PRIMARY SOURCES

ON COPYRIGHT

(1450-1900)

Privilege Granted to Giovanni Ostaus, Venice (1556)

Source: Venetian State Archives: ASVe, Capi del Consiglio de’ Dieci, Notatorio, reg. 16, fol. 126r.; ASVe, Senato Deliberazioni Terra, reg. 40, fol. 120r.-v. (140r.-v. n.n.); and ASVe, Senato Deliberazioni Terra, filza 23.

Citation:
Privilege Granted to Giovanni Ostaus, Venice (1556), Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900), eds L. Bently & M. Kretschmer, www.copyrighthistory.org

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Record-ID: i_1556a

Permanent link: https://copyrighthistory.org/cam/tools/request/showRecord.php?id=record_i_1556a

Full title:
Privilege Granted to Giovanni Ostaus for Multiple Works

Full title original language:
N/A

Abstract:
At the apex of the Venetian Republic’s response to the Counter Reformation, Giovanni Ostaus received a privilege in 1556 for the following three works: (1) the illustrated book entitled ‘Contemplatio totius vitae et passionis Domini Nostri Iesu Christi’ (translated as 'Contemplation of the entire Life and Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ'); (2) a woodcut of the 'Crucifixion' accompanied by ‘some declarations from the sacred scriptures’; and (3) a ‘booklet which contains the true perfection of drawings and embroidery [patterns]’. In addition to complying with the complicated and, at this stage, extensive privilege and license legislation, Ostaus’s various types of publications detailing the same subject matter is sensitive to the prevailing political sentiments of the time. In a setting of contradictions, Ostaus, an immigrant to Venice from a region with strong connections to the Reformation, chose to obtain privileges for publications that were primarily religious or moral in focus. His works illustrate the Life and Passion of Christ and instruct on the virtuous domestic activities of women, comply with the active censorial policing of printed imagery in Venice and furthermore profit from trends towards the demand for artwork that displayed a strong Catholic response to the Reformation’s directive to destroy religious imagery and extol traditional idioms of virtue.

Commentary: No commentaries for this record.

Bibliography:
  • Rosand, David and Michelangelo Muraro. Titian and the Venetian Woodcut. Washington D.C., 1976.

  • Witcombe, Christopher L.C.E. Copyright in the Renaissance: Prints and the Privilegio in Sixteenth-Century Venice and Rome. Leiden, 2004.


Related documents in this database:
N/A

Author: N/A

Publisher: N/A

Year: 1556

Location: Venice

Language: Italian and Latin

Source: Venetian State Archives: ASVe, Capi del Consiglio de’ Dieci, Notatorio, reg. 16, fol. 126r.; ASVe, Senato Deliberazioni Terra, reg. 40, fol. 120r.-v. (140r.-v. n.n.); and ASVe, Senato Deliberazioni Terra, filza 23.

Persons referred to:
Contarini, Lucretia
Dürer, Albrecht
Feyerabend, Sigmund
Livy
Lucretia
Marcolini, Francesco
Michiel, Cipriana
Ostaus, Giovanni
Salviati, Giuseppe
Valgrisi, Pietro
Zane, Hieronimo
Zeno, Catherino

Places referred to:
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main
Padua
Venice

Cases referred to:
N/A

Institutions referred to:
Consiglio dei Dieci (Council of Ten)
Consiglio dei Pregadi (Senate of Venice)
Riformatori dello Studio di Padova
University of Padua

Legislation:
1517: Venetian Decree on Press Affairs
1527: Venetian Decree on Pre-publication Censorship
1545: Venetian Decree on Author-Printer Relations
1549: Decree Establishing the Venetian Guild of Printers and Booksellers

Keywords:
Albrecht Dürer
Art
Artistic works
Authorship
Bible, the
Catherino Zeno
Catherinus Geno
Christ
Cipriana Michiel
Collegio of Venice
Consiglio dei Pregadi
Copying
Counter-Reformation, the
Early Modern
Engraving
Francesco Marcolini
Francesco Marcolini da Forli
Giovanni Ostaus
Giuseppe Porta
Giuseppe Salviati
Hieronimo Zane
Hieronimus Zane
Il Salviati
Joseph Salviati
Livy
Lucrece
Lucretia
Lucretia Contarini
Petrus Valgrisius
Pietro Valgrisi
Print
Privileges
Publication
Reformation, the
Renaissance, the
Repetitions
Replicas
Riformatori dello Studio di Padova
Senate of Venice
Sigismund Feierabend
Sigmund Feierbend
Sigmund Feyerabend
Titus Livius
Venice
Woodcut
adaptation
anthologies
applied art, protected subject matter
art market
artist
authenticity
authorship, joint or collaborative
authorship, legal concept of
book fairs
book market
book trade
books, protected subject matter
censorship
censorship, pre-publication
compilation
compulsory licensing
copy
copying, concept of
creativity
duration
duration, prolongation of privileges
embroidery
engravings
engravings, protected subject matter
foreign reprints
imitation
imitation, learning by
import
importation
inventions
inventors
licensing
licensing, Approbation
licensing, Imprimatur
monopoly
moral obligations
morality
originality
pattern book
penalties
penalties, paid to author(s)
penalties, paid to fiscal authorities
penalties, paid to publisher(s)
printing, history of
privilege
privileges
privileges, Venetian
privileges, printing
public good
religion
religious works
replica
reprints
reputation
technical manuals
utility
woodcuts, protected subject matter
woodcutter

Responsible editor: Sarah Alexis Rabinowe


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