to supply copies of everything they issued was that of Francis I. of France, who in 1537 promulgated a decree requiring copies to be sent to the Royal Library at Fontainebleau. This library was made semi-public, under the librarianship of Isaac Casaubon, and a great part of it is now incorporated with the Bibliotheque Nationale.
In Prussia, the Konigliche Bibliothek at Berlin has since 1624 received "obligatory copies" (pflicktexemplare).
In Spain, a law of 1716 invested the Royal Library of Madrid with the same privilege. The legislation affecting books in this country has been strangely varied.[1] Under the law of 1830, as many as nine copies were required to be deposited.
Belgium is the only European country in which the depot legal is unknown, much to the sorrow of its National Library.
Italian legislation neglected the question of general copyright till 1848, and it was not till 1878 that copies had to be deposited for the benefit of the university libraries.
The United States enacted a general copyright law in 1790, but many of the States had before this legislated on their own account.
In less civilised countries copyright acts are of very recent introduction. They appeared, for instance, in Venezuela and the Transvaal in 1887, and in Turkey the year following. In this latter country, as also in Russia, Japan, and Egypt, it is
- ↑ See a paper by G. F. Barwick in the forthcoming Transactions of the Bibliographical Society for 1897.
