Louis d'Héricourt's memorandum, Paris (1725-1726)

Source: Bibliothèque nationale de France : Mss. Fr. 22072 n° 62

Citation:
Louis d'Héricourt's memorandum, Paris (1725-1726), Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900), eds L. Bently & M. Kretschmer, www.copyrighthistory.org

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Record-ID: f_1725b

Permanent link: https://www.copyrighthistory.org/cam/tools/request/showRecord.php?id=record_f_1725b

Full title:
Memorandum by Louis d'Héricourt, addressed to M. the Keeper of the Seals

Full title original language:
Mémoire de Louis d'Héricourt à Monseigneur le Garde des Sceaux

Abstract:
In the 1720s, the lawyer Louis d' Héricourt put himself at the disposal of the Parisian booksellers, who felt threatened by the increasingly sharp protests of their counterparts from the provinces. The latter disputed indeed, as in England, monopolies still preserved by Louis XIV and the policy of Colbert regarding the 1686 or 1701 regulations, and confirmed in 1723 by the Code of the Book Trade. The memorandum presented by Louis d' Héricourt at this occasion to the Keeper of the Seals Armenonville, constitutes the first defence of the exclusive rights of the Parisian corporation under a clear legal qualification of literary property right based upon the work of the author himself. In essence an argument based on Lockean ideas, the recognition of such a property had as an inevitable consequence on the traditional perception of the privileges of the book trade and the royal sovereignty in the discretion of their granting.

1 Commentary:
commentary_f_1725b

Bibliography:
N/A

Related documents in this database:
N/A

Author: Louis d'Héricourt (1687-1752)

Publisher: Imprimerie Jacques Vincent

Year: 1725-1726

Location: Paris

Language: French

Source: Bibliothèque nationale de France : Mss. Fr. 22072 n° 62

Persons referred to:
Charles IX
Henri II
Héricourt, Louis d'
Louis XII
Louis XIII

Places referred to:
Moulins
Paris

Cases referred to:
N/A

Institutions referred to:
Keeper of the Seals ('Garde des Sceaux')
Parisian Guild of Booksellers and Printers
University of Paris (Sorbonne)

Legislation:
Code de la Librairie 1723
Decrees of King's Council 1626, 1627
French royal edict 1563
French royal edict on censorship 1547

Keywords:
authors' remuneration
book trade
censorship, pre-publication
contract
defamation
duration
guild regulation
guilds
immoral works
incentives
inheritability
labour theory
licensing, Approbation
manuscript
natural rights
patronage
perpetual protection
printing, history of
privileges
privileges, French
privileges, printing
property analogies
property theory
property theory, authors' property
property theory, publishers' property
public domain
public good
transferability
utility

Responsible editor: Frédéric Rideau


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