Some Thoughts on Music and Printing Privileges in the Low Countries During the Sixteenth Century

This article outlines the principal edicts that governed the granting of printing privileges in the sixteenth-century Habsburg Low Countries, and the practical operation of the regulatory regime. It re-examines early music printing in Antwerp and Leuven in the light of the commercial constraints that the edicts and privileges imposed. In particular, the privileges for Loys and Buys reveal a more complex relationship between Susato and the other early Antwerp printers, whilst the economic conditions brought about by the 1550 Edict of Blood provide an explanation for Susato’s changes of course in the nature of his output. For Phalèse, it is argued that in the first years, his press was more productive than has previously been thought. The existence of several unrecorded editions is identified, which point towards a revised chronology. Separate consideration is given to Lassus’s relations with Low Countries printers, with brief commentary on Susato, and Waelrant and Laet. A detailed examination of the first two of Phalèse’s Lassus collections (1560 and 1564) concludes that Lassus held no comparable privileges to his later German and French grants, and, further, that these editions provide evidence against the assumed working relationship between composer and printer. Links are argued between Lassus and the court of Margaret of Parma, providing a likely route by which his music reached the Low Countries. An appendix separately comments on dual privileges, and presents extracts from key edicts.