PRIMARY SOURCES

ON COPYRIGHT

(1450-1900)

Stationers' Charter, London (1557)

Source: Durham University Library: Arber, E., A Transcript of the Registers of the Company of Stationers of London, 1557-1640, 5 vols. (London: n.p., 1875-94) 1: xxviii-xxxii

Citation:
Stationers' Charter, London (1557), Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900), eds L. Bently & M. Kretschmer, www.copyrighthistory.org

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Record-ID: uk_1557

Permanent link: https://copyrighthistory.org/cam/tools/request/showRecord.php?id=record_uk_1557

Full title:
Royal Charter of the Company of Stationers

Full title original language:
N/A

Abstract:
The grant of the Charter by Mary is often understood as the point at which the monarchy established an effective regulatory institution to control and censure the press, in the guise of the Stationers' Company, in exchange for an absolute monopoly over the production of printed works. Instead, the commentary suggests that censorship of the press throughout the Tudor period remained an essentially ad hoc and reactive phenomenon, and that both Mary and Elizabeth relied, not primarily upon the Company of Stationers, but on the use of statutory instruments and royal proclamations to censure heretical and treasonous texts.

1 Commentary:
commentary_uk_1557

Bibliography:
  • Siebert, F.S., Freedom of the Press in England 1476-1776 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1965)

  • Clegg, C.S., Press Censorship in Elizabethan England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997)

  • Blagden, C., The Stationers' Company: A History, 1403-1959, (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1960)

  • Arber, E., A Transcript of the Registers of the Company of Stationers of London, 1557-1640, 5 vols. (London: n.p., 1875-94)


Related documents in this database:
1549: Decree Establishing the Venetian Guild of Printers and Booksellers
1549: Statutes of the Venetian Guild of Printers and Booksellers
1554: Selected Extracts from the Stationers' Company's Registers
1557: The Privy Seal warrant concerning the Stationers' Charter
1667: Recital of the Stationers' Charter
1684: Stationers' Charter

Author: N/A

Publisher: N/A

Year: 1557

Location: London

Language: English

Source: Durham University Library: Arber, E., A Transcript of the Registers of the Company of Stationers of London, 1557-1640, 5 vols. (London: n.p., 1875-94) 1: xxviii-xxxii

Persons referred to:
Cawood, John
Dockwray, Thomas

Places referred to:
London

Cases referred to:
N/A

Institutions referred to:
N/A

Legislation:
N/A

Keywords:
Reformation, the
Stationers' Company
censorship
guild regulation
licensing
monopoly
penalties, paid to fiscal authorities
penalties, paid to publishers' organisations
printing, history of
registration

Responsible editor: Ronan Deazley


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