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Book trade regulations (1649)
Source: Archives nationales : AD 303 (document conservé aux archives nationales, Paris)
Citation:
Book trade regulations (1649), Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900), eds L. Bently & M. Kretschmer, www.copyrighthistory.org
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2
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
No Transcription available.
Source: Archives nationales : AD 303 (document conservé aux archives nationales, Paris)
Citation:
Book trade regulations (1649), 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
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
No Transcription available.