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Johannes of Speyer's Printing Monopoly, Venice (1469)

Source:
scanned from the manuscript held in the Venetian State Archives: ASV, NC, reg. 11, c. 55r

Citation:
Johannes of Speyer's Printing Monopoly (1469), Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900), eds L. Bently & M. Kretschmer, www.copyrighthistory.org

Record Images


Record-ID:
i_1469

Full title
Printing monopoly granted to a German master printer, Johannes of Speyer, conceding a five-year exclusive right to print in Venice and its dominions

Full title original language
N/A

Abstract
The first known record of a printing privilege granted by a European government. Unique in the history of Venetian copyright, for it concedes an extensive commercial monopoly over the entire art of printing. The commentary describes the early laissez-faire attitudes of the government towards the printing trade which combined with the natural play of economic forces to foster a thoroughly capitalistic structure of the book market in Venice. From this point of view, the emerging system of printing privileges could be defined as a primitive legal mechanism for the construction and maintenance of property and the re-introduction of scarcity into the book market.

Bibliography
Brown, Horatio Fortini, "The Venetian Printing Press 1469-1800: An Historical Study Based upon Documents for the Most Part Hitherto Unpublished" (London: John C. Nimmo, 1891)
Castellani, Carlo, "I privilegi di stampa e la proprietà letteraria in Venezia: Dalla introduzione della stampa nella città fin verso la fine del secolo XVIII" (Venice: Fratelli Visentini, 1888)
Gerulaitis, Leonardas V., "Printing and Publishing in fifteenth-century Venice" (Chicago: American Library Association, 1976)
Pozza, Neri, "L'editoria Veneziana da Giovanni da Spira ad Aldo Manuzio", in "La stampa degli incunaboli nel Veneto, Saggi e note" (Verona: Tipografia Editoriale Aldo Manuzio, 1983), 9-35

Related documents in this database

Author
N/A

Publisher
N/A

Location
Venice

Year
1469

Language
Latin

Source
scanned from the manuscript held in the Venetian State Archives: ASV, NC, reg. 11, c. 55r

Physical description
1 folio parchment; 38.5 x 28.5 cm; bound in a wooden board codex; handwritten

Illustrations tables
N/A

Persons referred to
Cicero, Marcus Tullius (106 B.C.-43 B.C.)
Contarini, Bertuccio (fl.1469)
Dandolo, Francesco (fl.1469)
Gradenigo, Angelo (fl.1469)
Johannes of Speyer (d.1470)
Morosini, Giacopo (fl.1469)
Pliny 'the Elder' (23-79)
Venerio, Angelo (fl.1469)

Persons referred to in commentary
Augustine, St (354-430)
Barbaro, Daniele (fl.1493)
Barbaro, Ermolao (1454-1493/95)
Busca, Ercole (d.1484)
Bussi, Giovanne Andrea (1417-1475)
Cicero, Marcus Tullius (106 B.C.-43 B.C.)
Donatus, Aelius (fl.375)
Granjon, Robert (fl.1545-1588)
Gutenberg, Johannes (c.1400-1468)
Henri II (1519-1559)
Jenson, Nicolas (1420-1480)
Johannes of Speyer (d.1470)
John of Cologne (fl.1471-1487)
Manutius, Aldus (1449/50-1515)
Navagero, Andrea (1483-1529)
Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464)
Paganini, Paganino de (c.1450-1538)
Pannartz, Arnold (d.c.1476)
Petrucci, Ottaviano (1466-1539)
Planella, Antonio (fl.1470)
Plato (c.428 B.C.-c.348 B.C.)
Pliny 'the Elder' (23-79)
Sabellico, Marco Antonio (c.1436-1506)
Sanuto, Marino, 'the Younger' (1466-1536)
Sweynheym, Konrad (fl.1467)
Ugo da Carpi (c.1455-c.1525)
Valdarfer, Christopher (fl.1471)
Windelin of Speyer (fl.1469-1487)

Places referred to
Venice

Places referred to in commentary
Bologna
Europe
Ferrara
Florence
Germany
Italy
Lyon
Mainz
Milan
Naples
Netherlands
Padua
Paris
Subiaco (Rome)
Venice

Legislation referred to
N/A

Legislation referred to in commentary
N/A

Cases referred to
N/A

Cases referred to in commentary
N/A

Institutions referred to
Venetian Senate

Institutions referred to in commentary
Abbey of St Benedict, Subiaco
Paris Mint
Venetian Collegio (cabinet of government), in the Doge's palace
Venetian Grand Council (Maggiore Consiglio)
Venetian Senate

Key words
book market
book trade
censorship
classics, Greek and Latin
free trade
inventions
manuscript
monopoly
patents, for invention
penalties
printing, history of
privileges, Venetian
translations, of classic works
typography
Università di Stampatori e Librai (Venetian Guild of Printers and Booksellers)

Responsible editor
Joanna Kostylo




Copyright status

Original document is out of copyright. In so far as these scans are protected by copyright, they are made available on the same terms as translations and commentaries (see home page).




Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900), Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge, 10 West Road, Cambridge CB3 9DZ, UK