Schottus adversus Egenolphum

de Norbert P. Flechsig, Johann Schott, Christian Egenolff

The complaint of the printer Johannes Schott from Strasbourg against his competitor Christian Egenolff from Frankfurt am Main because of plagiaristic piracy in the years 1533/34 marks the beginning of a new era in the printing and publishing industry. For the first time, state protection for the investments of typographers and publishers was demanded before the highest court of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, the Reichskammergericht. The dispute is about the alleged emphasis of the contents of herbal books, especially of woodcuts of the medicinal herbs depicted therein.