Browsing through old books looking for more weird clocks to animate. This book contained an unsurprising verification of my observation that censorship is universal and natural.
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Upon the introduction of printing it was found that the facility with which the copies of books could be multiplied might occasion the circulation of works that were contrary to religion and the established order of government. The different states of Europe, therefore, everywhere adopted the general rule that no one should be allowed to establish a printing-press without express permission; and that no work should be printed until it had been revised by persons appointed for that purpose, and had obtained their formal sanction.
The expediency of the measure was not then questioned, and although it had not been previously enforced as a general regulation, yet the principle that every government possessed an inherent right to prevent the publication of writings that were considered inimical to the interests of society was universally admitted, and had been acted upon from the most remote antiquity.
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And here’s a surprising (to me) fact about the origin of copyrights.
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Soon after the establishment of censors, authors began to obtain a special privilege for printing their works, which secured to them the exclusive right of publication. The most ancient known privilege was granted by the Bishop of Bamberg in 1490 for a book entitled Liber missalis secundem ordinem ecclesiæ Bambergensis.
The first formal patent of this kind was granted in 1590 by Queen Elizabeth to Richard Weight of Oxford for a translation of Tacitus.
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In other words, the privilege of copying a book is THE SAME as the privilege of publishing it at all. Copyright wasn’t about money, it was just an approval by the censors.
The two facts fit together nicely.
Later: This wouldn’t have been surprising if I had ever looked up the etymology of imprimatur. Let it be printed. The same permission is needed for one copy or many copies.
Polistra's Mill 