Books and their makers during the Middle Ages : $b A study of the conditions of the production and distribution of literature from the fall of the Roman Empire to the close of the seventeenth century, Vol. IPutnam, George Haven
History
Books and their makers during the Middle Ages : $b A study of the conditions of the production and distribution of literature from the fall of the Roman Empire to the close of the seventeenth century, Vol. I
Putnam, George Haven
Books -- History -- 400-1450; Copyright; Freedom of the press -- History -- To 1500; Manuscripts; Printers
The cessation of the work of the scribes and the transfer of the
book-trade from their hands to those of the printers took place
gradually after the year 1470, the printers being, as said, promptly
included in the organisation of the guild. There must, however, have
been, during the earlier years at least, not a little rivalry and
bitterness between the two groups of dealers.
An instance of this rivalry is given in 1474, in which year a
_librarius juratus_, named Herman von Stathoen (by birth a German),
died. According to the university regulation, his estate, valued at
800 crowns of gold, (there being no heirs in the country) should have
fallen to the university treasury. In addition to this property in
Paris, Stathoen was part owner of a book establishment in Mayence,
carried on by Schöffer & Henckis, and was unpopular with the Paris
dealers generally on the ground of his foreign trade connections.
Contention was made on behalf of the Crown that the property in Paris
should be confiscated to the royal treasury, and as Schöffer & Henckis
were subjects of the Duke of Burgundy, whose relations with Louis XI.
might be called strained, the influence of the Court was decidedly in
favour of the appropriation of any business interest that they might
have in their partner’s property in Paris. In the contention between
the university and the Crown, the latter proved the stronger, and the
bookseller’s 800 crowns were confiscated for the royal treasury, and at
least got so far towards the treasury as the hands of the chancellor.
As a further result of the issue which had been raised, it was ordered
on the part of the Crown that thereafter no foreigner should have a
post as an official of the university or should be in a position to lay
claim to the exemption and the privileges attaching to such post.
While in Paris the manuscript-dealers had been promptly driven from
the field through the competition of the printers, in Rouen they held
their own for a considerable term of years. The space which had been
assigned to the _librarii_ for their shops at the chief doorway of the
cathedral, continued to be reserved for them as late as 1483, and the
booksellers keeping on sale the printed books, were forbidden to have
any shops at this end of the cathedral, but were permitted to put up,
at their own cost, stalls at the north doorway.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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