Stationers' Company in the context of Statute of Anne

⭐ Core Definition: Stationers' Company

The Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers (until 1937 the Worshipful Company of Stationers), usually known as the Stationers' Company, is one of the livery companies of the City of London. The Stationers' Company was formed in 1403; it received a royal charter in 1557. It held a monopoly over the publishing industry and was officially responsible for setting and enforcing regulations until the enactment of the Statute of Anne, also known as the Copyright Act 1710. Once the company received its charter, "the company's role was to regulate and discipline the industry, define proper conduct and maintain its own corporate privileges."

The company members, including master, wardens, assistants, liverymen, freemen and apprentices are mostly involved with the modern visual and graphic communications industries that have evolved from the company's original trades. These include printing, paper-making, packaging, office products, engineering, advertising, design, photography, film and video production, publishing of books, newspapers and periodicals and digital media. The company's principal purpose nowadays is to provide an independent forum where its members can advance the interests (strategic, educational, training and charitable) of the industries associated with the company.

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👉 Stationers' Company in the context of Statute of Anne

The Statute of Anne, also known as the Copyright Act 1709 or the Copyright Act 1710 (cited either as 8 Ann. c. 21 or as 8 Ann. c. 19), was an act of the Parliament of Great Britain passed in 1710, which was the first statute to provide for copyright regulated by the government and courts, rather than by private parties.

Prior to the statute's enactment in 1710, copying restrictions were authorised by the Licensing of the Press Act 1662 (14 Cha. 2. c. 33). These restrictions were enforced by the Stationers' Company, a guild of printers given the exclusive power to print—and the responsibility to censor—literary works. The censorship administered under the 1662 act led to public protest; as the act had to be renewed at two-year intervals, authors and others sought to prevent its reauthorisation. Following the expiry of the 1662 act in 1694, Parliament refused to renew the act, ending the Stationers' monopoly and press restrictions.

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⭐ Core Definition: Stationers' Company
👉 Stationers' Company in the context of Statute of Anne
Stationers' Company in the context of Nicholas Ling

Stationers' Company in the context of Nicholas Ling

Nicholas Ling (fl.1570–1607) was a London publisher, bookseller, and editor who published several important Elizabethan works, including the first and second quartos of Shakespeare's Hamlet.

Ling was the son of John Lynge, a parchment maker from Norwich. He was apprenticed to Henry Bitteman in 1570 and was admitted to the Stationers' Company as a "freeman" (full member) in 1578. He generally partnered with other publishers. In 1597 he edited Politeuphuia, or Wits Commonwealth, a collection of prose quotations. He has also been credited by some critics with editing England's Helicon (1600), a collection of Elizabethan lyric poems.

View the full Wikipedia page for Nicholas Ling

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