PRIMARY SOURCES

ON COPYRIGHT

(1450-1900)

Licensing Rules, Madrid (1502)

Source: Biblioteca Nacional de España; BNE. pages 122-123 from Novísima recopilación de las Leyes de España. Madrid : [s.n.], 1805-1807)- Signature 1/6722.

Citation:
Licensing Rules, Madrid (1502), Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900), eds L. Bently & M. Kretschmer, www.copyrighthistory.org

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Chapter 1 Page 1

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                        TITLE XVI
      
            Of Books and its prints, licences and other requirements
                  for its introduction and circulation
      





      
                  LAW I
      
      Ferdinand and Isabel. Toledo
            Pragm. 8 July 1502.
      
Formalities that should precede printing
      and selling books from the kingdom and
      authorising foreign ones
      
      We hereby order and uplhold that,
from now on, no bookseller or mould
printer, or merchant, or agent of the
above, shall dare mould print, whether
directly or indirectly, any book from
any faculty or reading matter or work,
or Romance, without having first
obtained a licence and special mandate
from us to do so, or from the following
persons: in Valladolid or Granada from
the Presidents who reside, or would reside
in each one of our Audiencias; and in the
city of Toledo, the Archbishop of Toledo;
and in the city of Seville, the Archbishop
of Sevilla; and in the city of Granada, the
Archbishop of Granadada; and in Burgos
the Bishop of Burgos; and in Salamanca
and Zamora, the Bishop of Salamanca:
neither should they even dare sell in the
above-mentioned kingdoms any of the
mould books they brought from abroad,
from any faculty or matter that is
even another short or long work,

whether in Latin or Romance, without
having it read and examined by the afore-
mentioned persons, or by those they
commission, and those who have licence
to do so. Otherwise, by doing so, those
who have printed them without licence,
licencia, or who sell those books brought in
from abroad without licence, shall forfeit
all the above-mentioned books. These will
be all be burned publicly in the city or village
square or place where they were made, or
where they were sold. In addition, they will
lose the price they would have received,
and would have been given and they will
pay a penalty for the same amount in
maravedís as the books that were burnt are
worth: we order this penalty to be distributed
into three parts; one part for the person
who reports the abuse, another for the Judge
that decides the case and the other for
our Chamber and Exchequer; and in
addition we prohibit them them to continue
in this trade. And we entrust and order that
the mentioned Prelates diligently arrange
for these books that would have been sold
or printed, to be read and examined
whatever their quality might be,
whether large or small, in Latin or Romance:
and it must be seen which Faculty the works
that are to be printed came from. It shall be
upheld that those works that are apocryphal
and superstitious, and condemned, and vain
and useless



Chapter 1 Page 2

      





      
      
      
shall not be printed; and if they have been
brought in already printed from outside
our kingdoms, it shall be upheld that they
are not sold: and others that are authentic,
and of proven things, and those that are
not forbidden to be read, or that raise no
doubts, that are now to be printed and
then sold, are compiled in a volume and
are examined by a very faithful Jurist with
a very good conscience from the Faculty
from where such books and readings
came; who, under oath, which shall be
made first and which is made well and
faithfully, should verify if such a work
is real, and if the reading is authentic or
proven, and is allowed to be read, and
that it raises no doubts. In this case,
a licence is granted for printing and
selling them; after printing, they must
first be checked to see if it is accurate:
this Jurist must be paid a just salary for
his work; even though it is very
moderate so that booksellers and printers,
and merchants and agents of the book,
who must pay it, are not thereby
damaged to any great extent.
(law 23. tit. 7
book.1 R)





Translation by: Kay Leach

    

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