pré's Privilege (France) Commentary: [1]
1531* Basel Printers' Statute (Germany) Commentary: [1]
1554* Royal Charter for Licensing (Spain) Commentary: [1]
1556* Privilege Granted to Giovanni Ostaus (Italy)
1559* Elizabethan Injunctions (United Kingdom) Commentary: [1]
1559* Day's privilege for The Cosmographical Glass (United Kingdom) Commentary: [1]
1566* Star Chamber Decree (United Kingdom) Commentary: [1]
1586* Star Chamber Decree (United Kingdom) Commentary: [1]
1591A publisher's 'Friendly Reminder' about reprints (Germany)
1594* Council of Four Lands Printing and Book Trade Regulation (Jewish Law) Commentary: [1]
1596* Total Ban on Book Imports, Denmark–Norway (Scandinavia)
1598Frankfurt Printers' Ordinance (Germany)
1637* Star Chamber Decree (United Kingdom) Commentary: [1]
1643An Ordinance for the Regulation of Printing (United Kingdom)
1649Book trade regulations (France)
1650s* Vitré's memorandum on the prolongation of privileges (France)
1658* Schupp: The Book Thief (Germany) Commentary: [1]
1660* Frankfurt Printers' Ordinance (Germany) Commentary: [1]
1672* Usher's Printing Privilege (United States) Commentary: [1]
1673Nuremberg Printers' Ordinance (Germany)
1675* Counterfeited Privilege in Grimmelshausen's 'The Magic Bird's Nest' (Germany) Commentary: [1]
1686* Book trade regulations (France)
1686Abolition of All Monopolies in the Book Trade in Norway (Scandinavia) Commentary: [1]
1688Laws Concerning Printing, Censorship, and Distribution of Books and Almanacs, Denmark–Norway (Scandinavia)
1690Beier: On the Book Trade and its Privileges (Germany)
1690s* Memorandum on the dispute between the Parisian and the provincial booksellers (France) Commentary: [1]
1695Reasons for objecting to the renewal of the Licensing Act (United Kingdom)
1701* Royal letters patent (France) Commentary: [1]
1709Reasons Humbly Offer'd for the Bill for the Encouragement of Learning (United Kingdom)
1713* 'Books Constitution' of Emperor Rudolf II (Germany) Commentary: [1]
1713Augsburg Printers' Ordinance (Germany)
1721Printer Joachim Wielandt's Privilege for Popular Chapbooks, Denmark–Norway (Scandinavia) Commentary: [1]
1724* Electoral Saxon Printing and Censorship Acts from 1549 to 1717 (Germany) Commentary: [1]
1725-1726* Pierre-Jacques Blondel's memorandum (France) Commentary: [1]
1725-1726* Louis d'Héricourt's memorandum (France) Commentary: [1]
1738* Thurneysen: On the Illicit Reprinting of Books (Germany) Commentary: [1]
1740* Encyclopaedia Article on 'The Reprinting of Books' (Germany) Commentary: [1]
1750Fritsch: Treatise on Book Printers, Booksellers, Paper Manufacturers and Bookbinders (Germany)
1751Tonson v. Walker (United Kingdom)
1752* Privilege Tranfers: Contract between Antonio Sanz and his bookseller (Spain)
1752Regulations and Rules for the Printing Industry in Sweden (Scandinavia)
1763* Diderot's Letter on the book trade (France) Commentary: [1]
1763* Rules for Printers and Book Merchants' Guild in Madrid (Spain)
1765* Philipp Erasmus Reich and the Leipzig publishers' cartel (Germany) Commentary: [1]
1766* The Swedish Freedom of the Press Ordinance (Scandinavia) Commentary: [1]
1773* Saxonian Statute (Germany) Commentary: [1]
1773* Hinton v. Donaldson (United Kingdom) Commentary: [1]
1773Information for Messrs John Hinton et al (United Kingdom)
1774* Pütter: The Reprinting of Books (Germany) Commentary: [1]
1776* Fragments on the Freedom of the Press (France) Commentary: [1]
1777* Linguet's memorandum (France) Commentary: [1]
1778* Pluquet's letters (France) Commentary: [1]
1781* 'Pezzana e Consorti' case: counter-petition and rulings (Italy)
1781Chodowiecki's Allegory 'Works of Darkness' (Germany)
1785* Austrian Statutes on Censorship and Printing (Germany) Commentary: [1]
1790* J.F.F. Ganz's draft for a general ban on reprinting within the whole Empire (Germany) Commentary: [1]
1794* Prussian Statute Book (ALR) (Germany) Commentary: [1]
1799* Kehr: Apology of the Reprinting of Books (Germany) Commentary: [1]
1809* Baden Civil Code (Germany) Commentary: [1]
1810Swedish Freedom of the Press Ordinance (Scandinavia) Commentary: [1]
1812* Swedish Freedom of the Press Ordinance (Scandinavia)
1813Select Committee Report: Minutes of Evidence (United Kingdom)
1814* Copyright Act (United Kingdom) Commentary: [1]
1814Parliamentary Debates on the Copyright Act (18 July) (United Kingdom)
1815* Annotated Publishers' Petition to the Congress of Vienna (Germany) Commentary: [1]
1818Select Committee Report: Minutes of Evidence (United Kingdom)
1828* Maugham's Treatise (United Kingdom) Commentary: [1]
1830* Amended music publishers' agreement against piracy (Germany) Commentary: [1]
1834* Balzac's letter to authors (France)
1835* Sofer Responsum on Vilna-Slavuta Talmud Dispute (Jewish Law) Commentary: [1]
1837* Directive for reciprocal copyright protection within the German Confederation (Germany) Commentary: [1]
1837* Senate Report (United States)
1837Petition of British Authors (United States)
1837Debates in Congress (United States)
1838Address of Certain Authors (United States)
1838Report, from the Committee on Patents (United States)
1838Memorial of a Number of Citizens of Boston (United States)
1841Swedish Ordinance on the Limitation of Terms of Protection (Scandinavia) Commentary: [1]
1843An Address to the People of the United States (United States)
1846* Bilateral Treaty between Prussia and Great Britain (Germany) Commentary: [1]
1847* Foreign Reprints Act (United Kingdom) Commentary: [1]
1848Jay, Bryant and Others' Memorials (United States)
1853Letters on International copyright (United States)
1854* Jeffreys v. Boosey (United Kingdom) Commentary: [1]
1860* Nathanson Ruling in Matter of Yoreh De'ah (Jewish Law) Commentary: [1]
1868* Proudhon: 'Les Majorats littéraires' (France)
1868* Colonial Copyright Extensions (Spain) Commentary: [1]
1872Correspondence and Papers on Colonial Copyright (United Kingdom)
1873Committee on the Library Report (United States)
1874Correspondence respecting Colonial Copyright (United Kingdom)
1876Book Printer H. J. Jensen vs. The Poet Henrik Ibsen (Scandinavia)
1876Act on the Protection of Written Property, Norway (Scandinavia)
1878Royal Commission on Copyright: Minutes of Evidence (United Kingdom)
1886Committee on Patents Report (United States)
1888American Authors and British Pirates (United States)
1896Hearing on H.R. 5976 (United States)
1896The Question of Copyright (United States)
1896Regarding Norway’s Accession to the Berne Convention (Scandinavia)