# Primary Sources on Copyright - Record Viewer
Fragments on the Freedom of the Press, Paris (1776)

Source: Cambridge University Library : Condorcet, 'Fragments sur la liberté de la presse' (1776), in Oeuvres (Firmin Didot 1847) tome II, p. 253

Citation:
Fragments on the Freedom of the Press, Paris (1776), Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900), eds L. Bently & M. Kretschmer, www.copyrighthistory.org

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313

he ordered the doctors not to print anything without
permission, quoting as reason the disorder which their
fanatic books could cause in the State. It is thus
against the theologians that censorship was established.
      One would see: inquisitorial-oriented countries
plunged into ignorance of all the sciences, having only
crude skills, inept in the art of war and navigation, like-
wise in policy and trade; one would see that a little while
before the invention of printing, even in Italy, to which
the rest of Europe owes its enlightenment, the sciences could
hardly find a refuge in Florence, in Venice, in Milan; one
would see Galileo forced to ask for forgiveness for having
made discoveries, or for having shown great truths; whole
volumes containing the catalogue of books which the pope
prohibited from being read; and all the good books,
especially those in which human rights and those of the
sovereigns are established, were put on this list; one would
see Descartes leaving his fatherland to escape from
persecution by priests; obliged once again to avoid the
persecution of the protestant ministers, and to go and seek
refuge in the palace of Christina; Bayle, compelled to leave
his country, because he did not believe in the pope, and
coerced into misery in Holland for having praised the popes;
Fontenelle threatened of persecution because he dared to
answer a Jesuit, and not to admit to him that God, in order
to better mislead men, granted the devil the gift of being
a prophet; Gianone finishing his life in exile devoted to
defend the rights of his

    

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