Copyright or Right to Copy

By Roger Stewart

New technology soon attracts controls. In the mid-fifteenth century the printing press brought about the (relatively) cheap production of numerous copies of books and the opportunity for their widespread distribution – an Information Age. Soon, governments and churches sought to control the outputs of publishers and printers. They did this by granting exclusive licences (privileges) for specific periods and in specific territories.

The Republic of Venice granted its first privilege 1486. The first British privilege was granted in 1518, while the copyright statute was the British Statute of Anne of 1710. Initially, copyright law only applied to the copying of books but soon extended to maps and other original productions of authors of graphic productions such as maps. The debate on monopoly of intellectual property became strident and continues today. Lord Campden in the English House of Lords warned that’ Knowledge and science are not things to be bound in such cobweb chains.’ Indeed some considered that copyright should have been a right to copy.

The current auction (#49) offers two maps that were caught up in the issue of rights to copy.

Johannes Janssonius and William Blaeu were members of famous map making families; they were competitors who copied each other’s work frequently.  Willem Blaeu was originally Willem Jaszoon and Johannes Janssonius was born Johannes Janszoon; but they were not related.  In order to avoid confusion, Willem Janszoon changed his name to Willem Jansz Blaeu.  To complicate matters further, Blaeu had managed to acquire copperplate of Jodocus Hondius, the deceased father-in-law of Janssonius.

It seems both complained about the copying but nevertheless assumed the ‘right to copy.  Sometimes it is difficult to tell their maps apart.  A good example of this is the map Æthiopia Inferior vel Exterior (lot 3 of Auction #49), which Janssonius copied from Blaeu.

Janssonius map 1636

Their maps are of identical size (50 cm X 38 cm).  At first glance, they look the same too.  Count the number of ships in the Indian Ocean – the Blaeu has two and the Janssonius only one; there are other more subtle differences.[1]

Blaeu’s map 1635

After the death of Janssonius in 1664, his son-in-law Johannes Janssonius van Waesberge continued the Janssonius business, and then Gerhard Valk and Petrus Schenk acquired the Janssonius plates. They engraved their names below the map when they published Æthiopia Inferior vel Exterior in their edition of Atlas Novus in 1695. They did not acknowledge the original source; and because they were the legitimate owners of the plate, they were under no legal obligation to do so, albeit perhaps a moral obligation.

Valk and Schenk’s legitimate use of the Janssonius copperplate 
in which they identified themselves as the mapseller.

Other publishers also admired the Blaeu and Janssonius map of southern Africa. Matthäus Merian was a Swiss engraver who married the daughter of his employer, the publisher Theodore de Bry. In 1649 he published a smaller map (27x36 cm) of southern Africa that is very similar to the Blaeu map. Count the number of monkeys below and to the lower right of the cartouche and compare with Blaeu’s map. The title is different after the word Exterior is also different.  

Merian 1649

The Scot, John Ogilby, published a map that is also clearly based on Blaeu’s map and it is almost the same size (27 x 35 cm) as Merian’s.  However, the title is even shorter, ending at Exterior; the cartouche is significantly different and there are many more ships in both oceans and more animals on the land. These maps were clear copies but differences in size and title differentiated them. Today, those small differences probably would not convince a judge.

Ogliby 1670

Battle of the generics:
The Janvier – Remondini maps of Africa

This auction also has a map that is a re-engraving of another author’s map, with clear acknowledgement in the title (lot 165). Le Sieur Janvier’s original L’Afrique divisée en ses principaux Etats (1762) was improved by a new engraving that included insets (1769). 

Janvier’s original map (1762) and the improved new engraving (1769)

In the same year, Francois Santini and Giuseppe Remondini in Italy copied Janvier’s improved map! Both acknowledged Janvier’s authorship ... in France, but they were in Italy. It is not clear if the Italian editions were published with permission, yet the copyists honoured their moral obligation to cite the source of the map: probably to enhance the credibility of the copy so as to benefit commercially.  

Remondini’s acknowledgement of Janvier’s authorship (see Lot #165)

Remondini and Santini were competing in the Italian market for a map that was a copy of an improved original from France. This is similar to the patent-related battles today between pharmaceutical companies for generic products that are copies of the branded originator products, even their improved originator products!

[1] RV Tooley. Maps of the African Continent and Southern Africa, London: Carta Press, 1969