Exhibit 502 ยท Royal proclamation
Royal proclamation of 16 November 1538 on importing and printing English books
Item that no persone or persons in this realme, shall from hensforth print any boke in the englyshe tonge, onles vpon examination made by some of his gracis priuie counsayle, or other suche as his highnes shall appoynte, they shall haue lycence so to do
Forbids importing English books without the king's license; forbids printing any English book, and any English book of Scripture, unless examined and admitted by the king, a privy councillor or a bishop, with the examiner's name printed; forbids marginal notes or prologues unless allowed; penalty forfeiture of goods and imprisonment at the king's pleasure.
- Source
- Henry VIII (printed by Thomas Berthelet)
- Date
- 16 November 1538
- Quoted from
- Pollard, Records of the English Bible (1911), Record XXXVII, p. 241
- Grade
- Primary record
- Document
- https://archive.org/details/recordsofenglish00polluoft
- Accessed
- 2026-11-09
- Cited by
- Findings citing this exhibit
- Note
- The licensing came three weeks after the Great Bible's printing was under way in Paris; Pollard (introduction, p. 18) reads it as aimed at preventing a repeat of the 1537 episode.