Commentary on:
Imperial Privilege for Arnolt Schlick (1511)

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Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900)

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Identifier: d_1511a

 

Imperial Privilege for Arnolt Schlick, printed in his book of 1511 Mirror for Organ-builders and Organists (Spiegel der Orgelmacher und Organisten), applying to both this treatise and a musical edition of 1512: Tablatures of Several Canticles and Songs To Be Played on Organs and Lutes (Tabulaturen etlicher Lobgesang und lidlein uff die orgeln un lauten).

 

Friedemann Kawohl

Centre for Intellectual Property Policy & Management, Bournemouth University, UK

 

Please cite as:
Kawohl, F. (2008) ‘Commentary on an Imperial privilege for Arnolt Schlick (1511)', in Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900), eds L. Bently & M. Kretschmer, www.copyrighthistory.org

 

1. Full title

2. Abstract

3. The text of the privilege in the 1511 book and the reference to the privilege in the 1512 Tablatures

4. The 1511 privilege for Konrad Peutinger

5. Arnolt Schlick and Maximilian I

6. Imperial privileges for musical authors before 1590

7. Statutory copies, the installation of the Frankfurt Book Commissar and the standardisation of the Imperial privilege system around 1590

8. References

 

1. Full title
Imperial privilege for Arnolt Schlick, printed in his book of 1511 Mirror for Organ-builders and Organists (Spiegel der Orgelmacher und Organisten), applying to both this treatise and a musical edition of 1512: Tablatures of Several Canticles and Songs To Be Played on Organs and Lutes (Tabulaturen etlicher Lobgesang und lidlein uff die orgeln un lauten).

 

2. Abstract
The privilege for Arnolt Schlick is the first Imperial privilege written in German. The official document has not survived, but the full text of the privilege is printed at the beginning of the book. Protection for ten years is granted for this treatise which deals with organ-making and playing, as well as for a prospective edition of sheet music. Considerations of public benefit are highlighted, as is a public finances aspect: namely, that well manufactured organs might help to save public expenditure.

 

Under the reign of Maximilian I, most privileges were granted on the grounds of personal relations between authors and the Imperial court. From the available historical records Schlick comes across as a famous musician, and Maximilian as a ruler of great culture who was particularly interested in books and typographic questions. This commentary will look at Emperor Maximilian's interest in the arts and sciences as a basis for granting privileges; at other sixteenth-century privileges for composers; at early requests for statutory copies; and at the standardisation of the Imperial privilege system around 1590.

 

3. The text of the privilege in the 1511 book and the reference to the privilege in the 1512 Tablatures
Imperial privileges always start with a list of the Emperor's titles and a list of those who are meant to obey and implement the instructions. The author's request for protection is mentioned. The relevant phrase "has brought to our knowledge", as well as the affectionate words: "Ours and the Empire's dear and faithful master Arnolt Schlick", may indicate the Emperor's esteem for the author as a leading figure in the Humanist movement in scholarship and the arts. The same formula, however, was also used in privileges for authors who were not that close to the Imperial court. On page 3 the relationship between the source of authority and the petitioner is made clear: "he has humbly appealed to and requested Us to graciously provide him with Our Imperial Privilege". The details of the reprinting prohibition are outlined, and, in accordance with the subject's "humble" request and Imperial "grace", the provisions are endowed with the requisite authority. Protection is granted for ten years - the longest such period in sixteenth-century Imperial privileges. Infringers of this prohibition are threatened with confiscation of their illicit copies. It is noteworthy that not only reprinting activity as such is penalised but also the distribution of copies imported from the "welsche" lands. Like the word ‘Welsh' in English, the German ‘welsch' was originally used for a strange language and those who spoke it. In the sixteenth century, it could denote both Italian and French. In this context, however, it is probably meant to protect Schlick from imports from Venice rather than from Paris or other French towns.

 

The merits of the privileged author are mentioned, and, in order to demonstrate his modesty, as it were, it is also emphasised how the work was commissioned on the "assiduous request and demand" of several noblemen. Public benefit aspects of the publication are highlighted: the author is said to be willing to share his knowledge by means of his book (p. 3), the main purpose of which is to "praise and honour God". Even a consideration of public finances is referred to: well-manufactured organs needing little repair-work could help to save public expenditure. The privilege is undersigned by "Serentiner", a chancellor of Emperor Maxmilian, who is referred to as Zyprian (also Cyprian) Northeim von Serntein (c. 1457-1524).[1]

 

The privileged person is not a printer or publisher, just the author on his own. He is to benefit from the privilege in two ways: protection from reprinting may help him to find a printer (the phrase "print [...] with a sharp and legible type" [p.3] clearly reflecting Maximilian's enthusiasm for typefaces), and it may also afford him some reward for all his "labour and sorrow".[2] Maximilian's privilege for Arnolt Schlick and his works is typical of early-modern protection against reprinting, whereby a limited protection is arbitrarily granted by a ruler seeking to reward a loyal subject. Like many other early sixteenth-century authors whose works were privileged, Schlick had met the Emperor personally and was employed as an organ consultant by various Electoral courts and aristocratic patrons across the Holy Roman Empire.

 

The privilege as printed in the Mirror for Organ-builders also explicitly covers an edition of music which was going to come out soon. In fact, the music print was published in 1512, under the title Tablatures of Several Canticles and Songs To Be Played on Organs and Lutes,[3] by Peter Schöffer Jr. who can by identified mainly from music prints which appeared in Mainz (until 1517), Worms (1527), and Venice (1541). His father Peter Schöffer (c. 1425-1503) had been the son-in-law and successor of Johannes Fust (1400-1466), the partner of Johannes Gutenberg. The reference on the title page to Mainz as the "original place of printing" is an early reflection of how the invention of printing was coming to be viewed historically.[4] A poem on the second page of the music print refers to the privilege:

 

"This artistic book and ornate work,
Planted on Orpheus's mountain,
Printed for the sake of God and the world,
Are evidence of what herewith is announced:
That the Imperial Majesty
Has privileged and graced this book,
So that no printer is to reprint it
During the next ten years, on pain of great revenge
And punishment, as well as a great fine,
As it is written in the mandate,
Which I herewith make known to you,
So that no one can claim by way of excuse
That it had not been announced to him.
Whosoever violates this, shall be [subject] to severe [punishment]..."

 

The first three lines of the poem (which in the original German is arranged in rhyming couplets) praise the work in question. The following eleven lines then deal with the content of the privilege, the term of protection, and the punishment threatened for infringements. The full text of the privilege as presented in Arnolt Schlick's 1511 treatise is not reproduced in the music print. Neither does the title- page bear any reference to the privilege. So it is only the poem which invokes a protection against reprinting granted by privilege.

 

 

4. The 1511 privilege for Konrad Peutinger
The privilege for Schlick is the first Imperial privilege published in German, but only a month earlier a Latin privilege had been issued in favour of the Augsburg- based antiquarian Konrad Peutinger: this is the first Imperial privilege recorded in full text (d_1511c). Peutinger[5] (1465-1547) was a lawyer by training (having studied in Basel and Italy) and was appointed a town clerk and judge in his native city of Ausgburg, as well as an adviser to Maximilian I, whom he accompanied on many political missions. His scholarly works include editions of historical and legal sources. The privilege in question was undersigned by the Emperor in Freiburg and dated 1 March 1511. It provides a ten-year term of protection and covers three works:

 

(a) Jordanes (c. 500-600) De origine actibusque Getarum (On the Origin and History of the Goths), and (b) Paulus Diaconus (known as ‘Paul the Deacon') (c. 720-799): Historia Langobardorum, both of which works are included in the Augsburg edition of 1515, as well as (c) Peutinger's edition of a map of the Roman road network in the 3rd century, which was later called Tabula Peutingeriana[6] and is referred to in the privilege as "Itinerarii Antonini Caesaris".

 

Peutinger is referred to as "Our faithful counsellor" ("Consiliarius noster fidelis"), and his assiduity in collecting these works is praised ("sua diligentia conquisiuerit"). The books and the maps ("libros & chartas") are not to be printed and sold in the Imperial lands "without our aforementioned Counsellor's will and consent" ("sine praedicti Consiliarii nostri voluntate & assensu") during "the ten successive years from the day that our Counsellor arranges for these books to be printed" ("per continuum decennium subsequens ab ea die qua dicti libri ex ordinatione ipsius Consiliarii nostri impressi fuerint").

 

 

5. Arnolt Schlick and Maximilian I
Most sixteenth-century authors who were granted book privileges had personal relations with Maximilian I and his successors on the Imperial throne: Charles V, Ferdinand I, Maximilian II and Rudolf II. Schlick is known to have met Maximilian at least once: in Frankfurt, in 1486, when he was playing the organ during the ceremony in which Maximilian was elected King of the Romans. It is not clear whether memories of this encounter encouraged the musician twenty-five years later when applying for a privilege for his treatise, or whether it was rather Philip ‘the Upright' (1448-1508), Elector Palatine of the Rhine, who arranged for this application to be written on behalf of his blind court musician. The fact that Schlick was one of the most honoured musicians at the Palatine court in Heidelberg probably contributed to the success of his application. The text of the privilege refers to Philip's request for the book's publication. Philip, however, is said to have intrigued against Emperor Maximilian during the Swabian (or Swiss) War of 1499, so the question remains open as to whether Maximilian privileged Schlick's book because of, or despite, the musician's close relations to his political rival Philip.

 

An outline of Schlick's and Maximilian's biographies, as well as of the Emperor's interest in the arts and book production, can help with understanding the conditions under which book privileges were granted during Maximilian's reign. Arnolt Schlick (b. 1460 in the Heidelberg area, d. after 1521) was an organist and composer who was blind for much of his life, according to the foreword to his collection of Tablatures of Songs of Praise for the Organ and Lute,[7] the other work referred to in the privilege. In 1509, he received an appointment for life at the Palatine court in Heidelberg. Schlick's Mirror for Organ-builders and Organists is the first treatise in German on the construction and playing of organs. Over its ten chapters it covers topics such as the size and shape of organ-pipes, the construction of bellows, wind production, and metallurgy. His system of equal tuning is regarded as a precursor of the theory of "well temperament" elaborated in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries by Andreas Werckmeister and Johann Philipp Kirnberger. Schlick's compositions include works for the lute, songs for four voices, and organ compositions, some of them with elaborate and complex pedal parts.

 

Maximilian I (b. 22 March 1459 in Wiener Neustadt, d. 12 January 1519) was elected King of the Romans on 16 February 1486 in Frankfurt and crowned in Aachen on 9 April of that year. On the death of his father Frederick III in 1493, he became head of the House of Habsburg and was elected Emperor. To the ancestral Habsburg possessions in Austria he added the Netherlands (by his marriage, in 1477, with Mary, heiress of Burgundy), as well as Hungary and Bohemia through treaties and military pressure. Thus, he laid the ground for the greatest extension which the Habsburg Empire would reach under his successor, his grandson Charles V.

 

Maximilian[8] was a generous patron of the arts and sciences. He paved the way for Humanist scholarship at the University of Vienna, and his own main scholarly interests were in astronomy, history, and the genealogy of the Habsburg family. He employed Humanist scholars like Celtis (cf. d_1501), Peutinger and Pirckhaimer, and maintained a famous chapel with court composers such as Heinrich Isaac, Ludwig Senfl, and the organ player Paul Hofhaymer. Maximilian had a particular interest in books. He dictated drafts of the poetic allegories (Weisskunig and Theuerdank) and of a treatise on hunting (Geheimes Jagdbuch), which were then completed by professional writers. Of his Prayer Book of 1513 only ten copies were printed, five of which have been preserved: one is embellished with ink drawings by Dürer and other artists. The chivalric novel Theuerdank is an allegory of Maximilian's journey to Burgundy to court his later wife Mary, the daughter of Charles the Bold. Maximilian's draft of Theuerdank was elaborated by several writers. The final editing touches were added by the Nuremberg patrician Melchior Pfinzing, who is mentioned as an author in the first edition (1517) of Theuerdank, published by the Augsburg-based printer and ‘Imperial Court Printer' Hans Schönsperger the Elder (d. 1520). All 40 copies of the first Theuerdank edition were printed on parchment. The book was adorned with 118 woodprints, made by Leonhard Beck, Hans Schäufelin, Hans Burgkmair and other artists of the Dürer school. New typefaces for Maximilian's books based on traditional "Gothic" fonts were drafted by his secretary Vinzenz Rockner. An advanced version of the typeface was elaborated by Hieronymus Andreae (d. 1556) on the basis of earlier drafts by Johannes Neudörffer the Elder (1497-1563). The ‘Fraktur' variant of Gothic script, as it later came to be known, was used for the first time in Albrecht Dürer's Der Triumph (1522), and, soon overtaking the older Schwabacher font, it became the most commonly used typeface for German books in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. For his cenotaph tomb in the Innsbruck Hofkirche (Imperial Church) Maximilian commissioned what is now regarded as the most prominent tomb memorial for a European sovereign.

 

6. Imperial privileges for musical authors before 1590
The 1511 privilege printed in Schlick's Mirror for Organ-builders and Organists referred to another musical work by the same author which was going to be published soon: the Tablatures, which actually appeared in Mainz 1512. Apart from the privilege for Schlick, ten other Imperial privileges granted to musical authors have been identified for the period up to 1590,[9] by which time the Imperial privileging practice began to become standardised. "Originality" in the modern sense of the word was not required. On the contrary, some privileges were explicitly granted for compilations which included works by other composers. Most of the privileged authors had close relations to the Imperial court or other Electoral and princely courts in the Empire (they might, for example, be employed as court musicians). Applications and privilege texts also often refer to a certain amount of labour, diligence, and/or capital involved in the publication.

 

1. A privilege of 15 May 1535 refers to Hans Neusidler as an editor rather than an author: "he most humbly reports how he has gathered, from experienced and learned musicians, many works for the lute and similar string instruments, which until then had not been brought to light, and collected these so as to print and publish them for the benefit of the young and all lovers of music."[10] The five-year-privilege was renewed for another five years in 1543 on the grounds of Neusidler's report "that he had added to, and improved, these works in many respects, and therefore wanted to republish them".[11]

 

2. Sigmund Salminger was granted a five-year privilege on 4 October 1539 to protect his collection of vocal and instrumental music, on the grounds of his "unique diligence and assiduousness".[12]

 

4. Melchior Neusidler, son of the aforementioned Hans, was granted a ten-year privilege "so that he might derive suitable benefit and satisfaction from the effort, costs, and labour which he had expended".[13] The document signed in Augsburg on 16 July 1559[14] refers to his production "of lute music in several volumes" and explicitly includes "new, improved, and corrected editions".[15] Infringements were to be punished by a fine of 10 gold marks, half of which was to be paid to Neusidler, the other half to the Imperial Chamber.

 

5. Pieter Maessens (Petrus Massenus) of Massenberg, musical director at the Imperial court, received a general privilege without a specified term of protection on 13 August 1562 for the "numerous and outstanding works of music"[16] which he had collected and/or composed.

 

6. Pietro Joanellus, who was then a member of the court chapel, received a privilege on 26 July 1565, on the grounds of his "great diligence and labour", to protect "several tested [pieces of] music" (i.e. probably not composed by Joanellus himself) that he had "brought to light".[17]

 

7. Bálint Bakfark, a lute player at the Jagiellonian court in Vilnius from 1549 to 1565, was privileged on 16 July 1565 for his Krakow Lute-Book for a period of 12 years. The title-page refers to both the Imperial privilege and a royal Polish one, granted by Sigismund II Augustus.

 

8. Christian Hollander was court musician to Ferdinand I and Ferdinand II. In a letter of 3 July 1566 to his elder brother, the Emperor Maximilian II, Archduke Ferdinand II of Austria gives a favourable opinion on Hollander's request for a six-year privilege. Nothing came of the latter, however, since the planned collection of works was never published.

 

9. Orlandus Lassus, or Orlando di Lasso (c. 1530-1594), one of the most famous composers of his time, spent most of his life (after 1563) at the Bavarian court. During a stay in Paris, he managed to receive a royal French ten-year privilege on 25 August 1575 for "all and sundry of the works he has written and composed so far, and for any he will write and compose in future".[18] This was an exceptional arrangement, especially for a country like France, where royal privileges were closely linked to the censors' approval and were therefore normally only granted for works after they had been printed. In 1570, Maximilian conferred on him a patent of nobility.[19] The Imperial privilege of 15 June 1581, similar to the earlier one granted by the French Crown, covered "henceforth all and sundry compositions and songs which the aforesaid Orlando di Lasso has written so far and those he will write in future".[20]

 

10. Jacobus Gallus received an Imperial privilege for six years in June 1587, and one for ten years on 19 March 1588, applying generally to his "works of music". The latter is the first example of an Imperial privilege in which the reprinting of arrangements is explicitly forbidden, since it covered "reprints without his consent, in total or in parts, be they similar to, or imitate in some other way, the form or character [of the original]".[21]

 

 

7. Statutory copies, the installation of the Frankfurt Book Commissar and the standardisation of the Imperial privilege system around 1590
Sixteenth-century privileges were unique in many respects. The particular merits of the privileged author were often mentioned, and the provisions were quite different in each case. Some did specify a penalty, others didn't; the term of protection was either 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 or 10 years;[22] and the places where the privileges were issued varied depending on the residence of the Emperor and his court. (Of the ten privileges for musicians listed above, four were signed in Vienna, three in Prague, and one in Strasbourg, Nuremberg and Augsburg respectively.)

 

Demands for statutory copies to be provided, the levying of fees, and the installation of a Book Commissar in Frankfurt, can be regarded as signs of a standardisation of the privileging system. Early sixteenth -century privileges were granted without any service being demanded in return. But from around 1590 the beneficiaries had to pay 10 guilders for the protection granted to them,[23] and had to pledge themselves to deliver one copy, according to the Imperial Book statute of 1608 (See: d_1608). Later the number of copies expected was three or five. Periodicals often had be delivered in 18 copies, probably because the members of the Imperial Court Council (‘Reichshofrat', also referred to as the Aulic Council) in Vienna, who were usually about eighteen in number, were personally interested in these publications.[24]

 

In 1569, the Archbishop of Mainz selected and appointed the first Frankfurt Book Commissar ("Bücherkommissar") from the St Bartholomew monastery in Frankfurt, entrusting him with the task of acting on behalf of the Emperor as the authority responsible for censorship and privilege matters during the Frankfurt fair. (It should be noted that although the city councillors of the Free Imperial City of Frankfurt were Lutheran, the monasteries in the area had come under the supervision of the Catholic Archbishop of Mainz after the defeat of the Schmalkaldic League in 1531). In 1579, the Emperor appointed his treasurer Johann Vest from the Imperial Chamber Court at Speyer (Cf. d_1533) as Book Commissar for the 1579 fair. The dean of the St Bartholomew monastery Johann Steinmetz was appointed as his deputy and as a censor.[25]

However, as Eisenhardt has pointed out, it was not before 1597 that the post of Book Commissar became a regular appointment, involving work throughout all the year and not just during the fair.[26] From that year onwards the publishers, before they could open their stands, had to provide the Book Commissar with a complete list and copies of all the books they were going to sell: copies were then sent to the Vienna Court Council.[27] During the seventeenth century the Book Commissar would also be commissioned by the Court Council to investigate and negotiate out-of-court settlements in reprinting cases.[28] An Imperial decree of 1608 (Cf. d_1608) included a reminder of the duty to deliver copies of both privileged and unprivileged books. A general obligation to deliver copies of all books published in the German lands to Vienna was confirmed in an Imperial decree of 1624, but it was apparently only the privileged books which were regularly delivered. The system of delivering copies for deposit in Vienna thus could not work very effectively, since less than 1% of all books produced in the Imperial lands between 1501 and 1806 were privileged.[29]

Two privileges for composers, issued in 1591 and 1592 respectively, are among the first to require copies for deposit. In a letter to the Emperor, the composer Hans Leo Hassler had applied for "a privilege for all and sundry of my works, so that these may not be reprinted, and that any reprints produced elsewhere may not be sold within the Empire, and your Majesty's royal and ancestral lands, on pain of a specific penalty".[30] He was planning to bring out an edition of his motets and madrigals at his own expense, and felt threatened by the "many printers in Nuremberg [his hometown] and elsewhere, who reprint almost every work in total or in parts and thus inflict serious losses on those who have brought about the publication".[31] A ten-year privilege was granted to him on 8 April 1591, but the only penalty threatened was that of confiscation. Hassler was, furthermore, obliged to deliver three copies of every edition to the Emperor's court in Prague. The second of these two privileges was granted to Franciscus Salus, a singer in the Imperial Chapel, who had applied for "privileges and licences for the music I have produced and for anything I may compose in future".[32] However, the privilege he was issued on 16 May 1592 covered just his existing musical works, "where a general printing [privilege] is implied [in Salus's application] , this is simply to be refused".[33] Salus's privilege is quite similar to Hassler's: a ten-year term of protection, no penalty specified, and the obligation of delivering three copies for deposit.

 

8. References

Books and articles [in alphabetical order]

 

Becker, Rotraut. "Die Berichte des kaiserlichen und apostolischen Bücherkommissars Johann Ludwig von Hagen an die Römische Kurie (1623-1649)", Quellen und Forschungen aus italienischen Archiven und Bibliotheken, 87 (1971): 323-354

Brückner, Wolfgang. "Der kaiserliche Bücherkommissar Valentin Leucht", Archiv für Geschichte des Buchwesens, 3 (1961): 97-180

Eisenhardt, Ulrich. Die kaiserliche Aufsicht über Buchdruck, Buchhandel und Presse im Heiligen Römischen Reich Deutscher Nation (1496-1806): Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Bücher- und Pressezensur (Karlsruhe: C.F. Müller, 1970)

Haar, James. Article on "Lassus", in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. by Stanley Sadie (London: Macmillan, 1981), 10: 482

Koppitz, Hans-Joachim. "Kaiserliche Privilegien für das Augsburger Druckgewerbe", in Augsburger Buchdruck und Verlagswesen von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart, ed. by Helmut Gier and Johannes Janota (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1997), 41-53

Lehne, Friedrich. "Zur Rechtsgeschichte der kaiserlichen Druckprivilegien", Mitteilungen des Österreichischen Instituts für Geschichtsforschung, 39 (1939): 323-409

Pohlmann, Hansjörg. Die Frühgeschichte des musikalischen Urheberrechts (ca. 1400-1800): Neue Materialien zur Entwicklung des Urheberrechtsbewußtseins der Komponisten (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1962)

Pohlmann, Hansjörg. "Neue Materialien zum deutschen Urheberschutz im 16. Jahrhundert", Archiv für Geschichte des Buchwesens, 4 (1963): 90-172

Radke, Hans. Article on "Neusidler", in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. by Stanley Sadie (London: Macmillan, 1980), 13: 157

Wiesflecker-Friedhuber, Inge. Article on "Maximilian", in Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon, ed. by Traugott Bautz, 18 (2001): 879-893 [Available online at: www.bautz.de]

 

 


[1] See the article Northeim-Serentein, in http://austroarchiv.com/joomla/content/view/489/27/. Thanks to Luis Sundkvist for the information on Serentein.

[2] The original "Mühe und Arbeit" is the formula used in Luther's translation of Psalm 90,10 (Latin: "labor et dolor") and may thus appropriately be rendered with the corresponding phrase in the Authorised King James's Version: "labour and sorrow".

[3] Arnolt Schlick, Tabulaturen etlicher lobgesang und lidlein uff die orgeln un lauten, (Mainz: Peter Schöffer jr., 1512). See d_1512.

[4] For a survey of how the invention of printing was seen over the centuries, see Monika Estermann, ‘O werthe Druckerkunst / Du Mutter aller Kunst': Gutenbergfeiern im Laufe der Jahrhunderte (Mainz: Gutenberg-Museum, 1999).

[5] The biographic details here are drawn from Monika Grünberg-Dröge's article on Peutinger in: Traugott Bautz (ed.), Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon, 7 (1994): 392-397. Available online at: www.bautz.de

[6] A scan of the 10th century manuscript of this map is available online at: http://www.fh-augsburg.de/~harsch/Chronologia/Lspost03/Tabula/tab_manu.html

[7] See d_1512.

[8] Biographical details are taken from Inge Wiesflecker-Friedhuber's article on Maximilian in: Traugott Bautz (ed.), Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon, 18 (2001): 879-893. Available online at: www.bautz.de.

[9] Taken from Hansjörg Pohlmann's 1962 book The Early History of Musical Authors' Rights (Die Frühgeschichte des musikalischen Urheberrechts). Pohlmann's research focussed on early forms of protection for authors, and he identified privilege documents in the records of the Austrian State Archive and other archives. The appendix to his book quotes the texts of the privileges and gives detailed references to the archival records. For a discussion of the Pohlmann-Bappert debate see d_1657.

[10] "vntertheniglich bericht / wie er ettliche stückh zu der Lauten vnd der gleichen Seytenspil gehörig / welche bißher nit an den tag kommen wern / von erfarnen vnd verstendigen der Musica vberkommen vnd zusamen gebracht hette / der Mainung die selben stück / der Jugent vnnd allen Liebhabern derselben kunst / zu gutem in einen Druckh zu bringen / vvnd fürter ausgeen zu lassen." Pohlmann 1962: 263. The privilege is printed in Neusidler, Ein Newgeordnete Künstlich Lautenbuch, part 1 (Nuremberg 1535), and also in the second volume ("ander theil des Lautenbuchs", 1536).

[11] "bericht, wie er solche Stügkh etlichermaßen gemert vnnd gepessert vnnd .deshalben vorhete, dieselebn von Neuen in druckh ausgeen zulassen". Pohlmann 1962: 264.

[12] "de sua singulare studio & cura". Pohlmann 1962: 265. The privilege is printed on the third page of the tenor volume: SELECTISSIMAE || NECNON FAMILIARISSIMAE || Cantiones, ultra Centum.|| Vario Idiomate vocu, tam multiplicium #[qua...] etiã pauca#[RUM].|| FVGAE quo#[que], ut vocantur, a Sex usque ad duas voces:|| ... Besonder Außerleßner/ kunstlicher/ lustiger Gesanng/ mancherlay Sprachen/ mer dann Hundert Stuck/ von Acht stymen an/|| bis auf Zwo: Vnd Fugen/ von Sechsen auch bis auf Zwo: Alles ... || zu sinngen/ (Augsburg: Kriegstein, 1540)

[13] "damit er umb solch seyn habenden mueh vncosten vnd arbeit zimlichen nutz und ergetzung embfinden müge". Pohlmann 1962: 267.

[14] Hans Radke, article on ‘Neusidler', The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. by Stanley Sadie (London: Macmillan, 1980), 13: 157, refers to a ten-year privilege issued in 1551.

[15] "etliche lauten Puecher [...] da ers wiederverwenden, pessern oder corrigiren werde". See a full transcription in Pohlmann 1962: 267.

[16] "multa ac praeclara opera Musica". Pohlmann 1962: 200.

[17] "magna sua cum diligentia, labore [...] plurimum adprobatum Musicorum [...] in lucem aedere". See a full transcription in Pohlmann 1962: 269.

[18] "toutes & chacunes les Oeuvres qu'il a faictes et composesse, et pourra cy apres faires et composer". Pohlmann 1962: 271.

[19] James Haar, article on ‘Lassus', New Grove Dictionary, 10: 482.

[20] "hinfüro all vnnd jede Compositionen vnnd Gesäng / so gedachter Orlandus di Lassus hieuor gemacht / oder noch künfftig machen". This privilege was reprinted in several collections - e.g. (Nuremberg: Gerlach, 1583), (Munich: Berg, 1590) - and is quoted here from Pohlmann 1962: 271.

[21] "sine ipsius permissu in toto vel in parte, simili aut alio qquopiam charactere vel forma imitrari, recudere". Pohlmann 1962: 272.

[22] Cf. the examples of privileges for prints from Basel in d_1531.

[23] Hansjörg Pohlmann, "Neue Materialien zum deutschen Urheberschutz im 16. Jahrhundert", Archiv für Geschichte des Buchwesens, 4 (1963): 90-172 (126).

[24] Hans-Joachim Koppitz, "Kaiserliche Privilegien für das Augsburger Druckgewerbe", in Augsburger Buchdruck und Verlagswesen von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart, ed. by Helmut Gier and Johannes Janota (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1997), 41-53 (44).

[25] Wolfgang Brückner, "Der kaiserliche Bücherkommissar Valentin Leucht", Archiv für Geschichte des Buchwesens, 3 (1961): 97-180 (98).

[26] Ulrich Eisenhardt, Die kaiserliche Aufsicht über Buchdruck, Buchhandel und Presse im Heiligen Römischen Reich Deutscher Nation (1496-1806): Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Bücher- und Pressezensur (Karlsruhe: C.F. Müller, 1970), 68. On the Frankfurt book commission see also d_1690.

[27] Rotraut Becker, "Die Berichte des kaiserlichen und apostolischen Bücherkommissars Johann Ludwig von Hagen an die Römische Kurie (1623-1649)", Quellen und Forschungen aus italienischen Archiven und Bibliotheken, 87 (1971): 323-354 (324).

[28] Friedrich Lehne, "Zur Rechtsgeschichte der kaiserlichen Druckprivilegien". Mitteilungen des Österreichischen Instituts für Geschichtsforschung, 39 (1939): 323-409 (393).

[29] Koppitz 1997: 44.

[30] "mit einem privilegio auf alle und jede meine opera. damit die nit nachgedruckht oder, do es anderer orten beschehe, im Reich vnd Eur Mt. Khönigreich und Erblanden bey namhaften straf nit verkaufft werden". Quoted in Pohlmann 1962: 273.

[31] ire etliche zu Nürnberg und anderer orten verhanden, welche fast alle stuckh aintweder gar oder zum thail nachdruckhen vnd dadurch denjenigen, so die verlag getan, merckhlichen schaden zufiegen". Quoted in Pohlmann 1962: 273.

[32] "privilegia und freyheiten vber die meine verfertigte Music vnd was noch ferneres möchte durch mich componirt werden". Quoted in Pohlmann 1962: 209.

[33] "Fiat impressorium quod moderna et ea quae apponit, quoad futura, dieweil ein general impressorium damit gemeinet, wirdt simpliciter abgeschlagen." Report of 16 May 1592 on Salus's application. Quoted in Pohlmann 1962: 209.


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