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Vitré's memorandum on the prolongation of privileges, unknown (1650s)
Source: Bibliothèque nationale de France : Mss. Fr. 22071 n°83
Citation:
Vitré's memorandum on the prolongation of privileges, unknown (1650s), Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900), eds L. Bently & M. Kretschmer, www.copyrighthistory.org
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7 translated pages
Chapter 1 Page 1
*******************************
WHETHER IT IS TO THE BENEFIT OF
the public to grant booksellers prolongations of
their privileges, in view of the present state of things
in the book trade.
There is no doubt whatsoever that amongst all the Arts that of Printing is very
important, since it has the advantage of preserving them all, and in a certain way even
of being the depository of the Laws and of Religion. Neither is there any doubt that
our Kings have considered it most worthy of their attention and care, and that they
have spoken of it so many times in their Edicts for the regulation of how it is
exercised.
They have concluded that, since the faults which are committed here can have
long-lasting repercussions and spread across the whole world, it is very important that
they should not be committed at all and that this Art should be practised by skilful and,
moreover, honourable people. Nevertheless, since a number of years Printing has sunk
into a state of dissoluteness so horrible and so strange that, if we wish to rescue it
from this, it will be necessary to make use of various remedies, and I think that the
most effective one at present would be to have the Booksellers enjoy the privileges
which the King has the kindness to grant to them, and even to give them extensions of
these if His Majesty should decide that they need them.
If it were done in this way, Books would be printed to a better quality, and
they would also sell better – regardless of any opinion [to the contrary] which might
be entertained by those who do not sufficiently take into account the economic
situation of our times, even though this is a very important thing as far as Printing is
concerned, and who point out instead how honourably we lived from printing at the
time of Federic Morel, Pierre L'Huillier, Jamet Metayer, Mamert Patisson, and
the Étiennes, and how different it is nowadays.
In those times, and for many years afterwards too, it was possible to live so
honestly from Printing that far from a Bookseller trying to counterfeit [contrefaire]
another's Book – such an idea would simply never have occurred to him. In those
days the trust [la bonne foi] which there was between individuals served as a public
law, and there was no need for Privileges, still less for Prolongations of the latter,
which now, of course, are so necessary, given the disorder in which I see our
profession and the little respect which colleagues here have
Chapter 1 Page 2
2
for one another – [which are so necessary] at a time in which our country's Ministers,
seconding the King's intentions, are working with so much diligence for the re-
establishment of Commerce and the improvement of the Arts.
This trust [bonne foi] and honest conduct are so deeply rooted in Holland that
the Booksellers there, far from counterfeiting their neighbour's Book, have so great a
respect for what has been printed by another that the right to this [book] even passes
down to the latter's heirs, who may not even happen to be Booksellers themselves,
and who can sell this right just as if it had been acquired through a Privilege from the
State.
The same thing happens in England and Germany: people have the utmost
respect for the Letters [patent] and gifts [grâces] of a sovereign Prince because the
penalties borne by these Privileges are not just simply threats for non-compliance
[comminatoires]: no, the person who violates them can count himself as ruined –
unless, that is, he is quite powerful - there are examples of this.
The first cause of this disorder, which is ever increasing on a daily basis, is the
high number of all sorts of people who set themselves up as Master Printers. They
have gone through neither proper training nor study, and sometimes they don't even
know how to use the most basic tool of those which are used in Printing. Yet, even so,
they take it upon themselves to exercise this profession in Paris and in several other
Towns of France – I assure you that I am not exaggerating when I say this.
There have even been some Syndics, who, in order to recoup the expenses
which they claim to have made for the sake of their Guild, have admitted twenty-five
Master Printers or thirty Gilders of Books all at the same time, and amongst these
Gilders there have been some who had four, five, or six children who were all
[registered as] Master Printers before they could even speak, let alone have the use of
reason. Amidst this multitude of people the respect which our ancestors had for one
another has been lost. Nowadays anyone will brazenly counterfeit his neighbour's
Book, using poor-quality type, on mediocre paper, and without any proof-reading
beforehand. That is why it has proved necessary to have recourse to Prolongations of
Privileges, which, in my opinion, do nothing worse than to compel by force the
muddlers of our times to do what our Ancestors previously did for the sake of honour
and courtesy.
If those who are so zealously opposed to Privileges and their Prolongations
were to reflect a little bit more on this matter, they would soon realize that they are
doing a very great deal of harm to the public – above all to the Men of letters – and
that they are contributing to their own ruin. This is how.
Chapter 1 Page 3
3
A Bookseller or a Printer who sees how things are done in the Book Trade
nowadays, and who at the same time finds out about an ancient Author whose works
it is no longer possible to get hold of – will he incur the expense of reprinting the
latter's works on good-quality paper, using new types? And will he engage a skilful
Proof-reader, whom he would have to pay honestly, in order to revise the copy of the
Book and to correct its proofs when he starts printing it, because that is the way it
should be if it is to be done well? Will he undertake such a publication despite having
good reason to fear that someone else might counterfeit it on paper of inferior quality,
using a poor type, and without any proofreading, just so as to be able to sell it more
cheaply?
When Privileges for the printing of the Missals, Breviaries, and Diurnals of the
Council of Trent were granted to seven or eight Booksellers from Paris, who were
referred to as the Compagnie des Usages, we supplied a great deal of these works to
the rest of Europe. The Monks of the Escorial, who are alone entitled to sell these
kinds of Books in Spain, would come every year to Paris and buy more than fifty
thousand crowns' [écus] worth of such Books: for the Spaniards have never had great
Printers. This is quite clear from what happened when Philip II wished to have that
Bible printed which is now known as the Bible of the King of Spain,* and from which
the Spanish nation to this day is still deriving so much glory, even though not a single
Spanish worker actually had a hand in its publication.** Christophe Platin, who
printed it, was from Tours; all the types which were used in the printing were
moulded and cast by Guillaume Le Bé in Paris;*** the Paper was produced in Troyes,
and Monsieur de la Boderie, who corrected the proofs, hailed from Normandy. Now,
Breviaries are much more difficult to print than Books which are all black,**** and
that is why the Spaniards have never been good at printing the former.
Now, after we have heard in France the screeching of those who, under the
name of liberty, ask for disorder and chaos, and after everyone has been given
permission to print Breviaries, the latter have turned out to be so bad in all respects
that not only foreigners have stopped coming here to stock up on them, but even the
French hardly ever use them. Like everyone else, they too have started buying
Breviaries from England or Holland, even though they are much more expensive than
those produced in Paris, on account of the transport costs and also because they are
ordered and stocked only by a small number of Booksellers, whom customers have no
choice but to turn to [if they wish to get hold of these better editions].
There is no need whatsoever to leave Paris, in order to be enlightened
on the truth
________
*) Now this edition, published between 1569 and 1572, is more commonly referred to
as the Biblia regia or the Antwerp Polyglot edition.
**) This is not entirely fair because the notable Spanish theologian and philologist
Benito Arias Montano (1527-1598) was appointed by Philip II to supervise the edition
of the texts in Antwerp.
***) Plantin also ordered types from other designers, such as Cornelius van
Bombergen in Cologne and Robert Granjon.
****) Vitré is alluding ironically to how zealous officials of the Spanish Inquisition
would sometimes blot out with black ink whole passages in those books whose
publication had not been prohibited altogether.
Chapter 1 Page 4
4
of this state of affairs, since almost no such [Breviaries] are printed there now,
whereas, when Privileges were issued for them, there were always at least twelve or
fifteen presses busy at work, printing them off, and this was the employment of a
good forty or fifty Compagnons Imprimeurs,* who produced nothing else apart from
the Missals, Breviaries, and Diurnals of the Council [of Trent] in several different
formats, which would then be sent off and exported to all kinds of places.
I am not presenting all this for the sake of any personal interest which I might
have had in the past or which I might yet have in future, since I have never taken any
part in these Privileges, and I am ready to renounce any which the King might deign
to grant to me – if, that is, His Majesty deemed it a good thing to give Privileges to
private individuals, which I actually think he should do, for the public good, for the
honour of France, and for the convenience of the Clergy, whatever one might say
against this latter point.
It is a daily experience for those who handle Books to find that there are many
good Authors who are so rare that it is very difficult to get hold of their works, and
that there are others who have been reprinted, but unfortunately in such a fashion that
the original, first editions have become twice as expensive, if not more.
I can give an example of this which affected me personally, because, after
having carefully printed Godefroy's Cours Civil in two folio volumes – a publication
which was received quite well and which I sold for no more than eighteen francs – a
few Parisian booksellers, seeing that I was preparing to republish it, wrote at the same
time to some Booksellers in Lyon, on the one hand, and to some Booksellers in
Holland, on the other, and advised them to counterfeit my edition as soon as possible
and to immediately send them copies of it. Having been warned about this, I changed
my original plan and broke off the negotiations which I had made to obtain new paper
and types.
After these new Editions from Lyon and Holland appeared here, the
Booksellers who still had copies of my edition left in stock started selling them for
twice the price that they had charged previously. I had also printed off a few copies on
larger paper which I sold for ten écus apiece, and which the Booksellers are even
today still trying to sell for one hundred francs.** I could here cite countless other
examples similar to the one I have just described.
There is another reason which causes me to repeat confidently that Privileges
and Prolongations ought to be granted. It is the infinite number of Booksellers and
Printers who have established themselves in Paris, and in most of the other Cities of
France,
_______
*) Here not so much in the sense of 'journeymen printers', but referring specifically to
the members of the Compagnie des Usages.
**) In the 1650s, the écu d'or (minted in 1336) and the franc (minted in 1360) had
roughly the same purchasing power, so Vitré uses this as a striking example of how
reprinting was driving up the prices of original editions.
Chapter 1 Page 5
5
and who print all kinds of things in order to survive.
I remember how once there were just three Booksellers [with stalls] in the
Palais [de Justice], whereas at present there are some forty or fifty there who often
litigate against one another – the Bailiff of the Palais can speak about this with even
more confidence than I can.
Once there were no more than twelve or fifteen Printing-houses in Paris,
whereas at present there are over eighty, the majority of which do not actually do
anything of value – and it is precisely these Printers who are clamouring for the chaos
which they call liberty. I am sorry to have to say that there are many of them who can
barely read. There is, for example, one amongst them who has put up the following
sign in red capital letters over the door to his establishment: CÉANS Y A
IMPRIMERY.* Here we have the case of a Master Printer who just doesn't know
how to spell imprimerie!
The setting up of too many Printing-presses has always been forbidden – by
Edicts, by Declarations, by Rulings of the King's Council, by several sets of
Regulations, and by a number of Rulings of the Parlement [of Paris], which have
often reiterated the injunction that Printing-presses may only be set up in Cities with a
University and decreed that the Printers who do establish themselves there must have
studied.
I feel obliged by my conscience to point out how notwithstanding how
necessary it is to obey the King's orders in this matter, people who have never learnt
to use the most basic tool in Printing, people from all kinds of other Professions have
set up, and even today carry on setting up, Printing-presses in various places in France
– something that is very harmful to Religion and to the State.
A second-hand clothes dealer has fitted out a Printing-press in Pezenas, and a
seller of strong liquor [eau de vie], together with his brother-in-law, has also opened a
'Book trade boutique' there.
A haberdasher has set up a Printing-press at La Rochelle, and he can't even
read.
An organist set up one at Chasteleraut and took it round to the Cordeliers
[Franciscan monks], which is something so expressly forbidden that after it was
discovered that these Monks, who are held in the highest esteem by the Church, had
arranged for a Printing-press to be brought into their Monastery, the Lieutenant Civil
received orders from the King to have it dismantled in his presence.
A hawker who goes round the local Villages with a tray on his back has set up
a Printing-press in Touars, and I have been told by trustworthy sources that there are
two more individuals of the same ilk who are planning to set themselves up as
Printers there. It is a very effective way for them to sell political pamphlets [libelles]
and counterfeited Privileged Books at the local fairs and markets.
_______
*) Shorthand for 'Céans il'y a une imprimerie': 'In this house there is a printing-
press'.
Chapter 1 Page 6
6
A worker from Soye has set one up in Tours.
A haberdasher has opened one in Le Havre.
Once there were no more than two Printers in Poitiers: now there are nine, of
which there are some who cannot read.
There are two in Fontenay, of which one belongs to the 'so-called reformed
religion' [la R.P.R.].*
There is one at Saint-Mexant who also belongs to the R.P.R.
There is a Bookseller who is planning to settle down in Sables d'Olone with a
Printing-press.
An Apothecary and another individual who inherited a Press from a Printer are
both making a living as Printers in Ayen.
Two Printers have established themselves in Montauban since 1669.
In Niort there are two Printers.
In Dombes there is one who right now is counterfeiting a book for which a
Bookseller from Paris has the Privilege.
In Langres there is one printer, and another one also wants to establish himself
there, notwithstanding the opposition of the Bishop of Langres.
There are many Towns in Picardy where Printers have set up shop and of
which I will say nothing because everyone knows that it was a Merchant from Amiens
called Neufgermain who caused so many Books against Religion, against morality
and against the State, to come into our City, and that there were some Booksellers in
Paris who sold these books and who have been punished for this.
I take the liberty of exposing the harm caused by the vast number of Printing-
presses which have been set up and which are still being set up every day by all kinds
of people, from all kinds of Professions, in spite of all the Edicts, Declarations,
Rulings of the King's Council and Parlement, and Regulations which have been
drawn up by officials with expert knowledge in this matter; but I can assure you that I
am saying this not out of any personal interest on my part, since none of my heirs has
taken up the same profession as I did, and I know very well how advanced in years I
am. All I want to affirm is that I have not dared to work on the publication of a Latin-
Greek book which, being hard to come by, has been rendered all the more expensive,
because someone based outside Paris would not fail to counterfeit it, just as my
edition of Godefroy's Cours was counterfeited in Holland and my edition of the
Cardinal de Richelieu's [Traité de la] perfection du chrétien reprinted in Lyon, for
both of which works I had a legitimate Privilege; and just as, likewise, a few years
later, my Bible in eight folio [12º] volumes was counterfeited in Holland, the copies
of which are freely sold here by those who gave the Dutch printers this tip-off.
There is one thing which astonishes all those who hear about it –
_________
*) 'R.P.R.', [religion prétendue réformée], was the pejorative term used by the
Catholic authorities in France to describe the Huguenots.
Chapter 1 Page 7
7
namely, that in order to be accepted as a Master Hat Case Maker or as a Master
Cobbler it is necessary to do four years of apprenticeship, then to work under Master
artisans for the same length of time, and after that to produce one's 'masterpiece' [and
present it to the guild for approval], whereas in order to be a Master Printer it is
currently sufficient to know how to attach a pair of Clasps to a Book of Hours,* how
to gild the pages of a Breviary, how to put gold lines on the cover and binding, how to
stretch out sheets of moistened paper on some ropes hung up in a storehouse, how to
bind a 'Donat' [a grammar book],** and finally simply to be a member of the
Fraternity of Saint-Jean-Porte-Latine:*** all that is sufficient for one to be entitled to
run a Printing-press.
I will conclude by saying that I do not believe there to be any other means of
restoring order to a Profession, which so many erudite scholars and people of quality
[i.e. gentlefolk] have had the honour of exercising in various localities of Europe, than
to grant Privileges to the Booksellers who are willing to either print good
contemporary Books or to reprint those which can be found nowhere outside of the
ancient Libraries, and to declare those who counterfeit them, or who sell such
counterfeits, to be incapable of ever again exercising the Profession of Bookselling
and Printing. The following clause should, moreover, always be included in the
Letters of Privileges and in their Prolongations: "On condition that the Books are
printed on good-quality paper, with good types, and accurately; on pain of the
Privilege becoming void and the copies being confiscated to be sold by the ream for
use as wrapping paper, for the benefit of the Hôpital Général – this being so until the
Printers have earnestly set about correcting any such faults."
No doubt it will not be criticized by anyone that I have taken the liberty of
expressing an Opinion which truly disinterested people will surely consider to be very
useful for the public, in view of the state in which things are with regard to Printing;
nor that I have given myself the satisfaction of having wanted to contribute, before
my death, something either to the re-establishment or to the preservation of a
Profession which I have been exercising for more than seventy-five years, and which
in the past was certainly one of the greatest ornaments of France, since Foreigners
were forced to come here to engage workers when they wanted to print some
important work [ouvrage], as I showed by citing the case of the Bible of
Antwerp.****
__
*) A type of religious book for private prayer used by laymen in the late Middle Ages.
**) In the Middle Ages the word 'Donat' was generally used to refer to grammar
books, since the Ars grammatica of Aelius Donatus (fl.4th century A.D.) was for a
long time the only such textbook used in schools.
***) St John the Evangelist, who was tortured at the Latin Gate (Porta Latina) in
Rome, became the patron saints of printers, typographers, and booksellers, especially
in France, where his feast day was celebrated on 6 May.
****) Vitré is referring to the Biblia regia of Philip II as the 'Bible of Antwerp'
because Christophe Plantin was based in Antwerp, and that is where the edition was
prepared and printed.
Translation by: Luis Sundkvist
Source: Bibliothèque nationale de France : Mss. Fr. 22071 n°83
Citation:
Vitré's memorandum on the prolongation of privileges, unknown (1650s), Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900), eds L. Bently & M. Kretschmer, www.copyrighthistory.org
Back | Record | Images | No Commentaries
Translation only | Transcription only | Show all | Bundled images as pdf
7 translated pages
Chapter 1 Page 1
*******************************
WHETHER IT IS TO THE BENEFIT OF
the public to grant booksellers prolongations of
their privileges, in view of the present state of things
in the book trade.
There is no doubt whatsoever that amongst all the Arts that of Printing is very
important, since it has the advantage of preserving them all, and in a certain way even
of being the depository of the Laws and of Religion. Neither is there any doubt that
our Kings have considered it most worthy of their attention and care, and that they
have spoken of it so many times in their Edicts for the regulation of how it is
exercised.
They have concluded that, since the faults which are committed here can have
long-lasting repercussions and spread across the whole world, it is very important that
they should not be committed at all and that this Art should be practised by skilful and,
moreover, honourable people. Nevertheless, since a number of years Printing has sunk
into a state of dissoluteness so horrible and so strange that, if we wish to rescue it
from this, it will be necessary to make use of various remedies, and I think that the
most effective one at present would be to have the Booksellers enjoy the privileges
which the King has the kindness to grant to them, and even to give them extensions of
these if His Majesty should decide that they need them.
If it were done in this way, Books would be printed to a better quality, and
they would also sell better – regardless of any opinion [to the contrary] which might
be entertained by those who do not sufficiently take into account the economic
situation of our times, even though this is a very important thing as far as Printing is
concerned, and who point out instead how honourably we lived from printing at the
time of Federic Morel, Pierre L'Huillier, Jamet Metayer, Mamert Patisson, and
the Étiennes, and how different it is nowadays.
In those times, and for many years afterwards too, it was possible to live so
honestly from Printing that far from a Bookseller trying to counterfeit [contrefaire]
another's Book – such an idea would simply never have occurred to him. In those
days the trust [la bonne foi] which there was between individuals served as a public
law, and there was no need for Privileges, still less for Prolongations of the latter,
which now, of course, are so necessary, given the disorder in which I see our
profession and the little respect which colleagues here have
Chapter 1 Page 2
for one another – [which are so necessary] at a time in which our country's Ministers,
seconding the King's intentions, are working with so much diligence for the re-
establishment of Commerce and the improvement of the Arts.
This trust [bonne foi] and honest conduct are so deeply rooted in Holland that
the Booksellers there, far from counterfeiting their neighbour's Book, have so great a
respect for what has been printed by another that the right to this [book] even passes
down to the latter's heirs, who may not even happen to be Booksellers themselves,
and who can sell this right just as if it had been acquired through a Privilege from the
State.
The same thing happens in England and Germany: people have the utmost
respect for the Letters [patent] and gifts [grâces] of a sovereign Prince because the
penalties borne by these Privileges are not just simply threats for non-compliance
[comminatoires]: no, the person who violates them can count himself as ruined –
unless, that is, he is quite powerful - there are examples of this.
The first cause of this disorder, which is ever increasing on a daily basis, is the
high number of all sorts of people who set themselves up as Master Printers. They
have gone through neither proper training nor study, and sometimes they don't even
know how to use the most basic tool of those which are used in Printing. Yet, even so,
they take it upon themselves to exercise this profession in Paris and in several other
Towns of France – I assure you that I am not exaggerating when I say this.
There have even been some Syndics, who, in order to recoup the expenses
which they claim to have made for the sake of their Guild, have admitted twenty-five
Master Printers or thirty Gilders of Books all at the same time, and amongst these
Gilders there have been some who had four, five, or six children who were all
[registered as] Master Printers before they could even speak, let alone have the use of
reason. Amidst this multitude of people the respect which our ancestors had for one
another has been lost. Nowadays anyone will brazenly counterfeit his neighbour's
Book, using poor-quality type, on mediocre paper, and without any proof-reading
beforehand. That is why it has proved necessary to have recourse to Prolongations of
Privileges, which, in my opinion, do nothing worse than to compel by force the
muddlers of our times to do what our Ancestors previously did for the sake of honour
and courtesy.
If those who are so zealously opposed to Privileges and their Prolongations
were to reflect a little bit more on this matter, they would soon realize that they are
doing a very great deal of harm to the public – above all to the Men of letters – and
that they are contributing to their own ruin. This is how.
Chapter 1 Page 3
A Bookseller or a Printer who sees how things are done in the Book Trade
nowadays, and who at the same time finds out about an ancient Author whose works
it is no longer possible to get hold of – will he incur the expense of reprinting the
latter's works on good-quality paper, using new types? And will he engage a skilful
Proof-reader, whom he would have to pay honestly, in order to revise the copy of the
Book and to correct its proofs when he starts printing it, because that is the way it
should be if it is to be done well? Will he undertake such a publication despite having
good reason to fear that someone else might counterfeit it on paper of inferior quality,
using a poor type, and without any proofreading, just so as to be able to sell it more
cheaply?
When Privileges for the printing of the Missals, Breviaries, and Diurnals of the
Council of Trent were granted to seven or eight Booksellers from Paris, who were
referred to as the Compagnie des Usages, we supplied a great deal of these works to
the rest of Europe. The Monks of the Escorial, who are alone entitled to sell these
kinds of Books in Spain, would come every year to Paris and buy more than fifty
thousand crowns' [écus] worth of such Books: for the Spaniards have never had great
Printers. This is quite clear from what happened when Philip II wished to have that
Bible printed which is now known as the Bible of the King of Spain,* and from which
the Spanish nation to this day is still deriving so much glory, even though not a single
Spanish worker actually had a hand in its publication.** Christophe Platin, who
printed it, was from Tours; all the types which were used in the printing were
moulded and cast by Guillaume Le Bé in Paris;*** the Paper was produced in Troyes,
and Monsieur de la Boderie, who corrected the proofs, hailed from Normandy. Now,
Breviaries are much more difficult to print than Books which are all black,**** and
that is why the Spaniards have never been good at printing the former.
Now, after we have heard in France the screeching of those who, under the
name of liberty, ask for disorder and chaos, and after everyone has been given
permission to print Breviaries, the latter have turned out to be so bad in all respects
that not only foreigners have stopped coming here to stock up on them, but even the
French hardly ever use them. Like everyone else, they too have started buying
Breviaries from England or Holland, even though they are much more expensive than
those produced in Paris, on account of the transport costs and also because they are
ordered and stocked only by a small number of Booksellers, whom customers have no
choice but to turn to [if they wish to get hold of these better editions].
There is no need whatsoever to leave Paris, in order to be enlightened
on the truth
________
*) Now this edition, published between 1569 and 1572, is more commonly referred to
as the Biblia regia or the Antwerp Polyglot edition.
**) This is not entirely fair because the notable Spanish theologian and philologist
Benito Arias Montano (1527-1598) was appointed by Philip II to supervise the edition
of the texts in Antwerp.
***) Plantin also ordered types from other designers, such as Cornelius van
Bombergen in Cologne and Robert Granjon.
****) Vitré is alluding ironically to how zealous officials of the Spanish Inquisition
would sometimes blot out with black ink whole passages in those books whose
publication had not been prohibited altogether.
Chapter 1 Page 4
of this state of affairs, since almost no such [Breviaries] are printed there now,
whereas, when Privileges were issued for them, there were always at least twelve or
fifteen presses busy at work, printing them off, and this was the employment of a
good forty or fifty Compagnons Imprimeurs,* who produced nothing else apart from
the Missals, Breviaries, and Diurnals of the Council [of Trent] in several different
formats, which would then be sent off and exported to all kinds of places.
I am not presenting all this for the sake of any personal interest which I might
have had in the past or which I might yet have in future, since I have never taken any
part in these Privileges, and I am ready to renounce any which the King might deign
to grant to me – if, that is, His Majesty deemed it a good thing to give Privileges to
private individuals, which I actually think he should do, for the public good, for the
honour of France, and for the convenience of the Clergy, whatever one might say
against this latter point.
It is a daily experience for those who handle Books to find that there are many
good Authors who are so rare that it is very difficult to get hold of their works, and
that there are others who have been reprinted, but unfortunately in such a fashion that
the original, first editions have become twice as expensive, if not more.
I can give an example of this which affected me personally, because, after
having carefully printed Godefroy's Cours Civil in two folio volumes – a publication
which was received quite well and which I sold for no more than eighteen francs – a
few Parisian booksellers, seeing that I was preparing to republish it, wrote at the same
time to some Booksellers in Lyon, on the one hand, and to some Booksellers in
Holland, on the other, and advised them to counterfeit my edition as soon as possible
and to immediately send them copies of it. Having been warned about this, I changed
my original plan and broke off the negotiations which I had made to obtain new paper
and types.
After these new Editions from Lyon and Holland appeared here, the
Booksellers who still had copies of my edition left in stock started selling them for
twice the price that they had charged previously. I had also printed off a few copies on
larger paper which I sold for ten écus apiece, and which the Booksellers are even
today still trying to sell for one hundred francs.** I could here cite countless other
examples similar to the one I have just described.
There is another reason which causes me to repeat confidently that Privileges
and Prolongations ought to be granted. It is the infinite number of Booksellers and
Printers who have established themselves in Paris, and in most of the other Cities of
France,
_______
*) Here not so much in the sense of 'journeymen printers', but referring specifically to
the members of the Compagnie des Usages.
**) In the 1650s, the écu d'or (minted in 1336) and the franc (minted in 1360) had
roughly the same purchasing power, so Vitré uses this as a striking example of how
reprinting was driving up the prices of original editions.
Chapter 1 Page 5
and who print all kinds of things in order to survive.
I remember how once there were just three Booksellers [with stalls] in the
Palais [de Justice], whereas at present there are some forty or fifty there who often
litigate against one another – the Bailiff of the Palais can speak about this with even
more confidence than I can.
Once there were no more than twelve or fifteen Printing-houses in Paris,
whereas at present there are over eighty, the majority of which do not actually do
anything of value – and it is precisely these Printers who are clamouring for the chaos
which they call liberty. I am sorry to have to say that there are many of them who can
barely read. There is, for example, one amongst them who has put up the following
sign in red capital letters over the door to his establishment: CÉANS Y A
IMPRIMERY.* Here we have the case of a Master Printer who just doesn't know
how to spell imprimerie!
The setting up of too many Printing-presses has always been forbidden – by
Edicts, by Declarations, by Rulings of the King's Council, by several sets of
Regulations, and by a number of Rulings of the Parlement [of Paris], which have
often reiterated the injunction that Printing-presses may only be set up in Cities with a
University and decreed that the Printers who do establish themselves there must have
studied.
I feel obliged by my conscience to point out how notwithstanding how
necessary it is to obey the King's orders in this matter, people who have never learnt
to use the most basic tool in Printing, people from all kinds of other Professions have
set up, and even today carry on setting up, Printing-presses in various places in France
– something that is very harmful to Religion and to the State.
A second-hand clothes dealer has fitted out a Printing-press in Pezenas, and a
seller of strong liquor [eau de vie], together with his brother-in-law, has also opened a
'Book trade boutique' there.
A haberdasher has set up a Printing-press at La Rochelle, and he can't even
read.
An organist set up one at Chasteleraut and took it round to the Cordeliers
[Franciscan monks], which is something so expressly forbidden that after it was
discovered that these Monks, who are held in the highest esteem by the Church, had
arranged for a Printing-press to be brought into their Monastery, the Lieutenant Civil
received orders from the King to have it dismantled in his presence.
A hawker who goes round the local Villages with a tray on his back has set up
a Printing-press in Touars, and I have been told by trustworthy sources that there are
two more individuals of the same ilk who are planning to set themselves up as
Printers there. It is a very effective way for them to sell political pamphlets [libelles]
and counterfeited Privileged Books at the local fairs and markets.
_______
*) Shorthand for 'Céans il'y a une imprimerie': 'In this house there is a printing-
press'.
Chapter 1 Page 6
A worker from Soye has set one up in Tours.
A haberdasher has opened one in Le Havre.
Once there were no more than two Printers in Poitiers: now there are nine, of
which there are some who cannot read.
There are two in Fontenay, of which one belongs to the 'so-called reformed
religion' [la R.P.R.].*
There is one at Saint-Mexant who also belongs to the R.P.R.
There is a Bookseller who is planning to settle down in Sables d'Olone with a
Printing-press.
An Apothecary and another individual who inherited a Press from a Printer are
both making a living as Printers in Ayen.
Two Printers have established themselves in Montauban since 1669.
In Niort there are two Printers.
In Dombes there is one who right now is counterfeiting a book for which a
Bookseller from Paris has the Privilege.
In Langres there is one printer, and another one also wants to establish himself
there, notwithstanding the opposition of the Bishop of Langres.
There are many Towns in Picardy where Printers have set up shop and of
which I will say nothing because everyone knows that it was a Merchant from Amiens
called Neufgermain who caused so many Books against Religion, against morality
and against the State, to come into our City, and that there were some Booksellers in
Paris who sold these books and who have been punished for this.
I take the liberty of exposing the harm caused by the vast number of Printing-
presses which have been set up and which are still being set up every day by all kinds
of people, from all kinds of Professions, in spite of all the Edicts, Declarations,
Rulings of the King's Council and Parlement, and Regulations which have been
drawn up by officials with expert knowledge in this matter; but I can assure you that I
am saying this not out of any personal interest on my part, since none of my heirs has
taken up the same profession as I did, and I know very well how advanced in years I
am. All I want to affirm is that I have not dared to work on the publication of a Latin-
Greek book which, being hard to come by, has been rendered all the more expensive,
because someone based outside Paris would not fail to counterfeit it, just as my
edition of Godefroy's Cours was counterfeited in Holland and my edition of the
Cardinal de Richelieu's [Traité de la] perfection du chrétien reprinted in Lyon, for
both of which works I had a legitimate Privilege; and just as, likewise, a few years
later, my Bible in eight folio [12º] volumes was counterfeited in Holland, the copies
of which are freely sold here by those who gave the Dutch printers this tip-off.
There is one thing which astonishes all those who hear about it –
_________
*) 'R.P.R.', [religion prétendue réformée], was the pejorative term used by the
Catholic authorities in France to describe the Huguenots.
Chapter 1 Page 7
namely, that in order to be accepted as a Master Hat Case Maker or as a Master
Cobbler it is necessary to do four years of apprenticeship, then to work under Master
artisans for the same length of time, and after that to produce one's 'masterpiece' [and
present it to the guild for approval], whereas in order to be a Master Printer it is
currently sufficient to know how to attach a pair of Clasps to a Book of Hours,* how
to gild the pages of a Breviary, how to put gold lines on the cover and binding, how to
stretch out sheets of moistened paper on some ropes hung up in a storehouse, how to
bind a 'Donat' [a grammar book],** and finally simply to be a member of the
Fraternity of Saint-Jean-Porte-Latine:*** all that is sufficient for one to be entitled to
run a Printing-press.
I will conclude by saying that I do not believe there to be any other means of
restoring order to a Profession, which so many erudite scholars and people of quality
[i.e. gentlefolk] have had the honour of exercising in various localities of Europe, than
to grant Privileges to the Booksellers who are willing to either print good
contemporary Books or to reprint those which can be found nowhere outside of the
ancient Libraries, and to declare those who counterfeit them, or who sell such
counterfeits, to be incapable of ever again exercising the Profession of Bookselling
and Printing. The following clause should, moreover, always be included in the
Letters of Privileges and in their Prolongations: "On condition that the Books are
printed on good-quality paper, with good types, and accurately; on pain of the
Privilege becoming void and the copies being confiscated to be sold by the ream for
use as wrapping paper, for the benefit of the Hôpital Général – this being so until the
Printers have earnestly set about correcting any such faults."
No doubt it will not be criticized by anyone that I have taken the liberty of
expressing an Opinion which truly disinterested people will surely consider to be very
useful for the public, in view of the state in which things are with regard to Printing;
nor that I have given myself the satisfaction of having wanted to contribute, before
my death, something either to the re-establishment or to the preservation of a
Profession which I have been exercising for more than seventy-five years, and which
in the past was certainly one of the greatest ornaments of France, since Foreigners
were forced to come here to engage workers when they wanted to print some
important work [ouvrage], as I showed by citing the case of the Bible of
Antwerp.****
__
*) A type of religious book for private prayer used by laymen in the late Middle Ages.
**) In the Middle Ages the word 'Donat' was generally used to refer to grammar
books, since the Ars grammatica of Aelius Donatus (fl.4th century A.D.) was for a
long time the only such textbook used in schools.
***) St John the Evangelist, who was tortured at the Latin Gate (Porta Latina) in
Rome, became the patron saints of printers, typographers, and booksellers, especially
in France, where his feast day was celebrated on 6 May.
****) Vitré is referring to the Biblia regia of Philip II as the 'Bible of Antwerp'
because Christophe Plantin was based in Antwerp, and that is where the edition was
prepared and printed.
Translation by: Luis Sundkvist