PRIMARY SOURCES

ON COPYRIGHT

(1450-1900)

Vitré's memorandum on the prolongation of privileges, unknown (1650s)

Source: Bibliothèque nationale de France: Mss. Fr. 22071 n°83

Citation:
Vitré's memorandum on the prolongation of privileges, unknown (1650s), Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900), eds L. Bently & M. Kretschmer, www.copyrighthistory.org

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Record-ID: f_1650s

Permanent link: https://copyrighthistory.org/cam/tools/request/showRecord.php?id=record_f_1650s

Full title:
'Whether it is of benefit to the public to provide Booksellers with Prolongations of Privileges, in view of the present state of things in the Book Trade'

Full title original language:
'S'il est advantageux pour le public d'accorder aux Libraires des Continuations de Privileges, en l'état que les choses sont à present dans la Librairie'

Abstract:
The Vitré dynasty of publishers, like that of the Nivelle or Camusat families, would, even in the critical eyes of the Abbé Blondel (f_1725a), appear to have been genuinely devoted to 'bringing out books in the best possible way rather than just wanting to make huge fortunes'. In the political context of the Counter-Reformation, and at the same time as the various disputes which followed the promulgation of the book trade regulations of 1649 (f_1649), Antoine Vitré published a notionally disinterested memorandum which stressed the importance of a strong corporatist discipline and a thorough-going regulation of the book market. Vitré asserted unequivocally that not only the stability of the latter, but also the Crown's control of the press depended on continuing the privilege system - that is, on the gradual curtailment of the 'public domain', which in this sense anticipated the policies of Louis XIV's famous minister of finances Jean-Baptiste Colbert in the second half of the seventeenth century.

Commentary: No commentaries for this record.

Bibliography:
N/A

Related documents in this database:
N/A

Author: Antoine Vitré (1595-1674)

Publisher: unknown

Year: 1650s

Location: unknown

Language: French

Source: Bibliothèque nationale de France: Mss. Fr. 22071 n°83

Persons referred to:
De La Boderie, Guy Lefèvre
De Neufgermain, Michel
De Richelieu, Armand Jean Duplessis, Cardinal
Donatus, Aelius
Estienne, Charles
Estienne, Henri I
Estienne, Henri II
Estienne, Robert
Godefroy, Denis
L'Huillier, Pierre
Le Bé, Guillaume
Morel, Fédéric
Métayer, Jamet
Patisson, Mamert
Philip II
Plantin, Christophe
Vitré, Antoine

Places referred to:
Amiens
Antwerp
Ayen (dép. of Corrèze)
Chasteleraut (dép. of Vienne)
Dombes, principality of
England
Fontenay (dép. of the Seine)
Germany
Holland
La Rochelle
Langres (arr. Haute-Marne)
Le Havre
Lyon
Montauban (dép. of Tarn-et-Garonne)
Niort (dép. of Deux-Sèvres)
Normandy
Paris
Picardy
Poitiers
Pézenas (dép. of Hérault)
Sables d'Olone (dép. of Charente)
Saint-Mexant (dép. of Corrèze)
Soye (dép. of Doubs)
Spain
Tours
Troyes

Cases referred to:
N/A

Institutions referred to:
Compagnie des Usages (association of major Parisian publishers)
Confrairie de S Jean Porte-Latine (booksellers' association)
Escorial Monastery (El Escorial)
Hôpital Général (Paris)
King's Council of State (France)
Parisian Guild of Booksellers and Printers
Parlement of Paris
University of Paris (Sorbonne)

Legislation:
N/A

Keywords:
Bible, the
Reformation, the
book fairs
book market
book trade
classics, Greek and Latin
counterfeit
duration, prolongation of privileges
guild regulation
guilds
immoral works
importation
incentives
inheritability
penalties
printing, history of
privileges
privileges, French
privileges, printing
property theory, publishers' property
public good
religious works
renewal
reprints
typography

Responsible editor: Frédéric Rideau


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