Extract from the PrivilegeA legal document granting exclusive rights to an individual, similar to a modern copyright or patent.

THE States GeneralThe governing body of the Dutch Republic, representing the various provinces. of the United Netherlands have consented and granted a patent to JAN JANSSEN, Bookseller in Amsterdam, so that for the period of the next six years, he alone shall be permitted to print, have printed, or publish the FORTIFICATION and GEOMETRY of SAMUEL MAROLOIS, newly revised and improved by Mr. ALBERT GIRARD, Mathematician. All and every inhabitant of these Lands are forbidden, within the aforementioned time, to reprint the prescribed books in any manner, or to have them printed, published, or sold, in whole or in part, or—if printed elsewhere—to bring them into this Country, upon forfeiture of the pirated copies and, in addition, the sum of three hundred guildersThe standard currency of the Netherlands from the 17th century until the adoption of the Euro., as appears more fully in the original. Dated in The Hague, May 22, 1627.