The number of works for which copyright was secured varied very much from year to year. The largest number of entries during the century was one hundred and seventeen in 1561, and the smallest seven, in 1599. The decrease during the last quarter of the century was in part due to the Great Plague.

There were but two instances during the century in which the Senate refused to grant an application for copyright, one of these refusals being for the Lettere Amorose of Pasqualigo. While the greater number of the copyrights were issued in the names of the publishers, there is, after the middle of the sixteenth century, an increasing number of entries in the names of the authors. A copyright was given, in 1515, to Ariosto for his Orlando, to last for his lifetime; and in 1535, a copyright was given to his heirs for a period of ten years for certain of the poet’s works. Copyrights were also issued directly to Tasso, Aretino, Giraldi, and other authors.

The making of maps and charts formed, as was natural in a great centre of commerce, an important feature in the publishing of Venice; while in company with these, there were long lists of works of travel and adventure. Early in the sixteenth century, the production of engravings, on wood and on copper, grew to be a considerable industry. In 1521, a copyright was issued to Castellazzo for certain illustrations for the Pentateuch which he had engraved and for certain others which he had in plan.

During the whole of the century, Venice continued to be the chief publishing centre in Europe for Greek literature, and a place of resort for Greek scholars. Its presses also became noted for the printing of books in Hebrew. This latter industry, however, had to encounter no little opposition on the part of the Government, an opposition in the main due to jealousy of the ecclesiastical censors, who dreaded the heresies that might be hidden in the unknown tongue. The dread was, however, one that might be overcome if the inducement were sufficient. The printer Bomberg, who had been refused a renewal of his ten years’ privilege for his Hebrew publications, made fresh application with successive offers of one hundred, one hundred and fifty, and three hundred ducats, all of which were rejected. A fourth offer of five hundred ducats, however, finally secured the desired privilege. Privileges were granted in 1498, and again early in the sixteenth century, for the printing of works in Arabic and in other Oriental languages, but the total number of Arabic books issued appears to have been small. Beginning with the year 1565, there are from time to time examples of publications in Armenian. The list of musical works produced and copyrighted during the century was large and important.

Heretical books could be presented to the Holy Office by denunciations submitted without signature. If the court held that there was ground for prosecution, the charges were formulated and the accused was directed to appear for his defence within eight days from the publication of the summons. The writers and the printers of heretical books appear to have been considered about equally guilty, while the offence of keeping such books for sale (even though ignorance of their contents could be shown) was also a very grave one. In the great majority of cases, the accused allowed judgment to go by default.

Paolo Sarpi, who became the champion of the cause of the independence of the State against ecclesiastical domination, comes into the history of literature as the upholder of the rights of authors and of publishers against the crushing censorship of the Inquisition. The problem presented to the Venetian Government was: whether the Venetian Press, supported in its liberty by the Government, should continue to maintain its character as the freest Press in Europe (and therefore one with the most active production); or whether it should be permitted, for want of the support of the Government, to fall under the repressive influence of the Inquisition and the Index.

The earliest instance of a censorial order on the subject of books in Venetian territory, and also in Italy, is the order issued in 1491 by Franco, Bishop of Treviso and Papal Legate. This decree prohibited anyone from printing, or from causing or permitting to be printed, any books treating of the Catholic faith or of matters ecclesiastical, without the express permission of the Bishop or Vicar-General of the diocese. The Legate proceeded at once to name two works, Rosselli’s Monarchia and Mirandola’s Theses, which were absolutely prohibited, and all existing copies of which were to be burned in the cathedral or in the parish churches within fifteen days from the publication of the decree.[153] There was no charge that these works were in any way immoral or scandalous. They were condemned simply on the ground of the unsoundness of their doctrine. The contention raised in this order on behalf of the Church was far-reaching. If it were heretical to discuss, in a sense at all hostile to the Curia, the relative powers of the Pope and the Emperor, there would be an implied right in the Church to censure and to condemn any political writings in which the authority of the Pope or the responsibilities of the Emperor were referred to.

It became, in fact, the keystone of the ecclesiastical position that in the case of the Church no separation was possible between politics and ecclesiastical dogma. The work which had been condemned to the flames had been dedicated to the Doge Foscari, but the Government appears to have taken no notice of the Bishop’s decree.

In 1544, the University of Paris published a catalogue of books adjudged worthy of censure, and, in 1546, the University of Louvain issued a similar catalogue of books which had been condemned by its Faculty of Theology. The first Italian catalogue or index of censurable books was that of La Casa, printed in Venice, either in 1548 or in 1549. No copy is known to exist, and the precise date is a matter of dispute. La Casa was the Papal Nuncio, and his catalogue may, therefore, be considered as the act of the Holy See, differing in this respect from the black lists issued in Louvain and in Paris.

In 1554, the Inquisition first takes action in regard to books, publishing a catalogue based upon that of La Casa and the Milan Index of Arcimboldi. This catalogue of the Inquisition was largely utilised for the first Index issued from Rome, that of Paul IV. In the year 1558, the Inquisition in Venice issued a decree forbidding importers from taking any books out of bond until they had deposited with the tribunal a full list of the books imported. Such a list rendered, of course, comparatively easy the subsequent seizure in the shops of any works considered heretical or suspicious. As, under the laws of 1562, the Inquisition had secured the right to take part in the censorship required for the imprimaturs, it now possessed supervision over all the literature supplied to the Venetian public.

The first Roman Index was that published in 1559 by Paul IV., under the title of: Index auctorum et librorum qui ab officio sanctæ Romanæ et universalis Inquisitionis caveri ab omnibus et singulis in universa Christiana Republica Mandantur. The Index was divided into three lists: first, the names of those authors each and all of whose works, whether published or to be published, were absolutely prohibited; second, names of writers certain of whose works (the titles of which were given) were prohibited; third, the titles of anonymous books prohibited. At the close of the Index appears a list of sixty-one printers with a prohibition of all works printed by them. In this list there is but one Venetian name, that of Francesco Riccioli. Throughout Italy, the Index was received either coldly or with hostility. The Viceroy of Naples and the Governor of Milan refused to allow it to be published in their dominions. In Venice it appears never to have been in force, while the Government of Florence waited to see what action would be taken in other countries. In Spain, permission to print the Index was refused, and in Paris it was never published.

In the year 1562, the Council of Trent turned its attention to the question of book-trade, and, after a long discussion, appointed a committee of eighteen members to examine into the subject, and to draft a decree, together with a revised Index.

The Tridentine Index is based upon the Index of Paul IV. Both devote almost their entire space to works of heresy, giving but trifling consideration to the question of immoral literature. The Tridentine Index presents ten rules for guidance in the enlargement and continuation of the Index. It introduces also the formula donec corrigatur. This formula signified either a temporary or partial prohibition of a work not absolutely condemned, or a conditional permission for its continued sale, provided that, in all copies of existing editions, the condemned passages were either blotted out or corrected by pen, while in all subsequent editions they were to be omitted or modified. The fifth rule provided that all booksellers must have in their shops a list of the books which they kept on sale, such list being signed by the Inquisitor and the Bishop’s delegate; and they were forbidden to have, to sell, or to distribute any other books than those on said list, under penalty of forfeiture of the books and of such other punishment as might be ordered by the Inquisition. Under the seventh rule, one who had imported books was forbidden to give or to loan them for the reading of another, or to part with them in any way without written permission. The eighth rule provided that heirs were to submit to the authorities a list of books inherited by them, before using or parting with any of them. The ninth rule gave to Bishop and Inquisitors-General the authority to forbid within their diocese or provinces books other than those which appeared in the Index. This Tridentine Index appears to have been recognised at once as the authoritative utterance of the Church on the subject of books, and to have been very generally circulated. It was printed in Venice by the Aldine Press, and it was printed ten times subsequently between 1564 and 1593. The whole position of the censorship of the Press, as well in Venice as in the other publishing centres of Italy, was essentially modified through the publication of the Tridentine Index. The coöperation or approval of the secular authority, which, in Venice at least, had kept in its own hands the nominal control of the censorship, was now disregarded; while the powers of the Inquisition and the range of its detailed supervision were widely extended.

The stringent effects of the Index and the Rules soon made their influence felt upon the publishing and book-selling trade throughout Europe. In 1581, the Dominican Castiglione writes: “The Inquisitors frequently publish orders forbidding the sale of this or that work. The booksellers are no longer willing, therefore, to take the risk of importing books, while they are frequently prevented from selling those already in stock. There must be in Rome at present unsalable books to the amount of several thousand scudi.”

As early, in fact, as 1565, just after the publication of the Index, Josias Simler writes: “A new Index has appeared wherein so many books are condemned that a number of professors in the Italian universities complain they cannot lecture if the edict remains in force. Frankfort and Zurich and other German cities have written to the Senate of Venice, urging it not to accept an edict whereby the book-trade will be ruined.” As a matter of fact, the Italian book-trade with Germany was all but destroyed, while the home book-trade was isolated and gradually starved.

As it was in Venice that the importing as well as the publishing business had been the most important, so it was the Venetian book-trade which now suffered more seriously than that of any other Italian city. The relations of Venice with Germany were particularly close, and the annals of the Frankfort as well as of the Zurich publishers give frequent instances of works of importance being undertaken in coöperation with Houses in Venice, and of the division with such Houses of editions of books which had already been printed.

The Venetian Government, however, accepted in full the authority of the Council of Trent in the matter, and, in 1567, new regulations for the book-trade were drawn up, based upon the ten Tridentine Rules. From this date, the number of Holy Office trials for offences of the Press shows a steady increase. In the year 1571, Pope Pius V. instituted the Congregation of the Index for the purpose of dealing with all questions relating to the examination, prohibition, or expurgation of books; and in the year 1588, Sixtus V. ordered the Congregation to draw up a new and enlarged edition of the Tridentine Index. This contained large additions to the lists of prohibited books, and amplified the ten Rules to twenty-two.

In 1596, appeared the Clementine Index, of Clement VIII., and shortly thereafter, friction arose between Rome and Venice in connection with the supervision of the Press. In 1593, Maximus Margounios, a learned Greek, who was Bishop of Cythera, was resident in Venice, and was engaged in editing numerous Greek works for the Venetian publishers. He had made himself obnoxious to the authorities at Rome for certain heretical utterances, and he was summoned to appear at the Vatican. He declined to leave Venice and the Senate refused to give him up. In July, 1593, Paruta, the Ambassador of Venice at the Vatican, submitted to the Pope a vigorous protest against the publication of the Clementine Index, which was then in readiness, but which the Pope was still keeping under advisement. Paruta set forth before the Pope the various grounds for objection to the proposed Index:

1st. The great commercial importance of the book-trade in Venice, which he represented as exceeding that of any city in Europe;

2d. The contention that the book-trade was in itself worthy of protection and consideration;

3d. That a sufficient censorship was already exercised by the imprimaturs of the Council of Ten, which were not conceded without the testamurs of the examiners, among whom was the Inquisitor;

4th. The fact that the publication of this Index would destroy the property and might cause the ruin of many who, believing it safe as long as they kept within the regulations of the Council of Trent, had published books which were now to be prohibited in the Clementine Index;

5th. That the new Index not only made long additions to the lists of prohibited books, but proposed a radical change in the standard of prohibition. A great number of books were now to be condemned which did not touch at all upon ecclesiastical or religious questions, simply on the ground of some trivial expressions having nothing to do with dogma;

6th. The importance for the Church of keeping the men of learning throughout the world well affected, and the certainty that they would be very much troubled by any measures which interfered with scholarly undertakings and with the distribution of important literature.

Venetian publishers had interested themselves largely in the production of non-religious books, such as editions of the classics, the writings of the poets, and romances, and Paruta was especially anxious to prevent this class of publications from being interfered with, and took pains, therefore, to emphasise that it had no importance for the purposes of the Church. The arguments of Paruta, and similar protests which came to Rome from Germany and from Paris had the effect of convincing the Pope that some modifications in his Index were necessary. The matter remained in abeyance for some four months longer, when the Index was finally printed, but much altered and diminished. Among the omissions from the first lists were the titles of the whole class of non-religious books printed in Venice, in behalf of which Paruta had spoken.

In the year 1594, Clement VIII. granted to a Venetian publisher, Domenico Bassa, a copyright of a very comprehensive character. It covered, in the first place, a specific list of books (which was attached to the order), and, secondly, all other books of which Bassa should issue the first editions, and gave him full control of the same for the term of ten years. Any persons infringing this copyright were to be subjected to fines, confiscation of their books, and excommunication. The privilege covered territory both within and without Italy. The book-trade of Venice petitioned the Government against the continuance of any such privilege, contending that it was calculated to bring immoderate gains to one man, and that if it were fully enforced, the Venetian publishers would be compelled either to emigrate to Rome or to abandon their business. The Venetian Government instructed its Ambassador, Paruta, to protest against this extraordinary monopoly granted to Bassa, as well because of its interference with interests of the home book-trade, as on the broader ground that it was an assault upon the independence of the Republic. He also contended that there was no precedent for the use in purely lay matters of ecclesiastical weapons.

The Pope replied that according to his understanding, the copyright given to Bassa applied only to books in the Vatican library, but that he would refer the matter to the Congregation of the Index.

Paruta reported to his Government that Bassa was bankrupt, and that the Venetian publishers need not fear his competition. It was, further, his impression that Bassa had obtained the privilege principally as a “bluff” to his creditors. The privilege was not recalled, but does not appear ever to have been utilised by Bassa. Much to the discontent of Venice, however, the precedent remained of authority claimed if not exercised by Rome over copyrights throughout Italy. The Clementine Index was published in 1596, and, as finally framed, modified very materially the severe regulations of the Sistine Index of 1590.

Between the years 1564 and 1596, the Inquisitorial censorship of books had been weighing more and more heavily on the publishers and booksellers in Venice and throughout Italy. The Indexes which had appeared since the issue of La Casa’s Catalogue had so increased the number of unpublishable books, many of them forming a large staple in the trade of Venetian publishers, that the interests of these publishers, and particularly their export trade, had suffered severely. The attempt had been made to take away the right of the Venetian printers to print Bibles and missals, and to restrict the printing of such books to Rome. The business was interfered with for a time, but the attempt to stop it altogether was in the end successfully resisted.

In spite of Paruta’s opinion that Venetian interests had been sufficiently consulted, the printers and booksellers at once appealed to the Senate for support against the new Index. The negotiations lasted for some months, but in the end the Pope gave way on the more important points complained of, and a Declaration or Concordat was agreed upon which lessened, as far as Venice was concerned, the stringency of some of the more objectionable features of the Index. When this Concordat had been signed, the Senate authorised the publication of the Index. The most important clause in the Concordat was the seventh, which provided that the right of the Bishops and Inquisitors to prohibit books which are not on the present Index, should refer only to books which attacked religion, or which were printed outside of Venice, or which were issued with a false imprint. This right was to be exercised only on just cause shown, and with the consent of the three lay assessors. This limitation of the ecclesiastical Inquisition to purely religious or theological questions constituted a most valuable precedent in the long fight between the Church and the secular authorities concerning the control of the Press. The fifth clause drew a nice distinction: Printers were forbidden to use lascivious woodcuts, but they might use cuts which were profane without being lascivious.

A few months before the arrangement of the Concordat, and while the settlement was still pending, the Senate had published a decree condemning the practice which had begun to come into vogue among the publishers and printers of Venice of applying to Rome for privileges and monopolies. The Senate announced that any privileges that had been thus obtained must be renounced or they would be disregarded and prohibited, under penalty of a fine of ten ducats, any future attempts to secure, either directly or indirectly, publishing privileges from any authority other than the officials appointed for the purpose by the Government of the Republic.

The Concordat was the last arrangement arrived at between Rome and Venice on the matter of the supervision of the Press until the year 1766. During the century and a half following the date of the Concordat, repeated attempts were made by the Holy See to induce the Venetian Government to authorise the publication of an augmented Index, but the Republic had persistently refused. The list of new prohibitions finally accepted in 1766 was announced as juxta formam concordatorum.

The contest of 1596 gave evidence of a material change in the attitude of Venice towards the Church since the passing of the law of 1562. The tone of the Government had become suspicious and hostile. While it was still ready to leave to the Church the responsibility of supervising matters which were purely theological or dogmatic, it objected decidedly to the attempts made by the Church to extend its control over all classes of literature, and still more to the tendency of the Church to utilise the censorship of literature as a means of asserting its authority over the State as a whole.

The varying phases of the long contest between the Papacy and the other Catholic States of the world, had of necessity an important influence upon the stability and upon the value of literary property, and, in fact, in not a few instances, upon its existence. When the promulgation of a new Index could, without warning, stop the sale and therefore destroy the selling value of a book or of a series of books, the readiness of the publishers to invest capital in literary undertakings must have been not a little hampered, and the possibility of securing from such undertakings any adequate returns for the authors was much lessened.

The efforts of the Church to extend its control over all literature and to enforce a general censorship which should expurgate and, if it seemed necessary, re-shape books in every division of thought, hampered enormously the development of literature and of publishing not only in Italy but in Spain and France. In Germany and in England the Papacy was never permitted to interfere seriously with the production or the distribution of books.

It was not only in Venice and in Florence that the attempts of the Church of Rome to enlarge its control over the Press excited active opposition. King Philip II. had refused to permit the promulgation in Spain of the Tridentine Index and its ten Rules. He wrote to his ambassador at Rome that, “Spain has her own special Index and her own special Rules on the prohibition of books. It cannot be permitted to Rome to place her under general orders. Books which in one country may be innocuous, in another may be dangerous.”

Between 1596 and 1623, the contest of Venice to retain in the hands of its own Government the control of its printing and publishing, continued with varying success. The contention that it endeavoured to establish was that the Holy Office was not and could not be a separate and independent power in the State; but that the Inquisition could take action in Venetian territory (in regard not only to the censorship of books but to matters of any kind) only through the consent of the Government.

The theory was that the Government could delegate some particular function to be performed by an ecclesiastic official, and that (even though such official should be selected by the Church) he would, in fulfilling such function, be an officer of the State. Under such a theory, the idea was preserved of the independence of the State. This view of the organisation of the censorship was preserved under the provisions of the Concordat, and the Concordat soon became, therefore, an object of attack by the Church. The further contention of the Venetians that the duties of the ecclesiastical Inquisitor should be limited to questions of theology and dogma could be more easily evaded by the Church, for it raised the wide question—what is heretical? and what is the limit of dogma?

In the face of many difficulties, however, the Republic succeeded for some years in maintaining its position, and fought hard to protect its book-trade from further burdens. After securing the Concordat from an unwilling Pope, and insisting upon the enforcing of its provisions, it succeeded in absolutely preventing any public and official enlargement of the Index within Venetian territory. It is evident, notwithstanding, that even with the restricted powers conceded by the Concordat, the Index, and the Inquisition were able largely to increase the rigour of their censorship, and the results of their supervision and interference were shown in the very considerable decline in printing and publishing undertakings immediately after 1596. Within a few months of the publication of the Index, and in spite of the protection of the Concordat, the presses of Venice were reduced from one hundred and twenty-five to forty. The copyright entries which, in 1596, had aggregated twenty-four, amounted in 1597 to only seven.

It was evident that the attempts of the Republic to protect publishing undertakings and to further literary production had not been successful, and that the failure was in the main due to the relation of the Venetians to the Church. The effect of the Concordat in lessening the burdens of the censorship under the Index was in great part nullified by the labours of the clergy, who, for the purpose of carrying out the policy of the Church, made full use of the powerful instrumentality of the confessional.

The confessors announced to their penitents that books condemned in Rome were prohibited for believers; and as a rule such books, although not included in any Index accepted by the Republic, could find no sale in Venice. While other causes also contributed to the extinction of the prestige of the Venetian Press, and to the very great decline in its business, the chief responsibility for such decline must rest with the Church for its persistent hostility to the smallest measure of freedom of the Press, and for its insistence upon restrictive measures of censorship which were absolutely incompatible with publishing activity and with literary production.

Between 1605 and 1650, a number of issues were fought over, issues connected sometimes with the control by the State Government of ecclesiastics accused of crimes or misdemeanours, sometimes with the control exercised by the Church over ecclesiastical property within the borders of the Republic, and again with the relations of the Jesuits and Capuchins to the law of the State. Venice was fighting for her civil and secular independence; while the Pope had declared his position when he announced that he would not submit to be Pope everywhere save in Venice. Paul addressed a monitorium to the clergy of Venice, threatening excommunication to the Doge and Senate and interdict upon the Republic. The Doge forbade the publication of the monitorium, and the excommunication and interdict came into operation.

While all the business of the Republic necessarily suffered, its export trade in books was, for a time, brought practically to a standstill. The interdict lasted for a little more than a year, when it was finally removed under a compromise settlement brought about through the French Ambassador.

The most prominent figure in the whole of the struggle of this period between Venice and the Papacy was Fra Paolo Sarpi. Cleric though he were, he contended vigorously that the Church was embarking upon a wrong course, and he held that the State was justified in resisting, in secular matters, ecclesiastical encroachments upon the rights of the sovereign. In the end, notwithstanding some temporary success on the part of the State Governments of Italy, the Papacy succeeded in establishing nearly all of its contentions, including a rigorous censorship of the Press and the resulting limitations in literary activities.

The fight made by Sarpi on behalf of the independence of the State, and particularly of the right of the State to supervise and control its literary productions was, notwithstanding, of first importance for the intellectual activities of Europe. The arguments used in Venice were repeated in Madrid, Paris, Zurich, and Oxford. Time was gained for authors and for printers until, largely by means of the presses which the Church was endeavouring to throttle, the spirit of resistance to the domination of the Papacy and the feeling of national independence against the right of Rome to lay down the law for Europe had gathered so much strength that the claims of the Church were either withdrawn or very much moderated.

In 1602, an instance occurred of censorship on the part of the Church not for the expression of heretical opinions, but for the omission from a work of authority of certain passages which the Church considered to be important. The work was a commentary by Suarez on the Tractate De Censuris of Thomas Aquinas. The permission to the booksellers Ciotto and Franceschi to print the volume was given by the Venetian censorship only on condition of the omission of the passages in question. The Congregation of the Index at Rome thereupon forbade said booksellers to continue the printing of the work (the publication of which was stigmatised as a crimen falsi) under penalty of excommunication.

The omitted passages contained attacks upon the temporal authority of princes. Sarpi pointed out that the formula of the imprimatur was unwisely worded, in that it expressed the “approbation” of the Government for the works issued, thus assuming on the part of the State a practical approval of the doctrines contained in such work. The term should, he suggested, be modified to “with the permission.”

In 1611, Thomas Preston, writing under the nom de plume of Roger Widdrington, published his Apologia Cardinalis Bellarmini, and in 1613, his Disputatio Theologica. Both works were placed on the Index by a special decree of the Congregation, Nisi auctor quam primum se purgaverit.

The Nuncio in Venice begged that the decree might be published and enforced upon Venetian booksellers. The Government, acting under Sarpi’s advice, refused to allow the prohibition to take effect in Venice, on the two grounds that the theological doctrines taught by Widdrington were sound and orthodox, and that his arguments against the pernicious doctrine of the temporal authority of the Pope over princes were eminently worthy of dissemination. It will be noted that the Nuncio had in his application expressly conceded one of the principal contentions of the Republic that no Roman prohibition was valid in Venice until confirmed by the Government.

In 1615, Andrea Morosini completed his History of Venice, in which he had occasion to deal with the question of Interdict. The Venetian Inquisition refused to sign the testamur, which was requisite before the Council of Ten could grant an imprimatur. Paolo Morosini, who was in charge of his brother’s work, appealed to the Senate, and secured a declaration to the effect that the narrative in the History was an exact and trustworthy account, that the Inquisitor drew his authority to act from no other power than the Republic, that that authority extended only to the supervision of books having to do with questions of faith, and that no such questions came into the History. The Government thereupon ordered the immediate publication of the book without the testamur, and with the words superiorum permissu. It is to be noted that the prohibition of Rome probably prevented the sale of the book in Italy outside of Venice, and must, therefore, have materially lessened the prospects of profit for author or publisher.

There were also instances of books which were approved by the Church but the publication of which was considered detrimental to the interests of the State, and their sale in Venice was accordingly prohibited. One book of this class was the Recantation of the Archbishop of Spalato, printed in Rome in 1623, by the Apostolic printers. The Republic objected to the contention of the Archbishop that the Pope had power in things temporal as well as in things spiritual.

A second example is the History of the Council of Trent, by Cardinal Pallavicini, written in answer to Sarpi’s History. Through the Venetian Ambassador at Rome, Pallavicini made application for permission to sell his book in Venice. The application was refused on the ground that the History contained sentiments obnoxious to the Government of the Republic.

In a report written to the Government by Sarpi at this time, he takes the ground that the tendency on the part of the Church during the past few years has produced a whole series of books whose doctrines are entirely subversive of all secular government. They teach that no government but the ecclesiastical has a divine origin; that secular government is a thing profane and tyrannical which God permits to be imposed upon His people as a kind of trial or persecution; that the people are not in conscience bound to obey the secular law or to pay taxes; that the imposts and public subventions are, for the most part, iniquitous and unjust, and that the princes who impose these have in many cases been excommunicated, and that because of such excommunication of princes, death, want, and other public misfortunes have come upon their communities. In short, princes and rulers are held up to view as impious and unjust; subjects may have to obey them perforce, but, in conscience, they are free to do all that in them lies to break their yoke.

Sarpi goes on to point out that the prince who had first perceived the danger was Philip II. of Spain. The only books that he allowed to remain under the censorship of the Inquisition were missals, breviaries, and school-books. The censorship of all other literature was confided to a commission appointed by himself. Sarpi recalls that this had been the course taken also by the Republic, and emphasises the importance on the part of the Republic of retaining in its own hands a similar control of literary censorship. Sarpi closes his report by recommending the establishment of a code of general rules, behind which the ducal secretary can shelter himself from the importunate, the interested, and the over-zealous, and by means of which a consistent censorship policy can be maintained.

While Sarpi’s main purpose was the maintaining the independence of the State against the encroachments of the Papacy, the principles for which he contended were of first importance for the prosperity and, in fact, for the continued existence of the Venetian publishing interest. Unless the burden of Papal censorship could be lessened, literary production in Venice must cease. In the schemes submitted to the Government for a code of general rules by which was to be directed the system of political censorship, Sarpi specified four classes of writers whose books, in his judgment, ought to be placed upon the State Index:

I. Those who attack the Constitution of the Republic and its laws by name; II. Those who attack the laws and constitution adopted by the Republic without naming her; III. Those who, even within the limits of fair controversy, argue against the legislation of the State; IV. Those who attack no laws of the State, but who broadly maintain the absolute and universal superiority of the ecclesiastical over the temporal authority.

Sarpi further contended that “In the correction of books which are open to censure, it is not advisable to follow the practice of the Church in raking through the entrails of an author and altering the sense and the intention of whole passages, so that the writer is made to say the reverse of what he desired to say; first, because all the world stigmatises such action as falsification; secondly, because such conduct would bring upon Venice the infamous charge of castrating books; thirdly, because the Court of Rome assumes for itself the sole right to alter passages in books.” Sarpi concludes his report by submitting ten propositions, upon which he recommends the Government to take action:

I. The Index of 1595, having received the consent of the Prince, the books which appear upon it must remain there. II. For the future, no prohibition is to be permitted unless corroborated by public authority, as agreed upon in the Concordat. III. If ecclesiastics ask civil authorities for support in prohibition of heretical works, it must be granted to them after the works have been examined. IV. Under the title of heresy, dogmatical support of civil authority in its own proper sphere, is not to be included. V. Foreign books inimical to good government are to be absolutely prohibited. VI. In the reprints of books, nothing favourable to good government is to be removed. VII. In issuing these reprints, the old editions, before the ecclesiastical expurgations were made, are to be used. VIII. In printing the Index of 1595, no new names are to be allowed to creep in. IX. The prohibitions of the Inquisitor shall be confined entirely to heretical works. X. The Concordat shall always be printed along with the Index.

As well from these propositions as from the general course of the long controversy, it is evident that Venice was, ostensibly at least, as anxious as the Church could be for the purity of the Press. In fact, judging from the Indexes, this point had not caused the Church any particular anxiety. The unsettled question was, which should exercise the censorship over the offences of libel, scandal, and obscenity—the Church or the State. It was the opinion of Sarpi that all such books should be absolutely prohibited. The risk, as emphasised by Sarpi, was that the Concordat might fall into desuetude, leaving the Venetian Press completely under the control of the Inquisition and deprived of the bulwark which the State had secured for its defence.

The future justified his dread. The heat of the quarrel died away, and the Concordat was substantially forgotten. The Inquisition secured full control of the censorship. The Press of Venice came under the influence of the Index and the Rules. Its losses were greater than those of the other Presses that the Council of Trent had undertaken to regulate, for the reason that it had so much more to lose. From the beginning of the seventeenth century, the Venetian Printing-Press, although not destroyed, ceases to hold preëminence in Europe.

In 1601, the Senate took serious alarm at the emigration of the publishers and the printers. The latter took with them even the materials of their trade, their type, presses, and ink. A drastic law was at once passed making it illegal for any printer to leave Venice without the written authority of the Government, and prescribing severe penalties for any who undertook to sell for export the materials and instruments used in printing. This measure, severe as it was, appears not to have proved effective in checking the decline of printing, and, in 1603, the Senate undertook a general reform of the art. The new regulations included the following provisions:

None but official proof-readers were to be employed by the printers. These proof-readers were to be appointed by the Rifformatori. The manuscript copy and proofs were to be preserved as evidence that no alterations had been made after the examination for the imprimatur. A fine of twenty-five ducats was to be imposed upon every printer who should place the name Venetia on books not printed in Venice.

Terms of copyright were fixed as follows:

In the case of first editions for which the necessary testamur and imprimatur had been secured, the publisher or printer securing the first registry was to have a copyright for twenty years.

For books printed in Italy but not in Venice, the publisher who should secure a Venetian registry with the Guild was to have a copyright for ten years. A similar copyright was given for the reissue of books that had not been printed in Venice during the preceding twenty years. For new editions of books which had not been printed in Venice during the preceding ten years, a copyright of five years was to be conceded. All terms of copyright depended upon the condition that the printing was begun at once and was continued at the rate of not less than half a folio a day. There was a long list of regulations concerning the standard and quality of the paper, ink, and type. Books which were found after publication to be badly printed or full of typographical errors were to forfeit their copyright.

The measure was a comprehensive one, and ought to have proved of service in restoring the quality of Venetian editions if its provisions could have been enforced. There appears, however, to have been a lack of adequate machinery for such enforcement.

It was evidently intended that the Guild should become a sort of Stationers’ Hall for the registration of copyrights. No such register is now in existence, and there is some doubt as to its ever having actually been created.

In 1614, a new office was created in addition to the number already charged with the supervision of the Press. The incumbent was called the Superintendent of the Press, and his special duty appears to have been the passing upon the printers’ “copy” before this was put into the hands of the typesetters. In 1653, a fresh attempt was made to strengthen the Guild of Printers, for the purpose as well of improving the quality of Venetian printing, as of checking the increasing importations of foreign books. The tax on imported books was raised to eight ducats ($18) per hundred pounds.

In 1671, there were increasing complaints concerning the bad workmanship and inaccurate typography of Venetian editions, and also as to the non-delivery of the copyright copies for the libraries of S. Mark and of Padua. The failure to secure obedience to the various provisions of the press-law is not to be wondered at when we remember how complex these provisions were, and that there was practically no police machinery to utilise for their enforcement.

At the close of the seventeenth century, the following processes had to be gone through with before a book could be published: testamur from the Inquisitor; testamur from the ducal secretary; certificate from the Rifformatori of the University of Padua; imprimatur from the Chiefs of the Ten; revision by the Superintendent of the Press; revision by the public proof-reader; collation of the original text with the text as printed by the secretary to the Rifformatori; certificate from the librarian of S. Mark that a copy had been deposited in the library; examination by experts appointed by the Proveditori to establish the market price of the book.

In connection with the majority of these operations a fee was required. The failure to secure any one of the several testamurs or imprimaturs delayed or indefinitely blocked the publication of the book. This stopping of the publication might be made necessary only after a considerable outlay had been incurred by the publisher in addition to the expenditure of labour and time on the part of the author. It is not to be wondered at that with such heavy burdens and annoying obstacles literary production should have lessened, and publishing enterprise and investment have been checked. It is only surprising that under such a complex machinery of supervision publishing should have continued possible at all. It is certain that the possibility of securing from the business remunerative returns had, by the close of the seventeenth century, very much diminished, and that there must have been a corresponding reduction in the earnings of literary labour. By the beginning of the seventeenth century, the centre of literary production and of publishing activity had been transferred from Italy to Germany, from Venice and Rome to Zurich, Frankfort, and Leipzig.