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Letters obtained by some Printers
& Booksellers of Paris in the year 1649.

      LOUIS, BY THE GRACE OF GOD, KING OF
FRANCE AND OF NAVARRE. To all those present &
yet to come, Greetings. Recognizing the great disorders
which have crept into the Art of Printing, as it is
nowadays practised in our Kingdom; And that to the detriment
of our Regulations, every day persons who are utterly incapable
of exercising this profession are admitted into it: We have
concluded that an abuse of such great magnitude is certainly
worth our taking the trouble to correct it; so that henceforth
our Reign, which we hope to have announced by other similar
Regulations full of justice & honour, should also be esteemed
for the benefit which good literature [les bonnes lettres] will receive
from it. So few good Books are printed in Paris; & those that are
printed seem to be neglected so manifestly on account of the poor-
quality paper which is used, & for the little proof-reading which
is applied to them, that we can definitely call it a kind of disgrace,
& acknowledge that it is a great loss for our State; And,
furthermore, those of our Subjects who embrace the profession
of Literature are set back in no small measure when they are
forced to look for ancient editions at a very significant cost to
themselves. From this abuse there arises another mischief, namely
the bad example set by the Fathers when educating their children
in the Art of Printing, more to pander to avarice, than to exercise
it honourably; This profession has been abased from day to day &
ever increasingly, so that the Fathers, instead of bringing up their
children in this discipline which requires a great deal of
experience, & a lot of knowledge, are very often forced to
withdraw them from it on account of the great contempt to which
it has fallen; The misery suffered by the Apprentices is, moreover,
so great under their Masters, who care so little for their Art, that it
would be difficult to find any among them with a keen mind & courage,
& who would be capable of working in this field with the sense of
honour that so fine & necessary a Profession should warrant;
Whereas in the previous Century some of the

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greatest & wisest figures considered it a great
honour to serve the public in this occupation which has done
so much for good Literature; From this source arises yet
another misfortune, Which is that as soon as you find one
Printer or one Bookseller who sets store by his vocation, & who,
recognizing its merit & dignity, undertakes [the publication of] a
work [ouvrage] which is worthy of seeing the light of day, with
expenses & diligence, you will see a thousand ‘counterfeit
monsters’ [avortons contrefaits de gens] who, competing with
the former, will have the same work printed on poor-quality
paper, using completely worn-out types, & without proof-reading;
So that by this assiduousness of theirs which is so harmful to
the public, too, they inflict losses on honest Workers, they harm
those who had the intention of doing things well & who had
exerted themselves. This disorder in the public order of our
State gives such great advantages to Foreigners, who, by
doing things better, manage to attract the trade to their
shores; who conduct themselves more enterprisingly & have
Shops in our good Cities; By which means, under
borrowed names, they carry off money from our Kingdom,
where once they were, on the contrary, accustomed to
import from us not just white paper (which they still cannot
do without), but also all kinds of Books which were printed
in our Kingdom in a more agreeable fashion & with greater
accuracy than was the case anywhere else. It has been easy to
conclude that these great abuses have crept in because of the
incapacity of the Masters, which is a result of their all too
great number, & of the little intelligence which the Printers &
Booksellers of our Kingdom have between themselves; Even
though we had sufficiently anticipated this by the Regulations
& by the Interdictions which we had made earlier, specifying
that no unskilled person should be admitted into the Profession,
& that it should be no more than one new [Master] each year.
These Masters have, moreover, taken the liberty to engage as
Apprentices a number of lowly characters [de petites gens], quite
unskilled, badly nourished & of mean birth; in so great a number,
that the inconvenience & disgrace of this become ever more
intolerable with each day that passes; In order to cause these
[Abuses] to cease & restore the finest & most useful of all the
Arts in its splendour, We have arranged that in our Council we
might be shown the Ordinances of our Royal predecessors, as
well as our own, on the subject of Printing, together with the
Statutes & Regulations which from time to time have been
drawn up for the purpose of remedying it; Which having been
seen & heard by us, as well as [reports by] some of the most
intelligent Printers & Booksellers from our good City of Paris,
We have resolved to cause the present Regulation to be
observed strictly

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& to punish, in accordance with the rigour of our Ordinances, those
who, in any manner whatsoever, violate it in future.

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      XXVI. In order to encourage those Booksellers &
Printers who would like to print any of the Church
Fathers, Greek or Latin, or any other works by good
Authors of antiquity in whichever language they may
happen to be written, and to also give them the means
to recoup their expenses, & to continue in an ever
better & better fashion, We want it to be possible for
them to obtain the Privilege of our Great Seal for the
period of time which we deem to be reasonable in view
of the Author’s merit, & this for only one type of volume,
that is, for an in folio, in quarto, in octavo, or any other;
Allowing other Booksellers, Printers or Bookbinders to
obtain our Letters of privilege for printing the same work in
another type of volume, whereby during the said term
which we will have accorded to them, no other Printer
or Bookseller shall be allowed to counterfeit & print it,
nor sell such counterfeits in our Royal lands, under the
pretext that the copy originated from foreign countries,
that the work in question had never been privileged, or
that the term for those which did once have such
privileges, had long since expired, notwithstanding all

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Letters & Regulations that might happen to state otherwise,
on pain of the penalties carried by the said Privilege; on
condition that the said Book is printed on good-quality
paper, using good types, & that it has been accurately
checked, whereby two proof copies of it shall be provided, so
that the quality of the paper & types can be inspected –
one of which proof copies will remain in the possession of
our Chancellor, & the other will have our counter-seal
attached to it, so that it may be consulted [for comparison]
in case the said book comes to be printed differently,
failing which [requirement of deposit] the said Privilege
will be rendered void, always excepting, though, the
Lives of Saints, if they are not newly composed or
translated works; All Roman [Catholic] prayer-books,
revised or non-revised, and likewise Missals, Breviaries,
Diurnals, Psalm-books, Graduals, Antiphonaries & others,
Prayers & Catechisms, which may be printed by all
Booksellers or Printers, on condition that they are produced
using good-quality paper & types, & are accurate; &, further-
more, that they seek approbation for each edition of such
works which they undertake, which approbation shall
consist of a certificate confirming that the edition contains
no major errors which could distort the sense & intention
of the Church; Old ‘Despautaires’,* Dictionaries, Grammars,
& any short books of the lesser genres [livres des basses Classes],
may also be printed by all Booksellers & Printers, provided
that the Rector of the University [of Paris] or
one of the Professors commissioned by him can issue a
certificate confirming that the said books have been
printed well & accurately, failing which approbation for
the former & certificate for the latter – in both cases to
be included inside the said books – we have declared them
to be henceforth subject to confiscation for the benefit
of the poor members of their Guild [Communauté]. As for
Almanacs, they can likewise be printed, on condition that
they contain no prophecies, in conformity with what
we have already decreed, on pain of corporal punishment.
      XXVII. To avoid any surprises, & so that all
Booksellers & Printers know for which books a privilege
has been requested, the person who has obtained such
a privilege is obliged to arrange for a Legal Officer to
hand over a copy of it to the Syndic or to one of the
Adjuncts, who are in their turn obliged to have it
entered in the Guild’s register, which register will be made
available to all who should wish to see it, so that
there is no further competition [for printing a particular
book] & to avoid situations where two Booksellers or
Printers find themselves requesting a privilege for the same book.
      XXVIII. Just as it is our intention to provide the means for
Booksellers & Printers to live honestly from their trade, it is also
essential to ensure that those who devote themselves to literature
[aux lettres] should have books which are well & accurately
printed, & whose prices are reasonable; For this purpose, we
prohibit all Printers & all Booksellers from selling editions of
classic Authors [les vieux Autheurs] more expensively
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*) That is, editions of the famous Latin grammar by Jean Despautère
(d.1520), the Commentarii grammatici, first published by Robert
Etienne in 1537.

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than what they cost to print, under the pretext of any
graces & privileges which they might have obtained from
us, & we likewise enjoin them to offer for sale [bailler] such works
in accordance with the price of other books.
      XXIX. And so as not to miss anything out which
we consider necessary, & to ensure that nobody can
abuse of our generosity, & that those who are more
well-off than others do not undertake the publication of
several books at once, to the detriment of their poorer
colleagues, to whom we also want to give the means
for earning their living by honest work, it is our desire
that the Printers or Booksellers who have obtained
a privilege for any of the ancient books of the kind
described above, should be obliged to proceed to
print it within three months of the said privilege
having been obtained, & to carry out the impression
without any interruptions, on pain of the said
privilege becoming void, the term of which will be
reckoned from the day it is issued.

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Translation by: Luis Sundkvist (pp.1-3, 9-11)