This conference focuses on the history of early modern printing privileges, highlighting the close relationship between legal frameworks and the politics of knowledge. Printing privileges were essential for the circulation of ideas in the early modern period. Because their validity was geographically limited, they spurred fierce competition and cooperation, with authors and printers operating across borders. This conference examines how this worked in practice and how this affected the nature of knowledge production and circulation. Some of the themes and questions to explore in that context are:
Formalities and Actors
- Who was entrusted with the task of reviewing applications? What role did cultural brokers and experts play? What was the importance of classification systems, depositories, or other paper tools and technologies? What can be said about social networks within the privilege system? Who collaborated with whom? And how did printing privileges affect the notion of authorship?
Epistemological Transformations
- How did printing privileges affect the nature of circulating knowledge? How did, for example, the authorities determine and shape dividing lines between different fields of knowledge? Were there geographic variations in terms of the topics (e.g., religion, medicine, astronomy) or the persons and institutions privileged, or did this evolve over time? If so, how can we interpret this?
Piracy and Penalties
- How were privileges enforced and upheld, in practice? Who was responsible for identifying transgressions, by what standards, and before which judges? Was there any systematic opposition to the notion of exclusive ownership, and if so in what form? Is there evidence of fines being administered? What about reprinting and piracy?
The conference will take place in person at the Norwegian Institute at Athens, 14-15 December 2023.