THE BEGINNINGS OF PROPERTY IN LITERATURE. CHAPTER I. PRIVILEGES AND CENSORSHIP IN ITALY. 1498-1798. THE legislation of the Venetian Republic in regard to privileges, monopolies, and copyrights was more continuous and more important than that of any Italian State. In fact, the enactments of the other States for the supervision of printing and for the encouragement and protection of literary productions were so far similar to those of Venice (upon which many of them had probably been modelled) that the series of Venetian laws can be taken as fairly representative of the general system prevailing in Italy during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The requirements of my subject will, therefore, be most conveniently met by confining my record for Italy to a summary of the copyright legislation of Venice, in place of undertaking to give the details for each Italian city in which printing was carried on. For the data of this record I am largely indebted to the scholarly treatise of Horatio F. Brown, on _The Venetian Printing Press_, to which previous reference has been made. The action of the Government in regard to the book-trade presents itself in two main divisions: the first including the steps taken to protect and encourage the new art and those concerned in it; and the second, the measures planned to protect the State from certain dangers which it was dreaded might be brought upon it by the operations of the Press. Under the first heading are to be classed monopolies, copyrights, patents, and protection against foreign competition; while under the second come the measures of censorship--religious, moral, and political. The term “_privilegii_” was applied to all copyrights, patents, monopolies, and special concessions having to do with books and printing. Between 1469 and 1517, these _privilegii_ were, as a rule, granted by the College or Cabinet of Venice, and their record is to be found in the Minutes of the Cabinet. Occasionally, however, the Senate conferred the privilege, and sometimes a concession was issued under the direction of the chiefs of the Council. While privileges appear to have been freely granted to all _bona fide_ applicants, the Government did not make the securing of a privilege obligatory upon the publisher. The first kind of privilege was a simple monopoly, under which the Government granted to the beneficiary for a term of years the sole right to print or to sell a whole class of books. The earliest Venetian privilege on record, which is also probably the earliest in Italy, was that of 1469, under which a monopoly was given to John of Speyer, for a period of five years, for the printing of books in Venice. Fortunately for the development in this city of the art of printing and of the business of publishing, John died shortly after securing this monopoly. It was not continued to his heirs, and Jenson, Nicolas of Frankfort, and their associates were left free to push their printing operations as they saw fit.