Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Before Copyright: The French Book-Privilege System 1498 1526

Before Copyright: The French Book-Privilege System 1498 1526

Armstrong, Elizabeth
Belanger, Terry
McKitterick, David

Paperback

Series: Cambridge Studies in Publishing and Printing History

Business of Writing

ISBN10: 0521893151
ISBN13: 9780521893152
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: May 9 2002
Pages: 336
Weight: 1.10
Height: 0.85 Width: 6.06 Depth: 9.14
Language: English
When printing first began, a new book automatically fell into the public domain upon publication. Only a special law or privilegium enacted by a competent authority could protect it from being reprinted without the consent of the author or publisher. Such privileges for books are attested before 1480, but in Germany and Italy their efficacy was limited to a relatively small area by the political fragmentation of the country. During the 1480s and 1490s France became one of Europe's main centres of book production and, as competition intensified, privileges were sought there from 1498. Although privileges were to last as long as the Ancien Régime, the period to 1526 is the least-known stage of their development and the most important. Most privilege-holders printed the full text of their grant, and many others a summary.

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