PRIMARY SOURCES

ON COPYRIGHT

(1450-1900)

Total Ban on Book Imports, Denmark–Norway, Copenhagen (1596)

Source: National Archives of Denmark, Danske Kancelli: Sjællandske tegnelser (1572-1660) B57G: 1590 - 1596 mm.

Citation:
Total Ban on Book Imports, Denmark–Norway, Copenhagen (1596), Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900), eds L. Bently & M. Kretschmer, www.copyrighthistory.org

Back | Record | Images | No Commentaries
Translation only | Transcription only | Show all | Bundled images as pdf

2 translated pages

Chapter 1 Page 1


It has come to our attention that booksellers in these realms (and even in our realm of Norway) are endeavouring to import Danish books translated from German or Latin into Danish and printed abroad, in spite of the warnings and prohibitions previously issued by our beloved father. This is done only because of the greed of the booksellers, for they are only concerned with their own profit, and do not care what falsehoods and delusions may be spread among the public who may come to read these books. Furthermore, we have discovered that these books are found in various places, translated incorrectly to such an extent that the Danish language is distorted to the point of being almost unintelligible. We therefore ask you to keep a record of how many of deal in these books in your town (in our market town of Copenhagen, and in your jurisdiction).




Chapter 1 Page 2


We urge you to seriously instruct them to swear an oath, with their finger raised, that they will not import any books, whether newly published or translated from German or Latin into Danish and then printed abroad, and that they will not sell any such books in this realm. This must be done so as not to spread misleading or false information to the public who might read these books. If anyone still dares to import such books in this way, you can charge them with breaking the law, and they will lose possession of any books they have with them. If any of them have such books in their book stores, they must dispose of them immediately and not sell or give them to anyone else, and they must abide by this so as not to be held accountable.




Translation by: Mersiha Bruncevic, Geoff Hawkes [E-Lango]

    


Copyright History resource developed in partnership with:


Our Partners


Copyright statement

You may copy and distribute the translations and commentaries in this resource, or parts of such translations and commentaries, in any medium, for non-commercial purposes as long as the authorship of the commentaries and translations is acknowledged, and you indicate the source as Bently & Kretschmer (eds), Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900) (www.copyrighthistory.org).

With the exception of commentaries that are available under a CC-BY licence (compliant with UKRI policy) you may not publish individual documents or parts of the database for any commercial purposes, including charging a fee for providing access to these documents via a network. This licence does not affect your statutory rights of fair dealing.

Although the original documents in this database are in the public domain, we are unable to grant you the right to reproduce or duplicate some of these documents in so far as the images or scans are protected by copyright or we have only been able to reproduce them here by giving contractual undertakings. For the status of any particular images, please consult the information relating to copyright in the bibliographic records.


Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900) is co-published by Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge, 10 West Road, Cambridge CB3 9DZ, UK and CREATe, School of Law, University of Glasgow, 10 The Square, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK