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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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It is not as a merchant that I speak to you, but as an author whose colleagues have
sometimes consulted me on the use of their talents. If I suggested some great venture
to them, they would not reply ‘But who would read it? Who would buy my work?’, but rather
‘When my book is written, what publisher would take it on?’ Most of these people do not
have a penny, and what they need at present is a second-rate pamphlet which supplies them
instantly with money and bread. Indeed, I could tell you of twenty important and good works
whose authors died before they could find a trader who would take their work on, even at a
low price.
I was telling you earlier that the skilled printer frequently decided to lower his
prices: but there were some stubborn ones who took the opposite course of action, at the
risk of dying in poverty. It is certain that they were making the fortune of the
counterfeiter to whom they drove the greater number of buyers; but what became of these
buyers? Before long, they grew contemptuous of the cheap editions, and they ended up buying
the same book twice; the scholar, who was meant to gain from such editions, was truly
damaged, and the skilled printer’s heirs gathered a small portion of the fruit of his
labours, some time after the death of their ancestor.
Sir, I ask you, if you know a literary man of a certain age, to enquire of him how many
times he has renewed his library and for what reason. Initially, he gives way to his
curiosity and destitution, but it is always good taste which predominates and which chases
the poor-quality edition from his shelves to make space for a good one. In any case, all
these famous printers, whose editions are now widely sought after, died in poverty; and
they were on the point of abandoning their fonts and their presses, when the magistrate’s
justice and the sovereign’s generosity came to their aid.
Torn between their taste for knowledge and for their art, and the fear of being ruined
by greedy competitors, what did these skilled and unfortunate printers do? Among their
remaining manuscripts, they chose a few whose publication would be a success: they
prepared editions of them in secret; they executed the task, and to fend off as far as
possible the piracy which had begun to ruin them and which would have finished them off,
when they were on the point of publishing, they appealed to the monarch and obtained from
him an exclusive privilege for their venture. This, sir, is the first clause of the
booksellers’ code and its first regulation. Before going any further, sir, may I enquire
of you what you disapprove of in the trader’s precautionary measures or in the sovereign’s
favour? ‘This exclusive right,’ you will reply to me, was against common right. I admit
that is true. ‘The manuscript to which it was granted was not the only one in existence,
and another typographer may have had one or could have procured an identical one.’ That
is true, but only in certain respects, because the publication of a work, especially in
those early days of printing, did not suppose only the possession of a single manuscript,
but the collation of a large number, a long, tiresome and expensive task; however, I will
not interrupt you any further, as I do not wish to be pedantic. ‘And’ you will add, ‘it
must have seemed unfair to concede to one what was refused to another.’ Indeed it must,
whether or not the cause of the first occupier and of legitimate possession was ever
pleaded, since this cause was founded on risks and on advances. However, in order that the
exemption from
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
It is not as a merchant that I speak to you, but as an author whose colleagues have
sometimes consulted me on the use of their talents. If I suggested some great venture
to them, they would not reply ‘But who would read it? Who would buy my work?’, but rather
‘When my book is written, what publisher would take it on?’ Most of these people do not
have a penny, and what they need at present is a second-rate pamphlet which supplies them
instantly with money and bread. Indeed, I could tell you of twenty important and good works
whose authors died before they could find a trader who would take their work on, even at a
low price.
I was telling you earlier that the skilled printer frequently decided to lower his
prices: but there were some stubborn ones who took the opposite course of action, at the
risk of dying in poverty. It is certain that they were making the fortune of the
counterfeiter to whom they drove the greater number of buyers; but what became of these
buyers? Before long, they grew contemptuous of the cheap editions, and they ended up buying
the same book twice; the scholar, who was meant to gain from such editions, was truly
damaged, and the skilled printer’s heirs gathered a small portion of the fruit of his
labours, some time after the death of their ancestor.
Sir, I ask you, if you know a literary man of a certain age, to enquire of him how many
times he has renewed his library and for what reason. Initially, he gives way to his
curiosity and destitution, but it is always good taste which predominates and which chases
the poor-quality edition from his shelves to make space for a good one. In any case, all
these famous printers, whose editions are now widely sought after, died in poverty; and
they were on the point of abandoning their fonts and their presses, when the magistrate’s
justice and the sovereign’s generosity came to their aid.
Torn between their taste for knowledge and for their art, and the fear of being ruined
by greedy competitors, what did these skilled and unfortunate printers do? Among their
remaining manuscripts, they chose a few whose publication would be a success: they
prepared editions of them in secret; they executed the task, and to fend off as far as
possible the piracy which had begun to ruin them and which would have finished them off,
when they were on the point of publishing, they appealed to the monarch and obtained from
him an exclusive privilege for their venture. This, sir, is the first clause of the
booksellers’ code and its first regulation. Before going any further, sir, may I enquire
of you what you disapprove of in the trader’s precautionary measures or in the sovereign’s
favour? ‘This exclusive right,’ you will reply to me, was against common right. I admit
that is true. ‘The manuscript to which it was granted was not the only one in existence,
and another typographer may have had one or could have procured an identical one.’ That
is true, but only in certain respects, because the publication of a work, especially in
those early days of printing, did not suppose only the possession of a single manuscript,
but the collation of a large number, a long, tiresome and expensive task; however, I will
not interrupt you any further, as I do not wish to be pedantic. ‘And’ you will add, ‘it
must have seemed unfair to concede to one what was refused to another.’ Indeed it must,
whether or not the cause of the first occupier and of legitimate possession was ever
pleaded, since this cause was founded on risks and on advances. However, in order that the
exemption from
No Transcription available.