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7 translated pages

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Chapter 2 Page 1



SECOND ARGUMENT



On the printing of the works of Seneca, re-
vised and annotated by the late Marc Antoine
de Muret.

      

M. Simon Marion, on behalf of University
Booksellers Jacques du Puys and Gilles Bey,
complainants, said: As the capital cities of
great States are made beautiful, both by the
rare things which spring forth within them, and
by others, still more exquisite, which their
opulence gathers from elsewhere; so they are
illuminated with arts & trades, both by the
industry of their natives, and by the method of
those foreigners who are drawn from far and wide
by the cities' renown. Thus the honour of Rome
was raised above all others, by its magnificent
edifices, which triumphed over the sumptuousness
of those of Asian Princes, and by the breadth of
its erudition, which surpassed the learning of
Egypt and Greece. But the immense grandeur of its
first Empire, being subject to the law of fragile
worldly things, could not escape the ordinary
effects of its temporal, changeable nature.

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Such that, the morals of her people having
become progressively corrupt, her provinces
rebellious, her Leaders disunited, and her
strength diminished; Rome herself, being
finally taken, and retaken, shamed and befouled,
had often to endure sack and sword, fire and
ruin, beneath which the arts were left dead and
buried; and the Earth was thereby covered with
ignorance and barbarity. Such that the eclipse of
this august city brought darkness upon the world.
Since then, God has reinvested the world with
ornaments more illustrious than these early triumphs,
and revived the vigour of men's minds: some, bursting
with truly sublime new ideas, have in the last few
centuries fathered inventions more subtle and more
useful than any known to previous ages; while others,
given over only to the study of things past, have
unearthed the old monuments of great books, made dead
tongues speak once more, and restored to ancient
learning its former splendour and dignity. Which
has made the letters of today flourish as if in a
spacious and delicious garden, where we must first
pluck the sacred fruits of Holy Writ as celestial
food for our soul, and

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then gather profane flowers for our recreation;
of which the basest delight only curiosity,
resembling daisies, which possess mere beauty;
but the others, in addition to their elegance,
give off a sweet scent which inspires us with
the wise precepts of good morals. Such is this
book, born long ago in Rome, and only recently
restored in Rome, though that city may not claim
the glory of being the mother, but only the
hostess of the author, since Seneca, who first
wrote it, was Spanish, and Muret, who recently
revised and illustrated it, was French; two men
drawn to Rome under Empires as different as were
the differing successes of their lives. For when
the temporal domination of the world had its abode
in this proud and triumphant city, Seneca found
execrable princes there, or rather, horrible monsters;
one of whom, though he had in his youth suckled the
milk of virtue at the breast of doctrine, nevertheless
when on to transform the city into a sea of vice, and,
draining the breast of life of the blood which had
inspired him, drove Seneca to death: but now that
that same city, sacred and religious, shines with
piety as

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the seat of the heads of the Church, and of
the spiritual Empire of souls, Muret found
humanitarian Fathers there, true Pastors of
the Christian people, who received him graciously
and honoured him until his peaceful, natural
death. Since his death, his friends in Rome have
had printed the edition of Seneca which he
annotated, without obtaining the privilege from
the King. This rendered it entirely public, and
free to print in this Kingdom, where it can no
longer be subject to the privilege : given that
the state of a book is to be measured according
to its condition at the moment it leaves the
private hands of its possessor, and by his
beneficence enters the sphere of the common
knowledge of men: such that, if at its origin it
was restricted by a law of privilege, it must
remain so; but if it is free of privilege, that
freedom may not be curtailed. This is because,
by a common instinct, each man recognises every
other to be the master of what he makes, invents,
or creates, and even speaking in human terms of
the greatness of God, and of His power over the
things He made, they say that the Heavens and the
Earth belong to Him, since they were created by
His word, and that the day and the night are His,
since

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He made the light and the Sun. Such that by
analogy, the author of a book is entirely its
master, and as such may dispose of it freely:
he may even keep it forever in his private hands,
as one would a slave, or free it, granting it
the liberty enjoyed by all: this may be accorded
purely and simply, with no restriction of any kind,
or with a reservation, by a kind of right of
patronage, that no other person may print it before
a certain time. Which is effectively a contract
without a fixed name, mutually binding, since there
is a fair obligation on both sides, the one not
wishing to give to the public his personal property,
unless the public grant him this prerogative in
return; and the reverse. This renders null letters
patent from the King, obtained upon a simple request,
which permit the bearer alone to print the edition
of Seneca annotated by Muret in France. All the more
so given that the public liberty of printing may not
be restricted for the benefit of a private individual,
since he for his part does not provide the public with
anything unique, copies of the work he wishes to
reproduce existing already, and being freely traded.
Since those who have released their work with no
privilege have given it both to him

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and to me, as to all men who might wish
to use it, either to read it or to print
it; it would be iniquitous that his
ambition, not content with this benefit,
should deprive me of it, along with other
men; and make that which was once commonly
owned and diffuse among all those who wished
to make use of it, something proper and
concentrated for his own private usage: rather,
this arrogance would justify depriving him of
this benefit altogether. For the civil law,
which referred the crime of ingratitude to God
alone, and to the hatred of other men, the risk
of falling into general contempt, has finally
added its own censure, in the revocation of
the thing which has been given from him who has
proved unworthy of it. And it is ungrateful to
contravene the law of benefit, and to attempt
to steal from the public sphere something which
the munificence of its creator has put there,
in order to appropriate it for oneself. It is
ungrateful towards the man who, through hunger
and sleepless nights, hastened his own death in
order to live again in immortality through his
book, to attempt to stifle, by privilege, the
honest competition between Printers, who vie
amongst themselves to produce the most attractive
edition. Finally, it is ungrateful to begrudge
the book its celebrity, to attempt to reduce the
proliferation of copies,

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and to charge scholars more, which would
certainly happen, since affluence is known
to be the mother of baseness, and costliness
the daughter of monopoly. Such that the
defendant, who is in so many ways ungrateful
and unworthy of the grace accorded to Book-
sellers, might legitimately be deprived of it
entirely; it is even possible that the just
strictness of such a useful example would
permanently deter both him and others from
comparable undertakings. Nevertheless, so that
it cannot be said that we have closed to him
the avenue he wished to close to us, in order
to tread it ourselves alone, and thus to turn
his punishment for his wrongdoing to our own
advantage, we shall settle for a judgement to
this effect: That the printing of this book
will remain free, regardless of letters patent
to the contrary; the effect of which will be
held as null.

So ordered by the Court, by its
ruling of 15 March 1586.


Translation by: Andrew Counter