Denis Diderot's”Lettre sur le commerce de la librairie”(1763/1767): A Reappraisal

摘要

Denis Diderot's”Lettre sur le commerce de la librairie”,written probably in 1763,first published only in 1861,is a little-known text in the history of copy right/author's right.Diderot's idea of authorship is that of a”literary”property,thus quite”English”and Lockean,and Diderot also took a fairly pragmatic commercial position.In apparent contrast,however,he defended the French publishers’and booksellers’privileges against a laisser faire liberalism as it emerged with the Physiocrats.The following article will explain why and how Diderot tried to reconcile these conflicting positions.