Bettmann Archive

On Thu, 19 Oct 1995, Esoteric Resources Incorporated wrote:
>
> The manuscript question: a 'book' published, say, in 1100 A.D., probably
> wasn't copyrighted (correct me when I'm wrong). If it was reprinted in,
> say, 1950, copyright would be owned by (probably) the publisher. But,
> let us say it was published (reprinted) in 1919. Wouldn't it now (in the
> USA) be in the public domain ?
>
> So, am I wrong ? If so, where ?

This touches my area of specialty (Greek textual criticism) directly, and is conveniently tied in with a faculty lecture I will give next week arguing for the non-copyrightability of ancient texts.

Let us say we have a manuscript of Herodotus copied in 1100 AD. I would probably, even certainly, need permission from the owner or museum to reproduce that manuscript photographically. However, if they allowed me to collate the text of that manuscript against a standard printed edition and record the differences, I would have every right to publish that collation without their further permission (though in courtesy giving them lavish thanks), and even to construct and publish the entire running text of that ancient manuscript from the collation data I had prepared.

(Of course if they set specific contractual obligation before allowing me to collate, I would have to observe those precisely before publishing. If one of the obligation required me to have formal permission to publish, I would do so).

My own collation could be copyrighted by me if I so desired (though in these peculiar areas of scholarly endeavor there is usually no money to be made from publishing such data; journals pay you with 50 offprints, and that's about all). Technically no one could appropriate my collation data without my permission, but they could independently collate the same manuscript as I had done and end up with identical results (which is why scholars are not too proprietary with such data).

If a published collation of a manuscript exists and is out of copyright (e.g. I have an 1851 collation of the printed Complutensian Polyglot volume of 1514), anyone would be free to use the collation data as they saw fit, whether in simple reprint form or to reconstruct the entire running text of the original work.

Once my hypothetical 1995 published collation of the Herodotus manuscript passes the life + 50 year copyright period, it too would be free for use by anyone. So to the question of a published manuscript text or edition prior to 1919 or thereabouts, yes, indeed it would be public domain material and no further permission would be needed to utilize such data.

                       Maurice A. Robinson, Ph.D.
            Associate Professor of Greek and New Testament
              Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary
                      Wake Forest, North Carolina
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