These “privileges” were for but brief and varying terms, and often (as in the small States of Italy and Germany) the territory covered by any one privilege was very inconsiderable; while it was further the case that the penalties for infringement were absurdly inadequate, and could but rarely be enforced. The protection afforded to property rights was, therefore, for the most part unsatisfactory enough, but it was the best that in the existing state of public opinion could be secured. The system of privileges marked an epoch in the history of human relations and in the development of the recognition of human rights, and it constituted, of course, the beginning of the later system of copyright law. The special labours of the earlier publishers were not even completed when they had secured for their productions the protection, at least _pro forma_, of the State. They still had upon their hands the work of conciliating the Church, and, as has been noted in the account of Aldus, and as will appear in the later chapters, the task of creating and of carrying on the business of publishing of books for scholarly and critical readers was enormously increased by the burdens and the exactions of a zealous and ignorant ecclesiastical censorship. The printer-publishers of the first century of printing who, in the face of this complex series of difficulties, responsibilities, and requirements, succeeded in creating a business and in producing for their own generation and for posterity long lists of costly and scholarly editions of the great books of their world, may fairly be called men of achievement. With the requirement came, as always, the men. The press that Gutenberg had given to the world was not allowed to rust for want of plucky and public-spirited printers to develop its full scope and usefulness. In Italy, Germany, France, the Netherlands, and England, scholarly and capable pioneers devoted themselves to the new art until it had become “understanded of the people,” had made a place for itself in the community, and could be pursued as an industry and without the necessity of exceptional individuals for its direction. Not a few of these pioneer publishers founded families or dynasties which for successive generations continued to discharge the responsibility of providing high-class literature for the community, and at the same time of fighting ecclesiastical and political censorships, of widening precedents, and of maintaining and extending the claims of literature and the rights of literary producers. I have already noted for Italy the achievements of Aldus Manutius and his successors, and I propose in later chapters (selecting a few of the more typical of the great printer-publishers) to give some description of the work of the Kobergers in Nuremberg, of Froben in Basel, of the House of Plantin in Antwerp, of Caxton in Bruges and in London, and of the Elzevirs in Leyden and Amsterdam.