CHARLES the Fifth, by divine favoring clemency Emperor of the Romans, forever August, and King of Germany, the Spains, of both Sicilies, Jerusalem, Hungary, Dalmatia, Croatia, etc., Archduke of Austria, Duke of Burgundy, Brabant, etc., Count of Habsburg, Flanders, Tyrol, etc. We wish it to be known to all and singular.

Since our faithful and beloved subject of the Holy Empire, Peter Apian, a man preeminently skilled in mathematical science, has most humbly petitioned us, stating that he has determined to publish—frankly and kindly for the common use of all good men and students—certain Ephemerides, together with other small works mentioned below, at his own greatest expense and with equal labor in both discovery and publication. And since he now fears that these same works might also be printed by others, who strive to hunt for their own advantage from another's inconvenience, and who wickedly convert into their own use things well-produced by another's labor—an act which would redound to his no common detriment—he has asked that we might deign to assist him by the prerogative of our Privilege for a certain number of years, during which no one would plainly dare to attempt such a thing. And since we, out of our sincere and innate favor toward the excellent and most honorable studies of the noble arts, strive to promote the profit and remove the loss of those who are accustomed to benefit the Republic significantly—both by their diligent and industrious work, and by their no small vigilance which they actively expend in advancing the good arts, and by their generous devotion to publishing useful books, sparing no expense nor labor—it happens that we, condescending to the prayers and humble petition of the aforementioned Apian, more readily impart our singular Grace in this matter.

Therefore, we strictly inhibit all and singular printers, booksellers, and any others whatsoever by the tenor of these presents, that they should not print, nor cause to be printed, nor expose for sale or sell such printed works, without his own will, within the space of thirty years to be computed from the day of publication itself, namely the below-written books which the aforementioned Apian has either already destined for publication or is about to publish and communicate to all the learned in public: to wit, the Ephemerides lasting from the year of our salvation 1534 to the year 1570; furthermore, the Books on Shadows; the Centiloquium of Arithmetic; and another small book on Arithmetic, with the demonstrated Rules of the Coss; On the Measurement of Vessels, with the ingenious discovery of the empty part; daily schedules or Almanacs with annual judgments, or (as the common people say) Practica, in which the changes of the weather and the individual selections of days are contained; likewise, Books on Conjunctions; Ptolemy, from that most recent translation of Willibald Pirckheimer, never before published, with most corrected Tables and fashioned into a quadrangular figure of a kind not hitherto printed; also the books of Ptolemy in Greek, truly learned and (as was most worthy of such an author) elegant, retaining that native grace of theirs in their own language; a Book on Eclipses; the most ancient book of the astrologer Azophi; the books of Geber; the Perspective of WITELO, an author both ancient and most learned, a work both immense and most highly praised for the very pleasantness of its subject; the Astronomicum Caesareum; a book on Critical Days; books on the Rainbow; the Tabulae Resolutae recently calculated by the same man; a new Astronomical and likewise Geometrical Radius, together with various uses of Sines and Chords; a book on the Mirror, aptly adapted for most beautiful measurements; a Cosmographical Introduction with observations of every kind likewise by sines and chords, with the addition moreover of a twofold Meteoroscope, plane and (what will be unheard of to most) numerical; a universal numerical Astrolabe, as new as it is most useful; Tables or Maps, as they call them, both general maps of the whole world or even particular ones of certain Regions or Provinces; and whatever in mathematical matters the said Apian shall have published in light under his own title and name, or if he publishes any monuments of mathematical things by others, previously not at all printed, but now revised and restored by his own industry, or even only illustrated with figures, through whatever printers he shall wish.

This is under penalty of ten Marks of pure gold, one half to be paid to our Imperial Treasury, and the other half to the said Apian without fail; and also under the penalty of the loss of the books thus printed in rivalry, which, in whatever places he shall find them, he shall be able to claim for himself and bring into his own power, either by himself or through his agents, or with the addition of the Magistrate of that place. In testimony of these letters, secured by the appending of our Seal. Given in our Imperial City of Ratisbon, on the third day of the month of July, in the year of our Lord 1532, in the twelfth year of our Empire, and the seventeenth of our other Kingdoms.