Stationers.org
Title
THE STATIONERS' AND NEWSPAPER MAKERS' COMPANY
Description
History
In 1403 the Mayor and Aldermen of the City of London approved the formation of a fraternity or Guild of stationers (booksellers who copied and sold manuscript books and writing materials and limners who decorated and illustrated them. Each appointed a warden to control them and regulate their trade.
By the early sixteenth century printers joined The Stationers' Company and by the mid century the printers had more or less ousted the manuscript trade. In 1557 the Guild received a royal charter of incorporation and in 1559, the right to wear a distinctive livery. They became a livery company, numbered 47 in precedence.
The Stationers' charter secured them from outside competition, but they had to settle their own internal disputes, which mostly concerned infringements of ownership of 'copies' or what we would now call copyright.
Languages
English
Contact
- The Worshipful Company Of Stationers And Newspaper Makers
-
- London
- United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland EC4M7DD
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- +1.999999999
