PRIMARY SOURCES

ON COPYRIGHT

(1450-1900)

Venetian Decree on Author-Printer Relations, Venice (1545)

Source: Venetian State Archives: ASV, CX, Comuni, b. 36, fol. 297r

Citation:
Venetian Decree on Author-Printer Relations, Venice (1545), Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900), eds L. Bently & M. Kretschmer, www.copyrighthistory.org

Back | Record | Images | Commentaries: [1]
Record-ID: i_1545

Permanent link: https://copyrighthistory.org/cam/tools/request/showRecord.php?id=record_i_1545

Full title:
Press Reform Regulating Author-Printer Relations and Censorial Revision of Books by the Reformatori dello Studio di Padova

Full title original language:
N/A

Abstract:
This Decree is the first statutory measure in Venice dealing with authorship and it is often celebrated as the first European legislative act to recognise the author's 'copyright'. In reality, however, it was one of a series of remedial decrees designed to regulate the printing trade and, rather than constituting an assertion of author's rights as such, it illustrates the abuses of the book trade. While setting out censorship rules it does, though, incidentally give more recognition to the author's personality. The notion of the author as an artistic personality is for the first time legally defined and offset against the financial interests of the printers. The commentary discusses the contemporary status of the author vis-à-vis printers and publishers in the context of the emerging censorship regime.

1 Commentary:
commentary_i_1545

Bibliography:
  • Brown, Horatio Fortini. The Venetian Printing Press 1469-1800: An Historical Study Based upon Documents for the Most Part Hitherto Unpublished. London: John C. Nimmo, 1891.

  • May, Christopher. "The Venetian Moment: New Technologies, Legal Innovation and the Institutional Origins of Intellectual Property." Prometheus 20, no. 2 (2002): 159-179.

  • Richardson, Brian. "From scribal publication to print publication: Pietro Bembo's 'Rime', 1529-1535." Modern Language Review 95 (2000), 684-95.


Related documents in this database:
1547: French Censorship Act
1502: Aldus Manutius's Petition against Counterfeiters
1503: Aldus Manutius's Warning against the Printers of Lyon
1516: Appointment of Andrea Navagero as Literary Censor
1517: Venetian Decree on Press Affairs
1527: Venetian Decree on Pre-publication Censorship
1549: Decree Establishing the Venetian Guild of Printers and Booksellers
1643: The Humble Remonstrance of the Stationers' Company

Author: N/A

Publisher: N/A

Year: 1545

Location: Venice

Language: Italian

Source: Venetian State Archives: ASV, CX, Comuni, b. 36, fol. 297r

Persons referred to:
Lando, Pietro

Places referred to:
Venice

Cases referred to:
N/A

Institutions referred to:
Riformatori dello Studio di Padova (Venetian Board of Governors for the University of Padua)
University of Padua
Venetian Council of Ten

Legislation:
Venetian decree on censorial revision of books by the Commissioners of the University of Padua (1545)

Keywords:
Renaissance, the
author/publisher relations
authors, self-publishing
authorship, legal concept of
authorship, theory of
censorship
guild regulation
licensing, Approbation
moral rights, integrity
penalties, paid to author(s)
penalties, paid to fiscal authorities
personality theory
reputation
scribal publication

Responsible editor: Joanna Kostylo


Copyright History resource developed in partnership with:

Our Partners

Copyright statement

You may copy and distribute the translations and commentaries in this resource, or parts of such translations and commentaries, in any medium, for non-commercial purposes as long as the authorship of the commentaries and translations is acknowledged, and you indicate the source as Bently & Kretschmer (eds), Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900) (www.copyrighthistory.org).

With the exception of commentaries that are available under a CC-BY licence (compliant with UKRI policy) you may not publish individual documents or parts of the database for any commercial purposes, including charging a fee for providing access to these documents via a network. This licence does not affect your statutory rights of fair dealing.

Although the original documents in this database are in the public domain, we are unable to grant you the right to reproduce or duplicate some of these documents in so far as the images or scans are protected by copyright or we have only been able to reproduce them here by giving contractual undertakings. For the status of any particular images, please consult the information relating to copyright in the bibliographic records.

Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900) is co-published by Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge, 10 West Road, Cambridge CB3 9DZ, UK and CREATe, School of Law, University of Glasgow, 10 The Square, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK