PRIMARY SOURCES

ON COPYRIGHT

(1450-1900)

Frankfurt Printers' Ordinance, Frankfurt (1660)

Source: Universitätsbibliothek Frankfurt Ffm W 554

Citation:
Frankfurt Printers' Ordinance, Frankfurt (1660), Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900), eds L. Bently & M. Kretschmer, www.copyrighthistory.org

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Record-ID: d_1660

Permanent link: https://copyrighthistory.org/cam/tools/request/showRecord.php?id=record_d_1660

Full title:
New Regulation and Statutes Enacted by a Worthy and Most Wise Council of the City of Frankfurt-on-the-Main As to what is to be Adhered to Henceforth by the Printing-Offices of this City 9 February 1660

Full title original language:
Eines Edlen und Hochweisen Raths der Stadt Franckfurt am Mayn Erneuerte Ordnung und Artickel, Wie es fürterhin auff denen Buchdruckereyen dieser Stadt gehalten werden soll

Abstract:
The commentary covers early modern printers' ordinances in general and gives details on ordinances from Frankfurt (1578, 1588, 1598, 1660, 1690), Nuremberg (1561, 1673), and Augsburg 1713. The reprinting provisions, adopted from earlier ordinances, granted to the first local publisher of any book an exclusive right in perpetuity, which could not be overridden by Imperial privileges. The publisher's right also covered reprints of amended versions and obliged publishers not to accept a revised edition of an author whose original edition had been published by a local colleague. Reprints are explicitly allowed for the case that the first publisher fails to bring out a new edition within two years and thus does not satisfy readers' demand. Frankfurt as a centre of the German book industry in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries regulated reprinting matters through several printers' ordinances. The Ordinance of 1660 is a well-known example and was in force until 1866. Apart from reprinting, diverse issues relating to the book industry are covered in it, such as censorship, competition between publishers, mechanisms to settle industrial disputes, an arbitration body, standard wages and insurance on a cooperative basis.

1 Commentary:
commentary_d_1660

Bibliography:
  • Gramlich, Jürgen. "Rechtsordnungen des Buchgewerbes im Alten Reich." Archiv für Geschichte des Buchwesens, 41 (1994): 1-145.

  • Gieseke, Ludwig. Vom Privileg zum Urheberrecht. Die Entwicklung des Urheberrechts in Deutschland bis 1845. Baden-Baden: Nomos, 1995.


Related documents in this database:
1598: Frankfurt Printers' Ordinance
1673: Nuremberg Printers' Ordinance
1690: Amendment to the Frankfurt Printers' Ordinance
1713: Augsburg Printers' Ordinance
1549: Statutes of the Venetian Guild of Printers and Booksellers
1603: Venetian Decree on Privileges for New Books and Reprints

Author: Council of Frankfurt

Publisher: Spörlin

Year: 1660

Location: Frankfurt

Language: German

Source: Universitätsbibliothek Frankfurt Ffm W 554

Persons referred to:
N/A

Places referred to:
Frankfurt

Cases referred to:
N/A

Institutions referred to:
Frankfurt City Council
Frankfurt fair

Legislation:
N/A

Keywords:
Reformation, the
Università di Stampatori e Librai (Venetian Guild of Printers and Booksellers)
abridgements
anonymous works
authenticity
authorship, legal concept of
book fairs
book market
book trade
books, protected subject matter
censorship
defamation
deposit
duration
editions, new
employer/employee relations
engravings, protected subject matter
formalities
free trade
guild regulation
guilds
immoral works
ingenuity
interest groups
lobbying
penalties
printing, history of
privileges
privileges, German Imperial
privileges, fictitious
privileges, printing
property theory, authors' property
property theory, publishers' property
registration
reprints
secrecy
societies, publishers'

Responsible editor: Friedemann Kawohl


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