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De Gulden Passer. Jaargang 69 (1991)

De Gulden Passer. Jaargang 69

(1991)– [tijdschrift] Gulden Passer, De–rechtenstatus Auteursrechtelijk beschermd

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Christopher Plantin's papal privileges: documents in the Vatican archives
Christopher L.C.E. Witcombe

Ever since the 19th century, when the Plantin-Moretus publishing house in Antwerp closed and its premises, with all its contents and records dating back to the 16th century, was turned into a museum, scholars have had access to an extremely rich archive of material on the history of publishing. Of special interest are records pertaining to the firm's founder, Christopher Plantin.1 It is clear that the basis for the firm's success was established by Plantin who, through a combination of business acumen and fortuitous circumstance, had been able to acquire early in his career lucrative publishing privileges for Roman Catholic liturgical texts.2 In the concluding session of the Council of Trent in 1563, it was recommended that various liturgical books be revised. It was Plantin's fortune to have found himself in a position to take advantage of the opportunity of winning the exclusive and profitable regional rights for printing some of these new editions. It was also his fortune to have had a close supporter in Rome at this time, Cardinal Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle, who did his utmost to help Plantin acquire the privileges he sought. Between 1568 and 1572, Plantin was granted three privileges: for the new Roman breviary, the Roman missal,

and the Hours of the Blessed Virgin Mary. A fourth privilege, granted in 1572, was for his Polyglot Bible. In each case, the privilege was granted through a papal brief.

Research conducted recently in the Vatican Secret Archives has uncovered the original granting document for each of these privileges, together with, in two cases, additional material that contributes a little to our knowledge of the publishing arrangements on the one hand and of the post-Tridentine views of the Vatican with regard to the revised texts on the other.

The first privilege Plantin acquired was for the new Roman breviary. Plantin's extensive correspondence in which may be traced the arrangements for the publication of the breviary has been examined in detail by Francesco Barberi and Robert Kingdon.3 I do not wish to repeat in full the fruits of their research, but it may be useful to give some indication of the path followed by events in the months preceding the granting of the privilege to Plantin.

In accordance with the decree of the Council of Trent, the Vatican had undertaken the task of compiling a new authoritative breviary.4 This was evidently completed by 9 July 1568 when Pius V promulgated a papal bull, ‘Quod a nobis’, requiring its use in place of all earlier editions, including the breviary of Quinoñes. The monopoly on printing the new breviary had been granted on 9 March 1567 to Paolo Manuzio at the Vatican's own press, the Popolo Romano. The project was a major undertaking and Manuzio actively sought collaborators. He invited to Rome various typographers to assist him, including Christopher

Plantin.5 Plantin, however, had recently embarked on a major project of his own, the publication of the Polyglot Bible, and declined the invitation.6

Plantin, however, was desirous of obtaining publication rights, and not only for the new breviary. On 5 June 1567, he wrote to Granvelle asking if the cardinal could obtain by request from the pope permission for Plantin to print ‘les Bréviaires, Journaux, Missels, Cathéchismes et autre tels livres... qui sont ou seront ordonnés par Sa Saincteté d'estre imprimés’.7 In the same letter he expressly asks Granvelle to send him a copy of the new breviary that he had heard from friends of his in Rome was being printed by Paolo Manuzio.

Granvelle, who knew Manuzio personally, evidently relayed directly to him Plantin's request and his desire to obtain permission to print the breviary. On 30 August 1567, Granvelle informed Plantin by letter that initially Manuzio had demanded 500 ecus in cash for the license, but that he, Granvelle, had managed to lower the figure to 300 ecus and adding that ‘avec ceste somme il vous faira avoir le previllage du pape’.8

On 18 October 1567, in a letter to Granvelle, Plantin responded with a counter offer that, instead of paying Manuzio 300 ecus, he would send Manuzio a tenth of all the breviaries he printed.9 On the same day, 18 October 1567, Plantin also wrote directly to Manuzio with the offer explaining in greater detail that of every thousand breviaries he printed, he would send Manuzio one hundred. He suggests that he could send the actual books to Rome, adding that he could print on the first page the words ‘Imprimebat sibi et Paullo Manutio Christophorus Plantinus’, or whatever suited Manuzio.10 A little further on in the

same letter he returns to the matter of the 300 ecus demanded by Manuzio and suggests as another means of payment that for every thousand breviaries he printed he would send Manuzio 25 ecus, up to the amount of 300 ecus.

Over the next month or so Plantin waited anxiously to hear from Manuzio.11 Plantin's request, in fact, may have provoked the important decision made by Manuzio and the deputies of the Popolo Romano to grant printing privileges to a handful of designated publishers in separate geographically defined areas in order to ensure world-wide distribution of the breviary. The agreement between Manuzio and Plantin was recognized in principle in November 1567 (though it was not officialy drawn up until 19 July 1568, and not ratified by act of notary until the following 11 August). To Plantin was granted ‘tutti li paesi bassi della Fiandra sogetti alla maesta cattolica’.12

Plantin was duly notified. In a letter written at the end of December 1567 or the beginning of January 1568, Plantin informed Granvelle that Manuzio had accepted the arrangement (in principle) and that he looked forward to receiving the privilege which would permit him alone to print the new breviary throughout all the lands subject to the King [i.e. Philip II] (‘je puisse seul imprimer les Bréviaires nouveaux, en tous les paiis de par deçà, subject à la Majesté de nostre Roy’).13 The geographical area to which Plantin claimed the privilege applied, however, was not exactly that recognized by Manuzio. Plantin evidently thought he could perhaps exploit a technicality. Manuzio had granted permission to print the breviaries ‘only in Flanders’, as Plantin acknowledged in his letter. But, Plantin argued, the French call Flemings all the inhabitants or natives of the coun-

tries or lands that pay obeissance to Philip II (‘à la mode des François aussi qui appellent Flamengs tous les habitans ou natifs des paiis ou terres de par deçà obéissants à nostre Roy très catholique’).14 He thereby attempted to extend the privilege beyond the geographical limits of Flanders. It will be seen, however, that Manuzio in a later statement made it clear that the privilege applied ‘only in Flanders’ (see below).

Although the agreement had been drawn up by notaries in Rome on 11 August 1568, Plantin must have set his compositors to work before this date, presumably starting as soon as he received a copy of Manuzio's breviary, and without waiting for a papal privilegio to arrive.15 By 14 August, he had learned from Granvelle, however, that Manuzio's copy contained errors.16 It was not until the following October that Plantin received a corrected copy and set to work once more.17

The papal brief granting the privilegio was eventually issued on 22 November 1568.18 Of interest is that bound together with the document in the Vatican Secret Archives is a letter, dated 20 November, from Paolo Manuzio to Pius V which must be regarded as his final statement with respect to the granting of the license to Plantin (see Appendix I). Manuzio reminds the pope that Cardinal Morone (whom Pius V had nominated as official protector of the Popolo Romano in a motuproprio on 6 March

156719), in the name of the deputies of the Popolo Romano, had requested that Plantin be licensed to print the new breviary. He then asks if the pope could issue the brief licensing Plantin, ‘sole nella Fiandra’, to reprint the new Breviary published in Rome [i.e. Manuzio's own] according to the copy sent, and with the assistance ‘of a canon in Antwerp named Dovere’.20 The papal brief was evidently written following this directive.

Another liturgical text which the Council of Trent wished to have revised was the Roman Missal. A bull promulgated to this end was issued by Pius V on 14 July 1570.21 The monopoly in this case had been granted to a partnership of publishers in Rome comprised of the heirs of Bartolomeo Faletti, Giovanni Varisco, and unnamed ‘associates’.22 Plantin's efforts to obtain the privilege were again aided by Granvelle. A papal privilegio was in fact granted to Plantin only two weeks after Pius V issued his bull, on 28 July 1570.23 Granvelle was evidently able to arrange a contract between Plantin and Faletti and to supply Plantin with a copy of Faletti's missal (sent to Plantin from Rome).24 The papal privilegio granted Plantin the sole printing and publishing rights for the missal not only in the Netherlands (Flanders), to which the privilege for the breviary had been limited, but also included Hungary and parts of Germany.25 Once again, the Antwerp canon de Donghen was enjoined to oversee the printing

and to ensure that the missal was published without errors.26

On 7 October Plantin was granted a second privilege for the Missal by the Privy Council of Brabant in Antwerp that served in effect to confirm his rights of the printing and publishing of the book in the Netherlands.27 The Missale Romanum did not appear, however, until August the following year.28 The delay may have been due in part to Plantin waiting for the response to his request to King Philip II for a monopoly, which he must have made soon after he received the papal privilegio. His petition was successful, and on 1 February 1571, Philip granted Plantin the lucrative monopoly of the sale of both the Missale Romanum and the Breviarum Romanum not only in Spain but throughout Spain's overseas territories.29

Not content with these successes, Plantin next sought to obtain the privilege for the publication of the revised Hours of the Blessed Virgin Mary. A papal bull dated 11 March 1571 officially forbade the use of all earlier versions of the Hours and allowed only the new and corrected edition.30 Once again Plantin enlisted Granvelle's assistance.31 In a letter dated 7 July 1571 Plantin asked Granvelle to urge the pope to grant him the privilegio, and to negotiate terms with the Italian publisher who was to receive sole rights.32 The privilegio was officially issued to Plantin the fol-

lowing year, on 13 March 1572.33 A copy of the revised Hours was sent from Rome, which Plantin received on 24 May.34 The first edition of the revised Horae Beatissimae Virginis Mariae was published by Plantin later that same year.35

Of particular interest in the Vatican Secret Archives is a letter from Cardinal Alfonso Gesualdo to Pius V in which advice is given on how the Hours could be shortened (Appendix II). The letter opens with Gesualdo explaining that he has seen the recently printed ‘officio della Madonna’, which he believes could be reprinted according to the pope's intentions to include only the following sections. The nature of these changes can be seen by comparing an earlier edition of the Hours (in this instance, I shall refer to one published by Plantin in 157036), and the revised 1572 edition.37

In the 1570 edition, the prayers for the hours of the Offices of the Blessed Virgin Mary - Matins (‘Matutinem’), Lauds (‘Laudes’), Prime (‘Primam’), Terce (‘Tertiam’), None (‘Nonam’),

Sext (‘Sextam’), Vespers (‘Vesperas’), and Compline (‘Completorium’) - were integrated with those of the Officium S. Crucis and the Officium S. Spiritus. In other words, the prayers said ‘ad Matutinem’, for all three offices were said one after the other, followed by the prayers ‘ad Laudes’ for each, and so on. In the 1572 edition, the three offices were separated with their own prayers. Following Gesualdo's arrangement, the Officium Beatae Mariae came first, followed by the Officium Defunctorum and Septem Psalmi, after which came the Officium S. Crucis and Officium S. Spiritus.

Another important rearrangement was to move the Passion of Christ as related by each of the Evangelists (Gesualdo's ‘Passionib[us] evangelia’) to near the end of the book (following the ‘Symbolum S. Athanasii’), thereby separating it from the ‘evangelium’ (Gesualdo's ‘In principio erat verbum’) of John, Luke, Matthew and Mark which remained in place preceding the prayers for the hours of the Officium Beatae Mariae.

To a large degree, the 1572 edition follows the format laid out in Gesualdo's letter. Besides rearranging the parts of the book, the revision also expunged unnecessary or spurious sections. According to the bull of 11 March 1571, previous editions of the Hours had come to contain much that was superfluous and were ‘filled with superstitions through the covetousness of the printers’.38 In particular, a section (following fol. 166r in the 1570 edition) that included prayers to over forty saints was carefully edited. Only a handful of these prayers were retained in the revised edition. Also eliminated were the ‘Officium Sanctae Trinitatis’, the ‘Officium Sacramenti’, the ‘Officium de Sanctis’, and the ‘Officium Conceptionis Beatae Mariae Virginis’. Following Gesualdo, retained were the ‘Psalmus in tribulatione’, the ‘Symbolum Athanasii’, and the ‘Itinerarium’.

Evidently further editing occurred after Gesualdo had written the letter. The first five items on the list have been struck through with a single diagonal line and, with the exeception of the ‘Tabula festorum mobilium’, do not in fact appear in the

1572 edition. Whereas the 1570 edition opened with the ‘Tabula literarum Dominicalium’ and the ‘De aureo numero’ (Gesualdo's ‘Tabula literarum Dominicaliiu[m]’ and ‘Cyclus decem novennalis Aurei numerij’), the revised format opens with the ‘Tabula festorum mobilium’ (‘index festorum mobilium pro xl. annis’) followed by the ‘Calendarium’. The ‘Calendarium’ is followed by the ‘Institutio Christiana’.

According to Gesualdo, the new arrangement would shorten the volume by a third and would make it easier to use. He argues that all the changes were necessary for the exercise of piety and the devotion of a Christian. He also explains, with appropriate post-Tridentine sensitivity to the concerns of the counter-reformation, that he has eliminated all that was apocryphal and that which could possibly create scandal.

With regard to the publication of the revised Hours, Gesualdo reminds the pope that he needs to write two briefs, one to the publisher in Naples, and the other to Plantin. He adds that both men are ‘persone approbatissime et cattolice’. Gesualdo's letter is dated 8 March 1572. Five days later, on 13 March, Plantin and the Neapolitan publisher Nicolao de Bottis were officially granted the rights to print and publish the Offices of the Blessed Virgin Mary.39

Finally, it may be noted that during these same years, between the publication of the Breviarum Romanum, the Missale Romanum, and the Horae Beatissimae Virginis Mariae, Plantin was also involved in the massive task of publishing the enormous eight-volume, five-language Polyglot Bible.40 The project's principal

patron was Philip II who accordingly granted Plantin various privileges between 1568 and 1573. Other privileges were granted by the Privy Council in Brussels (11 January 1571), the Council of Brabant (12 February 1571), Emperor Maximilian II in Vienna (26 January 1572), King Charles IX of France in Bloys (April 13, 1572), and the Doge and Senate of Venice (25 October 1572).41 The papal privilegio, the document for which is preserved in the Vatican Secret Archives, was issued by Pope Gregory XIII on 1 September 1572.42

 

Sweet Briar College Virginia 24595 U.S.A.

Appendix I
Letter of Paolo Manuzio to pope Pius V, 22 november 1568 (Archivio segreto Vaticano, sec. brev. 11, fol: 303 r-v)

Molto Mag[nifi]co. et Ecc[ellen]te. S[ign]or. mio, V[ostra]. S[antita]. non si maravigli se piglio sicurta di ricorrer a lei dove io giudico che ella possa gionarmi, e favorirmi percioche non havendo io occasione da farle servigio, almeno cosi chider spesso beneficij da lei, et spesso ricevergli, cercherò di confermarmi in possesso della gratis sua. V[ostra]. S[antita]. ha da sapere che il Card[ina]l[e]. Morone per nome de' Signori Deputati del Popolo Romano sopra la stampa, ha dimandato a N[ostro]. S[igno]re. che voglia conceder licenza a Christoforo Plantino, stampatore in Anversa, di ristampare il nuovo Breviario p[er)] uso et commodità di quel Regno, N[ostro]. S[igno]re. se n'è contentato, et ha commesso che si facci il Breve, nel quale si dica come S[ua]. S[anti]ta. da licenza al sopradetto Plantino, sole nella Fiandra, di ristampare il nuovo Breviario fatto in Roma, secondo la copia mandata di qua con la assistenza, di un Canonico di Anversa che si chiama Dovere: e saria bisogno haver il detto Breve prestissimo cosi mi ha mandato a dire il Card[ina][le]. Morone per bocca di m[astro] Pirro Tharo, accioche io ne parli col S[igno]r[e]. Padre di V[ostra]. S[antita]. il che non ho potuto fare trovandomi mezzo indisposto, prego V[ostra]. S[antita]. a voler procurare questo effetto, che ne saro grandemente tenuto alla cortesia sua, e con offerirmi e raccomandarmi, le bacio la mano. Di casa a XX. di Novembre [1568].

[signed] Paolo Manutio

Appendix II
Letter of cardinal Alfonso Gesualdo to pope Pius v, 8 march 1572 (Archivio segreto Vaticano, sec. brev. 20, fol: 329 r-v)

Molto R[everendo]. S([ign]or[e].
Ho' rivisto l'officio della Madonna ultimamente sta[m]pato il quale mi pare che si potrebbe ristampare secondo l'intentione di N[ostro]. S[igno]re. con ponervi solamente l'infrascritte cose
Tabula literarum Dominicaliiu[m]
Cyclus decem novennalis Aurei numerij.
Tabula festoru[m] mobiliu[m]
Quando celebrantur quatuor tempora
Nuptiae iuxta decretum Concilij Tridentinj * [the first 5 entries are struck through with a single diagonal line]
Calendarium
Institutio Christiana
In principio erat verbum [Evang - written in left margin]
Officiu[m] Beatae Mariae idem in Adventu[m], idem post adventu[m]
Officiu[m] defunctoru[m]
Septem psalmi poenitentiales cu[m] laetanijs, et suis orationibus
Officiu[m] sanctae Crucis
Officiu[m] sancti spiritus
Exercitiu[m] quotidianu[m]
Oratio praeparatoria ad confessionem sacramentalem
Oratio ante confessionem
Post confessionem (fol. 329 v)
Orationes ante communionem
Post communionem
Orationes quae dicuntur in adoratione crucis
Oratio ad beatam Virginem
Commendatio ad eandem
psalmus in tribulatione
Symbolum S. Athanasij
b Itinerarium
a Passionib[us] evangelia [written in - to precede Itinerarium]

 

In questo modo il volume verrebbe un terzo più basso et sarebbe più comodo, et tutte le sopradette cose mi pareno non solo utile mà necessarie per essercitare la pietà, et devotione d'un Cristiano, et per quanto Io ho possuto vedere non vi è cosa apocrifa, ne che possa generare scandolo, pure mi rimetto à quel che più prudentem[en]te. comandarà la S([anti]ta. sua, dalla quale placerà à V[ostro]. S[ignore]. pigliar q[ue]llo ordine, che più le sarà servitio di dare intorno ristampare di questi officiolj, i quali con tanta divotione s'aspettano, et desiderano; Resta solo che ricorda à V[ostro]. S[ignore]. che s'havrebbeno da scrivere due brevj, uno al stampator[e] di Napolj, et un'altro al Plantino in Fiandra, l'uno, et l'altro di loro persone approbatissime, et cattolice, Et per fine à V[ostro]. S[ignore]. mi racco[m]mando.

Di Casa à di 8. di Marzo 1572.

Il car[dinale] [Alfonso] Gesualdo


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