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Diderot's Letter on the book trade, Paris (1763)
Source: Bibliothèque nationale de France : Mss. Fr. (Naf) 24232 n°3
Citation:
Diderot's Letter on the book trade, Paris (1763), Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900), eds L. Bently & M. Kretschmer, www.copyrighthistory.org
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Translation only | Transcription only | Show all | Bundled images as pdf
That which had to happen, and which will always happen in such situations. Competition
made the noblest of enterprises ruinous; it took twenty years to sell through an edition,
whilst half of that time should have sufficed to get through two. If the pirate edition
was inferior to the original edition, as was usually the case, the counterfeiter would
sell his version at a lower price; the destitution of men of letters, a regrettable
condition which is always being discussed, would prefer the cheaper edition to the better
quality one. The counterfeiter would rarely become any richer and the adventurous and
skilled man, crushed by the inept and rapacious man who unexpectedly deprived him of a
gain in proportion to the trouble that he took, to his expenses, to his workforce and to
the risks of his trade, would lose his enthusiasm and his courage.
Sir, we must not get lost in interminable speculation, or oppose vague reasoning to
the facts and the complaints which gave rise to a particular professional code. This is
the history of the early days of the typographical art and the publishing trade, a faithful
image of our own times and of the first causes of regulations whose origin you have already
foreseen.
Tell me, sir, should we have closed our ears to the complaints of the aggrieved,
abandoned them to their discouragement, allowed the problems to remain and awaited the
remedy of time which resolves of its own accord those matters which human prudence manages
to ruin? In that case, let us disregard the study of the past; let us wait patiently for
disorder to run its course, and let us resign ourselves to the discretion of the future,
which indeed brings everything to an end, but which finishes things either well or badly,
and judging by appearances, more often badly than well, since men, despite their natural
laziness, have not yet subscribed to this easy and convenient policy which makes men of
genius and great ministers superfluous.
It is certain that the public seemed to profit from competition, that a man of letters
could have a poorly-produced book for a small amount, and that the skilled printer, after
having fought for a time against the delay of financial returns and the problems which
resulted, frequently determined to reduce his own prices. It would be ridiculous to suppose
that the magistrate assigned to this branch of commerce did not recognise this advantage
and that he would have neglected it, if it had been as real as it seems at first glance;
but do not be mistaken, sir, he soon recognised that it was only temporary and that it
worked to the detriment of the demoralised profession and to the prejudice of authors and
of letters. The skilled printer who lacked reward and the unjust counterfeiter with no
fortune found themselves equally unable to undertake any large venture, and there came a
moment where among even a considerably large number of tradesmen, you would have searched
in vain for two who dared to take on the edition of a folio work. The same is true at
present: the Parisian guild of booksellers and printers is composed of three hundred and
sixty tradesmen; I assure that you would not find ten entrepreneurs among them. I appeal to
Benedictines, scholars, theologians, lawyers, antiquarians, to all those who compose long
works and voluminous collections; and the fact that today we see so many inept editors of
large works working on small ones, so many hacks, so many abridgers of works, so many
mediocre minds finding themselves occupied, so many skilled men laying idle, is as much the
result of the private bookseller’s destitution due to pirate editions and a multitude of
other abuses of his daily income, and reduced to the impossibility of undertaking an
important work whose sales would be long and difficult, as due to laziness and the
superficial spirit of our age.
No Transcription available.
Source: Bibliothèque nationale de France : Mss. Fr. (Naf) 24232 n°3
Citation:
Diderot's Letter on the book trade, Paris (1763), Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900), eds L. Bently & M. Kretschmer, www.copyrighthistory.org
Back | Record | Images | Commentaries: [1]
Translation only | Transcription only | Show all | Bundled images as pdf
That which had to happen, and which will always happen in such situations. Competition
made the noblest of enterprises ruinous; it took twenty years to sell through an edition,
whilst half of that time should have sufficed to get through two. If the pirate edition
was inferior to the original edition, as was usually the case, the counterfeiter would
sell his version at a lower price; the destitution of men of letters, a regrettable
condition which is always being discussed, would prefer the cheaper edition to the better
quality one. The counterfeiter would rarely become any richer and the adventurous and
skilled man, crushed by the inept and rapacious man who unexpectedly deprived him of a
gain in proportion to the trouble that he took, to his expenses, to his workforce and to
the risks of his trade, would lose his enthusiasm and his courage.
Sir, we must not get lost in interminable speculation, or oppose vague reasoning to
the facts and the complaints which gave rise to a particular professional code. This is
the history of the early days of the typographical art and the publishing trade, a faithful
image of our own times and of the first causes of regulations whose origin you have already
foreseen.
Tell me, sir, should we have closed our ears to the complaints of the aggrieved,
abandoned them to their discouragement, allowed the problems to remain and awaited the
remedy of time which resolves of its own accord those matters which human prudence manages
to ruin? In that case, let us disregard the study of the past; let us wait patiently for
disorder to run its course, and let us resign ourselves to the discretion of the future,
which indeed brings everything to an end, but which finishes things either well or badly,
and judging by appearances, more often badly than well, since men, despite their natural
laziness, have not yet subscribed to this easy and convenient policy which makes men of
genius and great ministers superfluous.
It is certain that the public seemed to profit from competition, that a man of letters
could have a poorly-produced book for a small amount, and that the skilled printer, after
having fought for a time against the delay of financial returns and the problems which
resulted, frequently determined to reduce his own prices. It would be ridiculous to suppose
that the magistrate assigned to this branch of commerce did not recognise this advantage
and that he would have neglected it, if it had been as real as it seems at first glance;
but do not be mistaken, sir, he soon recognised that it was only temporary and that it
worked to the detriment of the demoralised profession and to the prejudice of authors and
of letters. The skilled printer who lacked reward and the unjust counterfeiter with no
fortune found themselves equally unable to undertake any large venture, and there came a
moment where among even a considerably large number of tradesmen, you would have searched
in vain for two who dared to take on the edition of a folio work. The same is true at
present: the Parisian guild of booksellers and printers is composed of three hundred and
sixty tradesmen; I assure that you would not find ten entrepreneurs among them. I appeal to
Benedictines, scholars, theologians, lawyers, antiquarians, to all those who compose long
works and voluminous collections; and the fact that today we see so many inept editors of
large works working on small ones, so many hacks, so many abridgers of works, so many
mediocre minds finding themselves occupied, so many skilled men laying idle, is as much the
result of the private bookseller’s destitution due to pirate editions and a multitude of
other abuses of his daily income, and reduced to the impossibility of undertaking an
important work whose sales would be long and difficult, as due to laziness and the
superficial spirit of our age.
No Transcription available.