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[s.n.] · 1559

and approved authors, just as we have learned that you now have in your hands the very distinguished commentaries of Efflorescentis Germaniæ The Flowering of Germany, a work by the testimony of many, most excellent and most useful to the literary Republic, digested into one hundred and thirty books, and that you will shortly complete and publish it. We, truly understanding how much utility and fruit returns to studious men from the reading of the best authors and histories, could not but not only mercifully approve your such excellent efforts, but also undertake to promote and help them by our Imperial authority, knowing especially that there is no lack of greedy men, and those gasping for more profit than is fitting, who, since they are accustomed to capture gain and profit from the disadvantage of others, perhaps would be about to give effort so that they might defraud you, or the printer to whom you have given your works to be printed, of due fruit and emolument by vicious emulation or some sinister machination. Therefore, so that you may be protected and instructed against such frauds and deceits of emulators, by these present letters we knowingly and with well-deliberate mind, and by our Imperial authority, strictly forbid and prohibit all and individual Printers and Booksellers, and others whomsoever, who in