The ARTFL Project - Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, University of Chicago

In 1820, a further level of regulation affecting prints – and only prints – was introduced with the requirement of official governmental approval before a work could be published, distributed or exhibited. As finalized in the law of 25 March 1822 and its ordonnance of 1 May 1822: “Toute publication, vente ou mise en vente, exposition, distribution, sans l’autorisation préalable du gouvernement, de dessins gravés ou lithographiés, sera pour ce seul fait, punie d’un emprisonnement … et d’une amende … sans préjudice des poursuites auxquelles pourrait donner lieu le sujet du dessin.” This rule of prior approval for prints was lifted in 1830 and then reinstated with some further technicalities in 1835; lifted again in 1848, it was reinstated a second time in 1852 and finally abolished in 1880. While compulsory legal deposit continued after this date – and continues today – it would no longer be a measure of police surveillance but rather a kind of tax for the protection of copyright and the support of the patrimony of the national library.

After 1835, the administration of prior approval of prints yielded an interesting documentation, independent of the procedures of legal deposit. All published imagery was now subject to approval before publication – illustrations in books and journals as well as separately issued prints and, eventually, photographs – and the examples which failed to obtain approval were noted in registers of which many survive today in the archives of the former Bureau de l’Imprimerie at the Archives nationales de France. This page of the Image of France contains links to transcriptions of these registers, ANF F* 18 VI 48 and F* 18 VI 133; their contents, approximately 780 listings, are also treated alongside listings from other sources in the general index of the Image of France. The transcriptions were made directly from the registers, which are not publicly accessible because of their condition, by Gervaise Brouwers and Mehdi Korchane during 2005-2006. Their work was made possible by the kindness of the conservateur of these documents, the late Patrick Laharie, and this presentation is therefore dedicated to his memory.

Please see this link for further information concerning the record of prints and photographs which were refused approval for publication. Unfortunately, copies of these works themselves do not appear to have been conserved as a distinct collection – although any of them may have been subsequently modified and approved for publication, and the registers occasionally make note of this occurrence. Also, it should be remarked again that these registers of refused works include listings of illustrations in books and journals which are interfiled with listings of other works before 1848; these two categories of imagery are not treated in any of the other sources of the Image of France.

George McKee
August 2010

Further information on refused prints