This document is a formal permission, issued to allow the printing and distribution of a work within the Kingdom for three years. It outlines conditions including quality criteria for printing and registration requirements, and it prohibits introducing foreign prints. The document mandates specific record-keeping and compliance with existing book regulations.
Sebastien le Clerc, if we find it agreeable to grant permission through our Letters of necessity. For THESE REASONS, wishing to treat the Exponent favorably, we have granted and do grant by these Presents, permission to print these Works as many times as desired, and to sell and distribute them throughout our Kingdom for a period of three consecutive years from the date of these Presents. We make prohibitions to all Printers, Booksellers, and other persons of any quality and condition to introduce foreign prints in any place subject to our obedience; under the condition that these Presents will be registered in full in the record of the Community of Printers & Booksellers of Paris, within three months from the date thereof. The printing of said Works must be done in our Kingdom, and nowhere else, on fine paper and with fine characters; the Printed matter must conform entirely to the Bookstore Regulations, especially the one from April 10, 1725, on pain of forfeiture of the present Permission; before exposing it for sale, the manuscript that served as a copy for printing the said Works must be returned in the same state in which the approval was given, to the hands of our very dear and faithful Knight Chancellor, Keeper of the Seals of France Mr. MAUPEOU; it shall then be deposited in duplicate in our public Library, one at our castle of Louvre, and one in the said Mr. Maupeou’s; failing to do so will render the Presents null: by the contents of which we order & command to make the said Exponent and his assigns to enjoy fully and peacefully, without suffering that any trouble or hindrance is caused. We wish that the copy of the Presents, which shall be printed in full at the beginning or end of said Works, shall hold the same validity as the original. We command our first Bailiff or Sergeant upon this request, to do, for the execution thereof, all necessary acts, without asking for further permission, notwithstanding the clamor of haro, Norman Charter & contrary Letters. For such is our pleasure. GIVEN at Compiègne the fourth day of the month of August in the year one thousand seven hundred and seventy-three, and of our reign the fifty-eighth year. By the King in his Council, LE BEGUE.
Registered on the Register XIX of the Royal Chamber & Syndicates of Booksellers & Printers of Paris, No. 2465, folio 120, in accordance with the Regulation of 1723. In Paris, this 13th of August 1773: C. A. JOMBERT, father, Syndic.
Translation Notes:
- "haro" refers to a Norman legal call for justice.
- "Charter normande" indicates a legal document typical of the region of Normandy.