Record #00296Human Society archive
On 19 March 1474, the Venetian Senate enacted a general written statute on the protection of inventions, widely treated as an early general patent law. It formalized registration and time-limited exclusive protection.
Achievement date
1474
1474-03-19
The 1474 Venetian statute required notification of novel, workable devices and restricted imitation without the inventor's permission for a specified period. Consolidating these rules in a generally applicable enactment makes it an important document in the history of patent protection.
Historians note that Venice had already granted individual invention privileges before 1474. The statute did not invent patent protection from nothing; it largely codified existing practices and should not be treated as the instant birth of the entire modern patent system.
The historical text is documented in the Venetian State Archives' Senato Terra register and presented with a transcription and scholarly commentary in the Primary Sources on Copyright project. The record uses the date of the general statute, not an earlier one-off privilege.
The record value on this page is organized from the public sources above. Measurement methods may differ; JiLuDB follows the unified method described for each entry.
Help keep the archive accurate
If a fact has changed, a value is incorrect, or you know a more authoritative source, leave a note. Feedback enters an administrator review workflow and never edits a record directly.
ARCHIVE VISUAL / 01
NOT TO SCALE
