Stationers’ Company

Literary/ Cultural Context Note

Litencyc Editors (Independent Scholar - Europe)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.03: English Writing and Culture: Renaissance (Elizabethan and Jacobean periods) , 1485-1625.
Vol. editors: William M. Hamlin (Washington State University), J A Roe (University of York), Virginia Mason Vaughan (Clark University), Ema Vyroubalova (Trinity College Dublin)

Domains

Censorship of expression
Publishing

Dates

Date of occurrence 1557

Places

United Kingdom (Location)

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The Stationers' Company was a guild, formed out of the Brotherhood of Manuscript Producers (formed 1357) and the Brotherhood of the Craft of Writers of Text-Letters (formed 1405), and established by Royal Charter from King Philip and Queen Mary in 1557 with the aim of preventing the publication of Protestant propaganda. The Stationer's Company was granted a monopoly on printing throughout the kingdom and its master and wardens were empowered to seize and burn all prohibited books and imprison their publishers. Formerly, by decree of the Star Chamber in 1538, printers had been forbidden to print any book in English without approval of a Privy Councillor, but, this regulation having proved impracticable, the chartering of the Stationers' Company made a small group of printers responsible…

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186 words

Citation: Editors, Litencyc. "Stationers’ Company". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 02 April 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1309, accessed 21 November 2024.]

Stationers’ Company

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