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3 translated pages

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Chapter 1 Page 1

The

GERMAN
IMPERIAL ARCHIVE,

namely

GENERAL SECTION,

together with its

CONTINUATION,

Which contains a complete

CORPUS JURIS PUBLICI*
of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation,
wherein may be found:

I. Its Basic Laws, from the time of the Golden Bull
of the Emperor Charles IV, issued in 1356 and thus the oldest Imperial fundamental law;
through those promulgated by successive Emperors; up to the legislation of the present,
most praiseworthy ruler, His Roman Imperial Majesty, Charles VI, that is: the already
mentioned Golden Bull, the Religious and Secular Peace Settlements, Imperial and Royal
Capitulations of Election, Recesses of the Empire and Imperial Deputations, including
the Peace Treaties of Osnabrück and Münster, and those of Nimweg and Rysswick,
followed by

II. Its Decrees, that is: Imperial, court, council,
chamber, penal, criminal, executive, coinage, and police
decrees, and various others,
as well as

III. The Imperial metric system and suchlike general constitutions,
together with
The most important police regulations passed at the Imperial Diet of Regensburg, which
was convoked in 1663 and is still carrying on, in matters of State, war, justice, coinage,
postal communications, commerce, and other fields; and any Imperial edicts
and mandates which have been issued to the Empire in these matters,
alongside an

EXAMINATION OF THE MOST RECENT GERMAN CIVIL LEGISLATION,
based on the fundamental laws,
as well as an
Authentic account of the election of the Roman Emperor, and of the current Imperial
Diet of Regensburg, which concern the two highest Imperial courts: namely,
the Court of the Imperial Council and the Chamber Court of the Holy
Empire in Wetzlar, in which accounts there is a discussion not
just of their similarity, but also of their differences, as well as
an account of the customary ceremonies observed at the mentioned
Imperial election and coronation, at Imperial and Princely
Diets, during admission to the Princely Electoral College,
as well as during investitures with Imperial fiefs and
upon banishment from the Holy Empire.

Compiled from the works of most eminent authors, rare manuscripts, and by means of
valuable correspondence; arranged in due order; provided with helpful summaries
and notes, as well as a list of topics and complete index; and brought to light for the
benefit of the commonwealth
by
Johann Christian Lünig.
_________________________
Leipzig,
published by the Heirs of Friederich Lanck, 1713.

_______________________
* Body of Civil Laws.

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(4.) Book Constitution.
The Constitution of Emperor Rudolph II, concerning books, / promulgated in 1608.

We, Rudolph the Second, / by the Grace
of God / elected Roman Emperor, / at all
times Augmenter of the Empire / in
Germany, / Hungary, / Bohemia, /
Dalmatia, / Croatia, / and Slovenia etc.,
King, / Archduke of Austria, / Duke of
Burgundy, / Styria, / Carinthia, / Crain
and Württemberg, / Count of the Tyrol
etc. send Our grace and regards to Our
honourable, dear, and devout followers: /
Valentin Leucht and George
Erstenberger of Freyenthurn, / who are,
respectively, Doctor of Theology and
Licentiate of the Laws, / as well as to the
honourable scholar / and Our and the
Empire’s faithful follower, / Carl
Seiblin, / Licentiate of the Laws, / Our
councillor and Procurator Fiscal of the
Imperial Chamber Court. Honourable, /
dear, / and devout followers! / Learned, /
dear follower!
            With what detriment to the
commonwealth / the book inspections
which we demanded on a previous
occasion and which indeed started up
well, have

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come to a halt for quite a while, / is well-
known to all of you / and is readily
evinced by the highly punishable habits
which keep coming to light every day.
However, since we / do not wish to
suffer any longer the spreading of such
intolerable abuses and disorder, / and
since we have also decided to re-
establish the inspections that were
previously in use, / we have graciously
chosen you, / all and sundry, / to be our
Imperial Commissioners, / and hereby
graciously order you / to take all the
pains you can to ensure, first of all, / that
the inspections, which up to now had
come to a standstill, are fruitfully re-
established; / that the large amount of /
strictly forbidden defamatory works /
which appear at all fairs / is done away
with completely; / that in future, no book
is printed / or sold in the Holy Empire /
unless it has been previously censored /
approved and permitted / by the regular
authorities / in the printers’ place of
residence; / and that, moreover, the name
of the author, that of the printer, / and
the place [of printing] are included

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Chapter 1 Page 3

on [the title-page] of every book, / without
deceit / or fraud. In order to make it easier for
you to carry out all this, / we want / every book
printer, / trader, / or seller / to show you an
index of all his books / before he actually
opens his store-house and shop / and starts
selling any books; / he must also give you
credible information / as to how and in what
fashion he has been authorised to print these
books. / Should he not have an Imperial
privilege for a given book, / he must without
fail deliver / or hand to you / a copy of it / so
that you may then forward it to our Imperial
Chancellery. Furthermore, since we have
received reliable information that a certain trick
is being resorted to by some book printers and
sellers: / namely, that on [the title-pages of]
some of their books / they are often keen on
printing the following words: “CUM GRATIA ET
PRIVILEGIO” [“with grace and privilege”], even
though neither the one nor the other has been
requested, / still less obtained, / by them –
which is not at all unlike a fraud, / especially /
given that the word they are trying to imply /
should follow naturally from the preceding
phrase is: “CAESAREO” [“Imperial ” – i.e. so
that the Latin phrase would read: “With
Imperial grace and privilege”], / which they
have cunningly left out. – since under this
pretence many preposterous things are
smuggled into [the Empire] / and put to print,
whereby these printers and sellers are venturing
/ to harm Our Imperial reputation / and to save
on the fee which they would otherwise be due,
and this is something that from now on is by no
means to be permitted, / still less to be tolerated
or consented to any extent, / we therefore want
you to investigate this diligently, / and should
you discover anything of the sort, / you are to
undertake, / with the help of the mayor and city
council of Frankfurt / if necessary, / the
confiscation [of such books] and further
punishment regardless [of who the offenders
are].
            Since in the drafting of the Catalogus
Librorum [Catalogue of Books], inaccuracies
have also kept coming into notice to no less an
extent – / nay, many Catholic books are even
omitted completely! – / it is our most gracious
will and decision that, / in order to obviate this,
/ before the Catalogus

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novorum librorum [Catalogue of New Books]
is printed, / it is to be scrutinized by you / and
corrected where necessary. To prevent you
from suffering any hindrances on the part of
the mayor and city council of Frankfurt when
carrying this out, / we have already, / as you
may see from the decree, / notified them of all
the necessary [legislation], / being confident /
that they will assist you in every possible way.
            Moreover, to prevent the secrets, /
reports, and votes / of our Imperial Chamber
Court / from being printed indiscriminately, /
without us or our Imperial Supreme Court
having been informed beforehand, / and thus
exposed to everyone’s eyes in this completely
punishable way, / we hereby command you / to
earnestly / and categorically / prohibit, / in our
place / and name, / all book printers, / traders, /
and sellers – / on pain of incurring our great
displeasure and becoming liable to punishment –
/ from printing, / carrying about, / offering
for sale, / and selling any such materials in
future, / except where they have obtained our /
or the Imperial Chamber Court’s / explicit
approval and permission.
            And finally, / in the case of all old and
new / privileged books / for which we have not
yet received the due number of copies, / you
are to demand and obtain these without delay,
in exchange for a receipt [which you are to
issue to the booksellers concerned], / and then
send them to us. You are to do this at all future
[book] fairs / and must also notify, / in our
name, / the booksellers and printers attending
them / that they have to observe this regulation
/ if they wish to avoid coming to grief. By
carrying out all this, you are fulfilling our will
and decision, / and all and sundry of you can
count on our Imperial favour and good-will.
Issued in Our Royal castle in Prague, / on 15
March 1608. In the 33rd year of Our Reign / as
Roman Emperor, / the 36th year of Our Reign
in Hungary, / and, again, the 33rd year of Our
Reign in Bohemia.

                  Rudolph.




Translation by: Luis Sundkvist