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Diderot's Letter on the book trade, Paris (1763)
Source: Bibliothèque nationale de France : Mss. Fr. (Naf) 24232 n°3
Citation:
Diderot's Letter on the book trade, Paris (1763), Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900), eds L. Bently & M. Kretschmer, www.copyrighthistory.org
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they appeared everywhere, they enjoyed some success, and before long they had stalls and
shops at the Palais-Royal, at the Temple, at other palaces and in various privileged
locations. These people without quality, without morals, without intelligence, guided
solely by an instinct for their own interests, profited so much from the rules restricting
booksellers to stay on one side of the river that they conducted all their trade on the
other side.
Again, if they had continued to obtain their supplies from genuine, true traders, the
situation would have been tolerable; but they made the acquaintance of authors, they
purchased their manuscripts, they obtained privileges for them, they found printers, they
made pirate editions, they sought pirate editions from abroad, they swooped down on ancient
and modern works, on the trade of our own country and from abroad, they made no distinction,
respected no property, bought anything they could, sold all that they were asked for, and
one of the secret reasons which brought them such success is that a man with any character
or a woman who still has a degree of modesty could obtain from these lackeys abominable
books whose titles they would never have dared name to an honest trader. Those who could not
find a hideout in a privileged location managed, somehow, and assured of impunity, managed to
find rooms and open shops where they received visits from merchants. They did transactions
with traders in the provinces and abroad, and since some of them could not recognise a good
edition when they saw one and the rest did not care, the quality of the merchandise each trader
sold to them was calculated in proportion to the intelligence and taste of his buyer; the low
prices at which pedlars then supplied poorly-produced works deprived the true bookseller of
this branch of his trade. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that such honest traders should
become destitute, that they lose their reputation, that large-scale publishing ventures are no
longer undertaken, given that this body, which used to be honoured by many prerogatives which
have now become useless, is undermined by all sorts of means.
Would it not be strangely contradictory if there were prohibited books, books for which,
in any part of the world, one would not dare to ask for a privilege, nor hope for a tacit
permission, and yet when it came to their distribution, there was toleration, or even protection,
for a certain group of men who obtained them in contempt of the law, in the full knowledge of
the magistrate, and who therefore stung their buyers even more strongly, by making them pay for
their risks and their infraction of the rules, when such risks were only apparent?
Would it not be an equally strange contradiction to refuse to the true trader, whose oath
is demanded, who has been granted the status of a profession, on whom taxes are imposed, who has
an interest in fighting against counterfeiting, a liberty or rather a licence which was then
granted to others?
And would it not be yet another equally strange contradiction to shut him up in a small
area, whether for the trade that is called prohibited, or for his authorised trade, whilst the
whole city is abandoned to intruders? I do not understand this set of rules at all, and nor do I
believe that you do either.
No Transcription available.
Source: Bibliothèque nationale de France : Mss. Fr. (Naf) 24232 n°3
Citation:
Diderot's Letter on the book trade, Paris (1763), Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900), eds L. Bently & M. Kretschmer, www.copyrighthistory.org
Back | Record | Images | Commentaries: [1]
Translation only | Transcription only | Show all | Bundled images as pdf
they appeared everywhere, they enjoyed some success, and before long they had stalls and
shops at the Palais-Royal, at the Temple, at other palaces and in various privileged
locations. These people without quality, without morals, without intelligence, guided
solely by an instinct for their own interests, profited so much from the rules restricting
booksellers to stay on one side of the river that they conducted all their trade on the
other side.
Again, if they had continued to obtain their supplies from genuine, true traders, the
situation would have been tolerable; but they made the acquaintance of authors, they
purchased their manuscripts, they obtained privileges for them, they found printers, they
made pirate editions, they sought pirate editions from abroad, they swooped down on ancient
and modern works, on the trade of our own country and from abroad, they made no distinction,
respected no property, bought anything they could, sold all that they were asked for, and
one of the secret reasons which brought them such success is that a man with any character
or a woman who still has a degree of modesty could obtain from these lackeys abominable
books whose titles they would never have dared name to an honest trader. Those who could not
find a hideout in a privileged location managed, somehow, and assured of impunity, managed to
find rooms and open shops where they received visits from merchants. They did transactions
with traders in the provinces and abroad, and since some of them could not recognise a good
edition when they saw one and the rest did not care, the quality of the merchandise each trader
sold to them was calculated in proportion to the intelligence and taste of his buyer; the low
prices at which pedlars then supplied poorly-produced works deprived the true bookseller of
this branch of his trade. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that such honest traders should
become destitute, that they lose their reputation, that large-scale publishing ventures are no
longer undertaken, given that this body, which used to be honoured by many prerogatives which
have now become useless, is undermined by all sorts of means.
Would it not be strangely contradictory if there were prohibited books, books for which,
in any part of the world, one would not dare to ask for a privilege, nor hope for a tacit
permission, and yet when it came to their distribution, there was toleration, or even protection,
for a certain group of men who obtained them in contempt of the law, in the full knowledge of
the magistrate, and who therefore stung their buyers even more strongly, by making them pay for
their risks and their infraction of the rules, when such risks were only apparent?
Would it not be an equally strange contradiction to refuse to the true trader, whose oath
is demanded, who has been granted the status of a profession, on whom taxes are imposed, who has
an interest in fighting against counterfeiting, a liberty or rather a licence which was then
granted to others?
And would it not be yet another equally strange contradiction to shut him up in a small
area, whether for the trade that is called prohibited, or for his authorised trade, whilst the
whole city is abandoned to intruders? I do not understand this set of rules at all, and nor do I
believe that you do either.
No Transcription available.