The
Stationers’ Register was a record book maintained by the
Stationers' Company of London. The company is a trade guild given a royal charter in 1557 to regulate the various professions associated with the publishing industry, including printers, bookbinders, booksellers, and publishers in
England. The Register itself allowed publishers to document their right to produce a particular printed work, and constituted an early form of
copyright law. The Company's charter gave it the right to seize illicit editions and bar the publication of unlicensed books.