This is a freely-accessible, publicly-funded digital archive that collects together significant documents relating to the history of copyright law and practice. The documents have been selected by national editors, with the input of an editorial advisory board. Key documents are, where appropriate, transcribed and translated. The editors have written commentaries, explaining the reasons for selecting documents and their significance. The project was launched in 2008, initially funded by the AHRC in relation to 5 countries. Since 2024 it is supported by the AHRC as UK research infrastructure. The archive now extends to more than 20 (including historical and religious) jurisdictions and over 700 primary source documents. They can be browsed by date/language/jurisdiction, or searched.
| 1477* | Tax Exemption for Books (Spain) Commentary: [1] |
| 1487* | Printing Privileges to Monasteries (Spain) Commentary: [1] |
| 1502* | Licensing Rules (Spain) Commentary: [1] |
| 1554* | Royal Charter for Licensing (Spain) Commentary: [1] |
| 1558* | Censorship Rules (Spain) |
| 1559* | Privilege for printing music for the Indies (Spain) Commentary: [1] |
| 1559* | Pérez v. Fernández de Córdoba (Spain) |
| 1604* | Petition for licence and privilege by Cervantes (Spain) Commentary: [1] |
| 1605* | Don Quixote’s Privilege (Spain) |
| 1605* | Don Quixote’s Privilege Extensions (Spain) |
| 1614* | Publishing Agreement: the Spanish translation of Ludovico Blosio oeuvre (Spain) |
| 1677* | Pirated edition of Calderón de la Barca's comedias (Spain) Commentary: [1] |
| 1691* | Pseudo-Vera Tassis: Fake edition (Spain) |
| 1711* | Legal Deposit at the Royal Library (Spain) |
| 1752* | Juan Curiel as Censor (Spain) |
| 1752* | Privilege Tranfers: Contract between Antonio Sanz and his bookseller (Spain) |
| 1762* | Free Trade Regulations (Spain) |
| 1763* | Rules for Printers and Book Merchants' Guild in Madrid (Spain) |
| 1792* | Barcelona Newspaper' Printing Privilege (Spain) |
| 1813* | Rules to preserve the property of authors over their works (Spain) |
| 1834* | Privilege to the Royal Lithographic Establishment (Spain) |
| 1837* | Royal Order on Dramatic Copyright (Spain) Commentary: [1] |
| 1837* | Royal Order on Music Copyright (Spain) |
| 1838* | Remarks on Literary Property (Spain) |
| 1847* | Literary Property Act (Spain) Commentary: [1] |
| 1848* | Copyright Formalities: Registration (Spain) |
| 1854* | Franco-Spanish Bilateral Copyright Treaty (Spain) |
| 1857* | Anglo-Spanish Copyright Treaty (Spain) Commentary: [1] |
| 1859* | Casado's PhD on Copyright (Spain) |
| 1861* | Supreme Court on Originality (Spain) |
| 1868* | Colonial Copyright Extensions (Spain) Commentary: [1] |
| 1872* | Supreme Court on Artistic Copyright (Spain) |
| 1877* | Supreme Court on Music Copyright (Spain) |
| 1878* | Spanish Copyright Formalities: Certificates (Spain) |
| 1879* | Copyright Act (Spain) Commentary: [1] |
| 1880* | Copyright Regulations (Spain) Commentary: [1] |
| 1882* | Danvila’s Copyright Treatise (Spain) Commentary: [1] |
| 1884* | Bilateral Copyright Treaty between Spain and El Salvador (Spain) Commentary: [1] |
| 1885* | First Inscriptions of Works at the Spanish Copyright Office (Spain) |
| 1887* | International Literary Congress in Madrid (Spain) |
| 1888* | Civil Code (Spain) Commentary: [1] |
| 1890* | Copyright Pocketbooks (Spain) Commentary: [1] |
| 1894* | Copyright Formalities: Bulletin (Spain) |
| 1895* | Núñez de Arce’s Will (Spain) Commentary: [1] |
| 1898* | Treaty of Peace between the United States and Spain (Spain) Commentary: [1] |
