John Day (printer)
John Day | |
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Protestant printer |
John Day (or Daye) (c. 1522
Day rose to the top of his profession during the reign of
Early career
Day's origins and the events of his early life remain obscure. Scholars have assumed that Day was born and raised in Dunwich, but there is no direct evidence that proves this claim.[6] He may have been in London by 1540, as his name is mentioned in a city deposition as being a former servant of the printer and physician Thomas Raynalde. In 1546, he was probably one of twenty men who were granted the freedom of the city by redemption to work for the Stringers' Company of London.[7]
The next year, he began printing with a partner,
In 1549, Day opened a new shop in Cheapside, and the next year, he and Seres were successful enough to amicably separate their businesses.[12] Day set up his new home and printing establishment at Aldersgate in the parish of St Anne and St Agnes and transferred from the Stringers' to the Stationers' Company. Day found Aldersgate's foreigner-friendly attributes helpful in attracting skilled Dutch workers, whom he relied on throughout his career.[11] He soon established himself as a quality printer, and in 1551, he reprinted an elaborate edition of the Bible that he had previously produced with Seres.[13] The next year, he secured a valuable patent to print the works of John Ponet and Thomas Beccon. This enraged one of his competitors, Reginald Wolfe, who already held a patent to print Ponet's Catechism in Latin. Eventually, a compromise patent was issued which allowed Wolfe to continue printing the Catechism in Latin and Day to print the work in English.[11] Day reaped more benefits from the deal than Wolfe: the English printings were used far more extensively than the Latin ones, and the ABC was eventually appended with Ponet's Catechism.[7]
With a reputation for Protestant godliness and connections to people like
On 16 October 1554, according to the diary of
Elizabethan period
With the death of Mary and the accession of
Day took advantage of the monopoly clause, reestablishing his Edwardian patent for The ABC with Little Catechism. In 1559, he obtained a patent for The Whole Booke of Psalmes, Collected into English Meter, a metrical psalter, compiled mostly by Thomas Sternhold and John Hopkins, that Day first published in 1562.[23] The Stationers' Company guaranteed Day the right to print all "psalmes in metre with note", in other words, psalms with music. Despite the fact that psalmes had usually been learned by rote, the business proved lucrative, reflecting a rise in musical literacy during the period.[24] The Whole Booke of Psalmes became the period's best-selling book and the standard English psalter of its time.[7] Day's monopolies on these perennially popular works would be the basis of great wealth over the years and a good deal of conflict between him and his fellow stationers. In legal proceedings towards the end of Day's life, it was estimated that these particular patents were worth between £200 and £500 per year.[7]
Actes and Monuments
In 1563, Day undertook the work for which he is best known,
Day continued to take on challenging and difficult projects. He had already printed the first English book of church music in 1560. In 1567,
Day and Foxe completed a second edition of the Book of Martyrs in 1570. It was even larger than the first—a total of 2,300 pages in two enormous folio volumes—and at one point, Day ran out of paper (which he imported) and had to paste smaller sheets together to make do.[37] This edition received official recognition: William Cecil and the Privy Council directed the church to ensure that copies were available to parishioners, and in 1571, the Convocation ordered that every cathedral church and the household of every senior member of the clergy should own a copy.[38] The edition has been recorded as costing sixteen shillings, roughly equivalent to two months' wages for a skilled London clothworker at the time.[39]
Final years and legacy
By the late 1570s, there was open discontent among the less wealthy members of the Stationers' Company about Day's extensive patents. He was compelled to go to court against printers who pirated works to which he owned the rights. Among those brought to trial was Roger Ward, who admitted to pirating 10,000 copies of ABC with Catechisms in a font which imitated Day's.[24] Day's former apprentice and sub-contractor John Wolfe admitted in court that he had pirated The Whole Booke of Psalmes but justified his actions on the grounds that Day's monopolies were a restraint of trade.[40] It was Wolfe who led a group of "poor printers", as they called themselves, in a campaign against the patents in the late 1570s.[41] As a result of an official investigation, Day was eventually obliged to concede certain titles to the Company for the benefit of the poorer printers, but he kept the titles he printed most.[42]
In 1580, Day became Master of the Stationers' Company, and focused vigorously on defending the industry against piracy.[43] His official powers included the right of "search and seizure", which he did not hesitate to exercise on behalf of the trade or to further his own interests. In 1584, he sent men to break into Wolfe's premises and destroy any materials relating to suspected piracy. Four years before, he had even destroyed his son Richard's printing equipment after Richard had printed the ABC and the Psalmes without his permission. Though Richard was technically co-patentee of these titles, John Day pursued him into the courts and all but destroyed his printing career.[44]
In 1582, Day's health began to deteriorate quickly. Though weakening, he raced to complete another edition of Actes and Monuments in 1583, printing it on at least four presses.[45] It was unusual for books of this size and ambition to go beyond one or two printings. Holinshed's Chronicles, the only book of the time to rival the Book of Martyrs in scope and reputation, never went into a third edition.[46]
Day died on 23 July 1584 at Walden in Essex. He married twice and fathered twenty-four children. His eldest sons by his first marriage was Richard (b. 21 December 1552) and Edward, while his eldest sons by his second wife, Alice, was John (religious) and Lionel (studious).[7] Day's printer's device showed a sleeper awakening, with the motto "Arise for it is Day," both a play on his name and an allusion to the new era of religious reform, in which he was a significant figure.[13]
Citations
- ^ Evenden. The birthdate is calculated from a 1562 woodcut of Day that proclaims his age to be 40 ("Life is death and death is life: ætatis suæ XXXX").
- ^ King, Book of Martyrs, 81.
- ^ King, Book of Martyrs, 82.
- ^ King, Book of Martyrs, 83.
- ^ King, Book of Martyrs, 80.
- ^ Evenden. Day owned a house in Dunwich. Other scholars suggest that Day may have been foreign-born, but the evidence supporting this claim is inconclusive as well.
- ^ a b c d e f g Pettegree.
- ^ Alford, 118.
- ^ a b King, Book trade, 167.
- ^ Evenden. An evangelical Yeoman of the Guard named Edward Underhill prevented Day's arrest.
- ^ a b c d e f Evenden.
- ^ Alford, 118–19.
- ^ a b Alford, 119.
- ^ Foxe reported that Sir William Cooke "was committed to vile prison for that he suffered this our printer to print" a prohibited book. Cooke was the brother-in-law of William Cecil, who supported a secret press that Day operated at Stamford, Lincolnshire. King, Book of Martyrs, 82.
- ^ Fairfield, 221.
- ^ King, Book trade, 172.
- ^ Machyn writes in that day's entry: "The xvj day of October cam rydyng owt of Northfoke on John Day prynter and ys servand, and a prest, and an-odur prynter, for pryntyng of noythy bokes, to the Towre." King, Book of Martyrs, 82.
- ^ Rogers was executed in February 1555. King, Book of Martyrs, 82.
- ^ Evenden and Roberts.
- ^ King, Book of Martyrs, 173.
- ^ During this period, the sovereign could grant patents to favored printers, giving them monopolies over particular works, often for a fixed number of years. These royal patents were not subject to regulation by the Stationers' Company, which otherwise controlled the book trade.
- ^ King, John Day, 204.
- ^ Miller.
- ^ a b Smith, 24.
- ^ Foxe wrote: "It pleased God to open to man, the art of Printyng, the tyme whereof was shortely after the burnyng of Hus and Hierome. Printyng being opened, incontinent [ie. immediately] ministred to the Church, the instrumentes and tooles of learnyng and knowledge". King, Book of Martyrs, 71.
- ^ "At Mr Daies the printer dwellyng over Aldersgate beneth S. martens [sic]". King, Book of Martyrs, 80.
- ^ Hattaway, 44.
- ^ King, Book of Martyrs, 32.
- ^ King, Book of Martyrs, 58.
- ^ The Protestant controversialist William Turner objected to the book's costliness: "not a few of the poor have complained about the great price of the book, who...because of poverty and the lack of means, cannot obtain godly books for themselves, while the rich, for the most part, obtain them out of ostentation, in order that they may seem godly". Letter of 20 November 1563. King, Book of Martyrs, 111.
- ISBN 978-0-8254-4329-9.
- ^ King, Book of Martyrs, 121.
- ^ King, Book of Martyrs, 85–86.
- ^ "Euclid (fl. ca 300 B.C.) The Elements of Geometrie". Christie's. 4 December 2016. Retrieved 21 July 2020.
- ^ Delbecque, Erika (21 June 2019). "3D in the 18th century: John Cowley's appendix to Euclid's Elements (1758)". UCL Special Collections. Retrieved 21 July 2020.
- ISBN 978-0-521-59069-3.
- ^ King, Book of Martyrs, 88.
- ^ King, Book of Martyrs, 112.
- ^ King, Book of Martyrs, 88–89.
- ^ Smith, 24–25.
- ^ In their "Complaynt" to the Privy Council, the "poor printers" claimed that "the privilidges latelie granted by her Majestie under her hignes great seale of England...Concerninge the arte of printing of bookes hath and will be the overthrowe of the Printers and Stacioners within this Cittie". Smith, 25.
- ^ Smith, 25.
- ^ Smith, 184.
- ^ Smith, 27.
- ^ King, Book of Martyrs, 84.
- ^ King, Book of Martyrs, 91.
References
- Alford, Stephen (2002). Kingship and Politics in the Reign of Edward VI. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-66055-6.
- Evenden, Elizabeth (2004). "A Biography of John Day" in John Foxe, Acts and Monuments, The Variorum Edition (hriOnline, Sheffield 2004). Retrieved on 2 January 2008.
- Evenden, Elizabeth; and Julian Roberts (2004). "Bibliographical Aspects of the Acts and Monuments" in John Foxe, Acts and Monuments, The Variorum Edition Archived 16 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine (hriOnline Archived 16 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine, Sheffield 2004). Retrieved on 2 January 2008.
- Fairfield, Leslie P (1972). "The Mysterious Press of 'Michael Wood' (1553–1554)". The Library, 5th series: 27 (3). pp. 220–232. Retrieved on 2 January 2008.
- Hattaway, Michael (2005). Renaissance and Reformations: An Introduction to Early Modern Literature. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 1-4051-0044-3.
- King, John N (1999). "The book trade under Edward VI and Mary I". In The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain. Volume 3: 1400–1557. Lotte Hellinga and J. B. Trapp (eds.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-57346-7.
- King, John N (2006). Foxe's 'Book of Martyrs' and Early Modern Print Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-86381-3.
- King, John N (2002). "John Day: master printer of the English Reformation". In The Beginnings of English Protestantism. Peter Marshall and Alec Ryrie (eds). Cambridge: ISBN 0-521-00324-5.
- Machyn, Henry. "Diary: 1554 (July – Dec)" in Nichols, John Gough: The Diary of Henry Machyn: Citizen and Merchant-Taylor of London (1550–1563), from A.D. 1550 to A.D. 1563 (1848). Retrieved on 3 January 2008.
- Miller, Miriam. "Day, John". Grove Music Online Archived 16 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine (subscription required). ed. L. Macy. Retrieved on 4 January 2008.
- Pettegree, Andrew (September 2004; online edition: October 2006). "Day, John (1521/2–1584)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved on 2 January 2008.
- Smith, Jeremy L (2003). Thomas East and Music Publishing in Renaissance England. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-513905-4.
Further reading
- Evenden, Elizabeth (2008). Patents, Pictures and Patronage: John Day and the Tudor Book Trade. Ashgate. ISBN 0-7546-5480-X.
- Oastler, Christopher Lewis (1975). John Day, the Elizabethan Printer. Oxford Bibliographical Society: Oxford. ISBN 0-901420-29-8.