IMPERIAL PRIVILEGE.

Pencil notation at top: 1660 - a 1. Oval stamp in right margin: ROYAL GARDENS KEW. Catchword: Impe-

A large decorative initial letter 'R' featuring a scene with two figures in a classical landscape near water and ruins.

RUDOLPH THE SECOND, by the favoring divine mercy elected Emperor of the Romans, forever August, and King of Germany, Hungary, Bohemia, Dalmatia, Croatia, Slavonia, etc., Archduke of Austria, Duke of Burgundy, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola and Württemberg, etc., Count of Tyrol, etc. We acknowledge, and by the force of these presents make known to all: That whereas our learned and faithful beloved subject of the Holy Empire, Carolus Clusius Charles de l'Écluse (1526–1609), one of the most influential botanists of the Renaissance. has most humbly taken care to explain to us, that he has at hand certain writings which he has decided to publish for the public benefit; however, he fears that since he has incurred great expenses for painters and engravers, others—for the sake of profit, as is often done—might fraudulently print or imitate the same to his detriment, and thus he would be cheated and deprived of the reward for his labor and industry.

We, considering what excellent work he has already performed in certain scholarly labors which have been previously published, and how his exquisite and varied erudition is commended to us—especially his diligence and industry in investigating the nature of stalks and herbs—and that he has learned and observed many things in foreign and remote places, bringing back many things with him which are rare and worthy of the light of day; and that he still applies himself with constant study to unearth and illuminate those things which are hidden and obscure in the ancient authors, so that he may leave an excellent memory of his name to posterity;

Desiring kindly to provide for him, as he requests, by our Privilege against all fraud, by the force of these presents, with knowledge and a well-deliberated mind, by our Imperial authority we have seriously decreed, proclaimed, and established—just as by the force of these presents we do decree, proclaim, and establish—that no printer, bookseller, or others who carry on the business of books, whether by printing or selling books or by any other means, shall, within twenty years to be counted from the day of the first edition, print or publish the works of Carolus Clusius expressed in two volumes (the first of which contains the History of Plants, etc., and in the other are contained several small books, etc., translated into Latin by him), or whatever other works the same Clusius shall publish, without his knowledge or against his will, whether by type or any other method or character, whether imitating them in full or any part thereof; nor shall they sell or distribute them, openly or secretly, within the borders of the Holy Roman Empire, if they have been published or printed by others or brought from elsewhere.

If anyone, however, should dare to transgress or violate this our present edict, and reprint the aforesaid works and publish or sell them to the fraud of the forenamed Carolus Clusius, he shall not only be deprived of the copies of such books (which shall be confiscated and claimed by the mentioned Carolus Clusius and his heirs, or those holding a mandate from them, with the help of the Magistrate of the place where they were seized), but shall also be fined ten Marks A unit of weight for precious metals; a "mark of pure gold" was a very substantial fine. of pure gold to be paid to our treasury...