The printing patent or printing privilege was a precursor of modern

copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, educatio ...

. It was an exclusive right to print a work or a class of works. The earliest recorded printing privilege dates from 1469, giving John of Speyer a five-year

monopoly A monopoly (from Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situation where a speci ...

on all printing in

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...

. In 1495, the city-state granted another monopoly on all Greek works to Aldus as a reward for his investments in a

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

font for his press. In

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

, the royal ''Code de la librairie'' of 1723 codified existing practice. It stated that there was no property in ideas or texts. Ideas, it was argued, were a gift from

God In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995. God is typically ...

, revealed through the writer. God's first representative, the

French king France was ruled by monarchs from the establishment of the Kingdom of West Francia in 843 until the end of the Second French Empire in 1870, with several interruptions. Classical French historiography usually regards Clovis I () as the firs ...

had the exclusive right to determine what could be printed by whom. Only members of the royal guild of publishers could apply for a "printing privilege", a permission and an exclusive right to print a work. Authors wishing to see their manuscript printed had no choice but to sell it to guild members. Most printing privileges were owned by the guild and automatically renewed over generations. In 1789, the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the rep ...

created by the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in coup of 18 Brumaire, November 1799. Many of its ...

brought an end to all royal privileges. English monarchs granted printing patents based on the

Royal Prerogative The royal prerogative is a body of customary authority, privilege and immunity, recognized in common law and, sometimes, in civil law jurisdictions possessing a monarchy, as belonging to the sovereign and which have become widely vested in th ...

, with patents falling into one of two categories: ''particular patents'' gave an exclusive right to print a single work – often popular, classic works written centuries earlier – for a limited time, usually seven or ten years. ''General patents'' were usually granted for life and covered a class of works, such as law books or

almanac An almanac (also spelled ''almanack'' and ''almanach'') is an annual publication listing a set of current information about one or multiple subjects. It includes information like weather forecasts, farmers' planting dates, tide tables, and othe ...

s. Printing patents were independent of the private copyright system established by the

Stationers' Company The Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers (until 1937 the Worshipful Company of Stationers), usually known as the Stationers' Company, is one of the livery companies of the City of London. The Stationers' Company was formed in ...

, even though most printing patents were granted to members of the Company. The importance of printing privileges decreased over time, but they still existed after the Statute of Anne was enacted. Patterson, L. R. (1968) '' Copyright in Historical Perspective'', Vanderbilt University Press The royal prerogative relating to printing patents was not removed until 1775.Donner, I. (1992) The Copyright Clause of the U. S. Constitution: Why Did the Framers Include It with Unanimous Approval? ''The American Journal of Legal History'' 36(3), 361-378

See also

References