ABSTRACT
The Venetian Senate provided for printers, authors, patrons, or editors to secure protection for their publications by taking out a privilege (copyright) barring the reprinting of the privileged edition by anyone else, usually for a period of ten years. While all books printed in Venice had to be licensed by the Council of Ten. privileges were not required and were taken out at the discretion of the printer or author (AgeeP, 12). Such a privilege was valid within the Venetian dominions, and was designed to give exclusive printing rights for the book in question to the person or persons petitioning for protection.
