The Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers (better known as the Stationers' Company) is one of the Livery Companies of the City of London. For London as a whole see the main article London. The City of London is a geographically The Stationers' Company was founded in 1403; it received a Royal Charter in 1557. A Royal Charter is a Charter granted by the Sovereign on the advice of the Privy council to legitimize an incorporated body such as a city company It held a monopoly over the publishing industry and was officially responsible for setting and enforcing copyright regulations until the passage of the Statute of Anne in 1709. Copyright is a legal concept enacted by Governments, giving the creator of an original work of authorship Exclusive rights to control its distribution usually for The Statute of Anne ( Short title Copyright Act 1709 8 Anne c
Today, the Company mostly carries out ceremonial functions, and contributes to educational charities. All its members work in the book or allied trades. In the order of precedence of the Livery Companies of London, the Stationers' and Newspaper Makers' Company is forty-seventh. An order of precedence is a sequential hierarchy of nominal importance of items
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History
In 1403, the City of London Corporation approved the formation of a Guild of stationers. The City of London Corporation (formerly known as the Corporation of London)is the municipal governing body of the City of London. Stationery has historically meant a wide gamut of materials Paper and Office supplies, Writing implements Greeting cards etc At this time, stationers were either booksellers, illuminators, or bookbinders[1]. An illuminated manuscript is a Manuscript in which the text is supplemented by the addition of decoration such as decorated Initials borders and Bookbinding is the process of physically assembling a Book from a number of folded or unfolded sheets of Paper or other material Booksellers sold manuscript books that they or their employees had copied. They also sold the writing materials that they used. Illuminators illustrated and decorated manuscripts.
Printing gradually displaced manuscript production and, by the time that the Guild received a royal charter of incorporation on May 4, 1557, it was in effect a Printers' Guild. In 1559, it became the 47th livery company. It was based in Peter College, which it bought from St Paul's Cathedral. St Paul's Cathedral, is the Anglican Cathedral on Ludgate Hill, in the City of London, and the seat of the Bishop of London. During the Tudor and Stuart periods, the Stationers were legally empowered to seize "offending books" that violated the standards of content set by the Church and State; its officers could bring "offenders" before ecclesiastical authorities, including the Bishop of London and Archbishop of Canterbury. The Tudor dynasty or House of Tudor was an English royal Dynasty that lasted 118 years from 1485 to 1603 a period known as the Tudor period The House of Stuart or Stewart was a Royal house of the Kingdom of Scotland, later also of the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Thus the Stationers played an important role in the culture of England as it evolved through the intensely turbulent decades of the Protestant Reformation and toward the English Civil War. The Protestant Reformation was a reform movement in Europe that began in 1517 though its roots lie further back in time The English Civil War (1642-1651 was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists.
The Stationers' charter, establishing a monopoly on book production, ensured that once a member had asserted ownership of a text (or "copy") no other member would publish it. In Economics, a monopoly (from Greek monos, alone or single + polein, to sell exists when a specific individual or enterprise has sufficient This is the origin of the term "copyright". Copyright is a legal concept enacted by Governments, giving the creator of an original work of authorship Exclusive rights to control its distribution usually for Members asserted such ownership by entering it in the "entry book of copies" or the Stationers' Company Register. The Stationers' Register was a record book maintained by the Stationers' Company of London The Register of the Stationers' Company became one of the most essential documentary records in the later study of English Renaissance theatre. English Renaissance theatre is English drama written between the Reformation and the closure of the theatres in 1642. [2] (In 1606 the Master of the Revels, who was responsible for licensing the performance of plays rather than their publication, acquired some overlapping authority over publication as well; but the Stationers Register remained a crucial source of information after that date too. The Master of the Revels was a position within the British royal household heading the "Revels Office" or "Office of the Revels" that originally ) To be sure, enforcement of the rules was always a challenge, in this area as in other aspects of the Tudor/Stuart regime; and plays and other works were sometimes printed surreptitiously and illegally (as often happens under regimes with strong censorship controls). Censorship is the suppression of speech or deletion of communicative material which may be considered objectionable harmful or sensitive as determined by a censor
In 1603, the Stationers formed the English stock, a joint stock publishing company funded by shares held by members of the Company. This profitable business gained many patents of which the richest was for almanacks including Old Moore's Almanack. Old Moore’s Almanack is an Almanac which has been published in Britain since 1697. The business employed out of work printers and disbursed some of the profit to the poor.
In 1606, the Company bought Abergavenny House in Ave Maria Lane and moved out of Peters College. Ave Maria Lane is a street in the City of London, to the west of St Paul's Cathedral. The new hall burnt down in the Great Fire of 1666 along with books to the value of about £40,000. This article is about the Great Fire of 1666 For other great fires in London see Early fires of London or Second Great Fire of London. It was rebuilt. Its present interior is much as it was when it reopened in 1673. The Court Room was added in 1748 and in 1800 the external façade was remodelled to its present form. Year 1748 ( MDCCXLVIII) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Year -of the Julian calendar. The Gregorian calendar was 11 days ahead of the Julian calendar until Friday, but 12 days ahead since Saturday.
In 1695, the monopoly power of the Stationers' Company was diminished, and in 1710 Parliament passed the Copyright Act 1709, the first copyright act. Year 1710 ( MDCCX) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar or a Common year The Parliament of England was the Legislature of the Kingdom of England. The Statute of Anne ( Short title Copyright Act 1709 8 Anne c
The Company established a school in Bolt Court, Fleet Street in 1858 for the education of sons of members of the Company. Fleet Street is a street in London, England named after the River Fleet. Year 1858 ( MDCCCLVIII) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common In 1894, the school moved to Hornsey in north London. Year 1894 ( MDCCCXCIV) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Hornsey is a district in London Borough of Haringey in north London in England It closed in 1983. Year 1983 ( MCMLXXXIII) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1983 Gregorian calendar)
Registration under the Copyright Act 1911 ended in December 1923; the Company then established a voluntary register in which copyrights could be recorded to provide printed proof of ownership in case of disputes.
In 1937, a Royal Charter amalgamated the Stationers' Company and the Newspaper Makers Company, which had been founded six years earlier, into the Company of the present name.
References
- ^ Patterson, Lyman Ray (1968). Lyman Ray Patterson ( 18 February 1929 &ndash 5 November 2003) was an American law professor and an influential copyright scholar Copyright in Historical Perspective. Copyright in Historical Perspective is an influential work of Copyright scholarship by Lyman Ray Patterson. Vanderbilt University Press.
- ^ Chambers, E. K. (1923). Sir Edmund Kerchever Chambers (1866&ndash1954 was an English literary critic and Shakespearean scholar The Elizabethan Stage. 4 Volumes, Oxford, Clarendon Press; Vol. 3, pp. 160-77, 186-91.
See also
External links
The printing patent or printing privilege was a precursor of modern Copyright.Dapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic