Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900)

www.copyrighthistory.org

Identifier: d_1738

Thurneysen: On the Illicit Reprinting of Books (1738)

Friedemann Kawohl

Centre for Intellectual Property Policy & Management, Bournemouth University, UK

Please cite as:
Kawohl, F. (2008) ‘Commentary on J. Thurneysen's dissertation On the Illicit Reprinting of Books (1738)', in Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900), eds L. Bently & M. Kretschmer, www.copyrighthistory.org

1. Full title

2. Abstract

3. References

1. Full title

Johann Thurneysen's dissertation On the Illicit Reprinting of Books, submitted to the Basel Law Faculty in 1738

2. Abstract

The imprint of this dissertation by Johann Rudolf Thurneysen (1716-1774) refers to his uncles Emanuel (1687-1739) and Johann Rudolf (1688-1755) Thurneysen as the publishers. (They were in fact half-brothers of the author's father, the Basel councillor and master of the mercantile community Hans Jakob Thurneysen (1682-1765)). Showing considerable familiarity with the intricacies of the European book trade, Thurneysen points to a "tacit agreement" whereby no reprinting normally takes place between members of the Holy Roman Empire and the Swiss, whereas the Dutch and the French do not have to abide by any such agreement. Nineteenth- and twentieth-century scholars like Kohler,[1] Thieme,[2] and Gieseke[3] have regarded the book as foreshadowing ideas of intellectual property: "what scholars have attained ... is their property, to which they are entitled by right." (3rd section, p.10), as well as the international copyright conventions of the nineteenth century (2nd section, pp.8-9). The related document d_1739 illustrates the contemporary Swiss privilege practise.

3. References

Books and articles [in alphabetical order] 

Gieseke, L. Vom Privileg zum Urheberrecht (Baden-Baden: Nomos, 1995)

Kohler, J. Urheberrecht an Schriftwerken und Verlagsrecht (Stuttgart: Enke, 1907)

Thieme, H. "Zur Entstehungsgeschichte des internationalen Urheberrechts aus dem Kampf gegen den unlauteren Büchernachdruck", in M. Rehbinder and W. Larese (eds), Die Berner Übereinkunft und die Schweiz (Berne: Stämpfli, 1986), 1-12

[1] Josef Kohler, Urheberrecht an Schriftwerken und Verlagsrecht (Stuttgart: Enke, 1907), 73.

[2] Hans Thieme, "Zur Entstehungsgeschichte des internationalen Urheberrechts aus dem Kampf gegen den unlauteren Büchernachdruck", in Manfred Rehbinder and Wolfgang Larese (eds), Die Berner Übereinkunft und die Schweiz  (Berne: Stämpfli, 1986), 1-12.

[3] Ludwig Gieseke, Vom Privileg zum Urheberrecht (Baden-Baden: Nomos, 1995), 131f.