CHAPTER IV

JOHN DAY

ohn Day, one of the best and most enterprising of printers, was born in the year 1522 at Dunwich, in Suffolk, a once flourishing town, now buried beneath the sea.

From the fact that Day was in possession of a device found in the books of Thomas Gibson, the printer whom Latimer unsuccessfully recommended to Cromwell, it has been supposed that it was from Gibson he learnt the art. He may have done so; but whatever he learnt there or elsewhere, in his 'prentice days, he later on threw aside, and by his own enterprise and the excellence of his workmanship raised himself to the proud position of the finest printer England had ever seen.

In John Day's first books there was no sign of the skill he afterwards manifested. These were published in conjunction with William Seres, of whom we know little or nothing, outside his connection with Day. These partners began work in the year 1546 at the sign of the Resurrection on Snow Hill, a little above Holborn Conduit, that is somewhere in the neighbourhood of the present viaduct. They had also another shop in Cheapside. Their first book, so far as we know, was Sir David Lindsay's poem, 'The Tragical death, of David Beaton, Bishop of St. Andrews in Scotland; Wherunto is joyned the martyrdom of maister G. Wyseharte ... for whose sake the aforesayd bishoppe was not long after slayne' (1546, 8vo).

In the following year (1547) Day and Seres printed several other books of a religious character, nearly all of them in octavo, including Cope's Godly Meditacion upon the psalms, and Tyndale's Parable of the Wicked Mammon.

Their work in 1548 included a second edition of the Consultation of Hermann, the bishop of Cologne, Robert Crowley's Confutation of Myles Hoggarde, a sermon of Latimer's, a metrical dialogue aimed at the priesthood and entitled John Bon and Mast Person, and, as a relief to so much theological literature, the Herbal of William Turner.

The types used in printing these books were not a whit better than anybody else's, in fact if anything they were a shade worse. There was the usual fount of large black letter, not by any means new, another much smaller letter of the same character, and a fount of Roman capitals, very bad indeed. Whether these types belonged to Day or to Seres it is impossible to say, but I think the smaller of the two belonged to Day, as it is sometimes found in his later books.

The workmanship was no better than the types. There was no pagination in these books, and no devices, and the setting of the letterpress was very uneven.

In 1548 Seres seems to have joined partnership with another London printer, Anthony Scoloker, and to have moved to a house in St. Paul's Churchyard, called Peter College; but his name still continued to appear with Day's down to the year 1551, when the partnership was dissolved, Day moving to Aldersgate, but retaining his shop in Cheapside.

Fig. 18.—From a Bible printed by John Day. London, 1551. 4to.

The most important undertaking of the partnership was a folio edition of the Bible in 1549. This was printed in the smaller of the two founts of black letter in double columns, with some good initials and a great many woodcuts that had evidently been used before, as they extend beyond the letterpress. Another edition printed by Day alone appeared in 1551, in which a good initial E, showing Edward VI. on his throne, is found.

On the accession of Queen Mary, Day went abroad and his press was silent for several years; meanwhile the ancient brotherhood of Stationers was incorporated by Royal Charter as the 'Worshipful Company of Stationers.' The existence of the brotherhood has been traced to very early times, and it is frequently mentioned in the wills of printers and booksellers in the first half of the sixteenth century. By the Charter of 1556 it now received the Royal authority to make its own laws for the regulation of the trade, although, as Mr. Arber has pointed out, the charter 'rather confirmed existing customs than erected fresh powers.' There is abundant evidence that the Queen's main reason for granting the charter was the wish to keep the printing trade under closer control.

The newly incorporated company included nearly all the men connected with the book trade, not only printers, but booksellers, bookbinders, and typefounders. There were some who, for some unexplained reason, were not enrolled. On the other hand, two of those whose names appeared in the charter died the year of its incorporation. These were Thomas Berthelet, who was dead before the 26th January 1556, and Robert Toy, who died in February.

In the registers of the Company were recorded the names of the wardens and masters, the names of all apprentices, with the masters to whom they were bound, and the names of those who took up their freedom. The titles of all books were supposed to be entered by the printer or publisher, a small fee being paid in each case. As a matter of fact many books were not so entered. Entries of gifts to the Corporation, and of fines levied on the members, also form part of the annual statements.

Literary men of the eighteenth century were the first to discover and make use of the wealth of information contained in the Registers of the Stationers' Company; but it fell to the lot of Mr. Arber to give English scholars a full transcript of the earlier registers. In order to make it complete, he has supplemented the work with numerous valuable papers in the Record Office and other archives, and a bibliographical list down to the year 1603, which is of such immense value that it is impossible to be content until it has been continued to the year 1640.

The first master of the Company was Thomas Dockwray, Proctor of the Court of Arches; and the wardens were John Cawood, the Queen's Printer, and Henry Cooke.

Fig. 19.—Heraldic Initial containing the Arms of Dudley, Earl of Leicester.

It does not follow that because Day's name occurs in the charter that he was in England in 1556, but he certainly was so in the following year, for there is a Sarum Missal of that date with his imprint, besides several other books, including Thomas Tusser's Hundred Points of Good Husserye (i.e. Housewifery); William Bullein's Government of Health, and sundry proclamations. But it was not until 1559 that his books began to show that excellence of workmanship that laid the foundation of his fame. In that year he issued in folio The Cosmographicall Glasse of William Cunningham, a physician of Norwich. As a specimen of the printer's art this was far in advance of any of Day's previous work, and, moreover, was in advance of anything seen in England before that time. The text was printed in a large, flowing italic letter of great beauty, further enhanced by several well-executed woodcut initials. Amongst these was a letter 'D,' containing the arms of the Earl of Leicester, to whom the work was dedicated. There were also scattered through the book several diagrams and maps, a fine portrait of the author, and a plan of the city of Norwich. Some of these illustrations and initials were signed J. B., others J. D. The title-page was also engraved with allegorical figures of the arts and sciences. There can be very little doubt that Day had spent his time abroad in studying the best models in the typographical art.

Students and lovers of good books may well pay a tribute to the memory of that scholarly churchman, who rescued so many of the books that were scattered at the dissolution of the monasteries, and enriched Cambridge University and some of its colleges by his gifts of books and manuscripts. But Matthew Parker did not stop short at book-collecting. He believed that good books should be well printed, and on his accession to power under Elizabeth, he encouraged John Day and others, both with his authority and his purse, to cut new founts of type and to print books in a worthy form.

In 1560 Day began to print the collected works of Thomas Becon, the reformer. The whole impression occupied three large folio volumes, and was not completed until 1564. The founts chiefly used in this were black letter of two sizes, supplemented with italic and Roman. The initials used in the Cosmographicall Glasse appeared again in this, and the title-page to each part was enclosed in an elaborate architectural border, having in the bottom panel Day's small device, a block showing a sleeper awakened, and the words, 'Arise, for it is Day.' At the end was a fine portrait of the printer.

Another important undertaking of the year 1560 was a folio edition of the Commentaries of Joannes Philippson, otherwise Sleidanus. This Day printed for Nicholas England, the fount of large italic being used in conjunction with black letter.

Sermons of Calvin, Bullinger, and Latimer are all that we have to illustrate his work during the next two years. But in 1563 appeared a handsome folio, the editio princeps of Acts and Monumentes of these latter and perillous Dayes, touching matters of the Church, better known as Foxe's Book of Martyrs.

During Mary's reign Foxe had found a home on the Continent, and may there have met with Day. In 1554, while at Strasburg, he had published, through the press of Wendelin Richel, a Latin treatise on the persecutions of the reformers, under the title of Commentarii rerum in Ecclesia gestarum maximarumque persecutionem a Vuiclevi temporibus descriptio. From Strasburg he removed to Basle, and from the press of Oporinus, in 1559, appeared the Latin edition of the Book of Martyrs. He did not return to England until October of that year, when he settled in Aldgate, and made weekly visits to the printing-house of John Day, who was then busy on the English edition.

Fig. 20.—From Foxe's 'Actes and Monumentes,' printed by John Day, 1576.

Foxe's Actes and Monumentes is a work of 2008 folio pages, printed in double columns, the type used being a small English black letter, the same which had been used in Becon's Works, supplemented with various sizes of italic and Roman. It was illustrated throughout with woodcuts, representing the tortures and deaths of the martyrs. A very handsome initial letter E, showing Queen Elizabeth and her courtiers, is also found in it. A Royal proclamation ordered that a copy of it should be set up in every parish church. From this time Foxe appears to have worked as translator and editor for John Day, and was for a while living in the printer's house.

Archbishop Parker meanwhile had induced Day to cast a fount of Saxon types in metal. The first book in which these were used was Aelfric's 'Saxon Homily,' i.e. the Sermon of the Paschal Lamb, appointed by the Saxon bishop to be read at Easter before the Sacrament, an Epistle of Aelfric to Wulfsine, the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments, all of which were included in the general title of A Testimonye of Antiquity, 'shewing the auncient fayth in the Church of England touching the Sacrament of the body and bloude of the Lord here publykely preached and also receaved in the Saxons tyme, above 600 yeares agoe.'

Speaking of Day's Saxon fount, the late Mr. Talbot Reed, in his Old English Letter Foundries (p. 96), says:—

'The Saxon fount ... is an English in body, very clear and bold. Of the capitals eight only, including two diphthongs are distinctively Saxon, the remaining eighteen letters being ordinary Roman; while in the lowercase there are twelve Saxon letters, as against fifteen of the Roman. The accuracy and regularity with which this fount was cut and cast is highly creditable to Day's excellence as a founder.'

Although this book (an octavo) bore no date, the names of the subscribing bishops fix it as 1566 or 1567. In the latter year appeared the Archbishop's metrical version of the Psalter, which he had compiled during his enforced exile under Mary. In connection with this it may be well to point out that Day printed many editions of the Psalter with musical notes. In 1568 he used the Saxon types again to print William Lambard's Archaionomia, a book of Saxon laws. Amongst his other productions of that year must be mentioned the folio edition of Peter Martyr's Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans; Gildas the historian's De excidio et conquestu Britanniæ, 1568, 8vo; and a French version of Vandernoot's Theatre for Worldlings, 'Le Theatre auquel sont exposés et monstrés les inconveniens et misères qui suivent les mondains et vicieux, ensemble les plaisirs et contentements dont les fidèles jouissent.' There is a copy of this very rare book in the Grenville collection. The Theatre for Worldlings was translated into English the following year, and contained verses from the pen of Edmund Spenser, then a boy of sixteen. But Day's press played little part in the spread of the romantic literature with which the name of Spenser is so closely linked. Day's work was with the Reformation and the religious questions of the time. Nevertheless, that he felt the influence of the coming change is shown from a publication that issued from his press in 1570. This was the authorised version of a play which had been acted nine years before by the gentlemen of the Inner Temple before Her Majesty. It had shortly afterwards been published by William Griffith of Fleet Street as:—

'The Tragedy of Gorboduc, whereof Three Actes were wrytten by Thomas Norton and the two last by Thomas Sackvyle. Set forth as the same was shewed before the Queenes most excellent Maiestie in her highnes Court of Whitehall, the xviii day of January Anno Domini 1561, By the gentlemen of Thynner Temple in London.' Day's edition was entitled:—

'The Tragidie of Ferrex and Porrex, set forth without addition or alteration, but altogether as the same was showed on stage before the Queens Maiestie about nine yeares past, viz. the xviii day of Januarie 1561, by the gentlemen of the Inner Temple.'

Another important work of this year (1570) was Roger Ascham's Scholemaster, in quarto. In 1571 Day was busy with Church matters. There was just then much talk of Church discipline, and it shows itself in the Reformatio Legum Ecclesiasticarum, a quarto of some 300 pages, published by him this year. In this book we find a new device used by Day. It represents two hands holding a slab upon which is a crucible with a heart in it, surrounded by flames, the word 'Christus' being on the slab. From the wrists hangs a chain, and in the centre of this is suspended a globe, and beneath that again is a representation of the sun. Round the chain is a ribbon with the words 'Horum Charitas.' This device was placed on the title-page, which was surrounded by a neat border of printers' ornaments.

The Booke of certaine Canons, 4to, was another publication of this year for the due ordering of the Church. This, like most public documents, was in a large black letter. There were also 'Articles of the London Synod of 1562.' As a specimen of the religious sermons or discourses of the time, we have a very good example in another of Day's publications in 1571, a reprint of The Poore Mans Librarie, a discourse by George Alley, Bishop of Exeter, upon the First Epistle of St. Peter, which made up a very respectable folio, printed in Day's best manner, and with a great number of founts.

But Day's prosperity roused the envy of his fellow-stationers, and they tried their best to hinder the sale of his books and cause him annoyance. This opposition took a violent form in 1572, when Day, whose premises at Aldersgate had become too small to carry on his growing business, his stock being valued at that time between £2000 and £3000, obtained the leave of the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's to set up a little shop in St. Paul's Churchyard for the sale of his books. The booksellers appealed to the Lord Mayor, who was prevailed upon to stop Day's proceedings, and it required all the power and influence of Archbishop Parker, backed by an order of the Privy Council, to enable the printer to carry out his project.[4]

The Archbishop meanwhile had been busy furnishing replies to Nicholas Sanders' book De Visibili Monarchia, and amongst those whom he selected for the work was Dr. Clerke of Cambridge, who accordingly wrote a Latin treatise entitled Fidelis Servi subdito infideli Responsio. From a letter written by the Archbishop to Lord Burleigh at this time, we learn that John Day had cast a special fount of Italian letter for this book at a cost of forty marks.[5]

By Italian letter is here meant Roman, and not Italic, as Mr. Reed supposes, for the Responsio was printed in a new fount of that type, clear, even, and free from abbreviations.

In the same year (1572) Day printed at the Archbishop's private press at Lambeth his great work De Antiquitate Britannicae Ecclesiae in folio, in a new fount of Italic, with preface in Roman, and the titles and sub-titles in the larger Italic of the Cosmographicall Glasse. It was a special feature of Day's letter-founding that he cut the Roman and Italic letters to the same size. Before his time there was no uniformity; the separate founts mixed badly, and spoilt the appearance of many books that would otherwise have been well printed.

The De Antiquitate is believed to have been the first book printed at a private press in England. The issue was limited to fifty copies, and the majority of them were in the Archbishop's possession at the time of his death.

But while he encouraged printing in one direction, Matthew Parker rigorously persecuted it in another. Just at this time there was much division among Protestants on matters of doctrine and ceremonial, and one Thomas Cartwright published, in 1572, a book entitled A Second Admonition to the Parliament, in which he defended those who had been imprisoned for airing their opinions in the first Admonition. This book, like many others of the time, was printed secretly, and strenuous search was made by the Wardens of the Stationers' Company, Day being one, to discover the hidden press. The search was successful, but unpleasant consequences followed for John Day. One of the printers of the prohibited book turned out to be an apprentice of his own, named Asplyn. He was released after examination, and again taken into service by his late master. But the following year the Archbishop reported to the Council that this man Asplyn had tried to kill both Day and his wife.

Day's work in 1573 included a folio edition of the whole works of William Tyndale, John Frith, and Doctor Barnes, in two volumes. This was printed in two columns, with type of the same size and character as that used in the 'Works' of Becon, some of the initial letters closely resembling those found in books printed by Reginald Wolfe. In the same year Day issued a life of Bishop Jewel, for which he cut in wood a number of Hebrew words.

In 1574 we reach the summit of excellence in Day's work. It was in that year that he printed for Archbishop Parker Asser's Life of Alfred the Great (Aelfredi Regis Res Gestæ) in folio. In this the Saxon type cast for the Saxon Homily in 1567 was again used in conjunction with the magnificent founts of double pica Roman and Italic. With it is usually bound Walsingham's Ypodigme Neustria and Historia Brevis, the first printed by Day, and the second by Bynneman, who unquestionably used the same types, so that it may be inferred that the fount was at the disposal of the Archbishop, at whose expense all three books were issued.

Another series of publications that came from the press of John Day, in 1574, were the writings of John Caius on the history and antiquities of the two Universities. They are generally found bound together in the following order:—

1. De Antiquitate Cantabrigiensis Academiæ.

2. Assertio Antiquitatis Oxoniensis Academiæ.

3. Historia Cantabrigiensis Academiæ.

4. Johannis Caii Angli De Pronunciatione Græcæ et Latinæ linguæ cum scriptione noua libellus.

The 'Antiquities' and 'History' of Cambridge were both books of considerable size, the first having 268 pages, without counting prefatory matter and indexes. The other two were little better than tracts, the one having only 27 and the other 23 pages. Some editions of the De Antiquitate are found with a map of Cambridge, while the 'History' contained plates showing the arms of the various colleges. All four were printed in quarto. The type used for the text was in each case an Italic of English size, with a small Roman for indexes. The title-page was enclosed in a border of printers' ornaments, and the printer's device of the Heart was on the last leaf of two out of the four.

Matthew Parker died in 1575, and the art of printing, as well as every other art and science, lost a generous patron. But Day's work was not yet done, though he printed few large books after this date. A very curious folio, written by John Dee, the famous astronomer, entitled General and Rare Memorials concerning Navigation, came from his press in 1577. This work had an elaborate allegorical title-page, by no means a bad specimen of wood-engraving. It was a history in itself, the central object being a ship with the Queen seated in the after part.

In 1578 Day printed a book in Greek and Latin for the use of scholars, Christianæ pietatis prima institutio, the Greek type being a great improvement on any that had previously appeared. Indeed, it has been considered equal to those in use by the Estiennes of Paris.

The year 1580 saw Day Master of the Stationers' Company. Two years later he was engaged in a series of law-suits about his A B C and litell Catechism, a book for which he had obtained a patent in the days of Edward VI.

As we have already noted, the aim of the Corporation of the Stationers' Company was not primarily the promotion of good printing or literature. Printers were looked upon by the authorities as dangerous persons whom it was necessary to watch closely. Only six years after coming to the throne, Elizabeth signed a decree passed by the Star Chamber, requiring every printer to enter into substantial recognisances for his good behaviour. No books were to be printed or imported without the sanction of a Special Commission of Ecclesiastical Authorities, under a penalty of three months' imprisonment and the forfeiture of all right to carry on business as a master printer or bookseller in future, while the officers of the Company were instructed to carry out strict search for all prohibited books.

On the other hand, while thus retaining a tight rein on the printing trade, the Queen, no doubt for monetary considerations, granted special patents for the sole printing of certain classes of books to individual master printers, and threatened pains and penalties upon any other member of the craft who should print any such books. In this way all the best-paying work in the trade became the property of some dozen or so of printers. Master Tottell was allowed the sole printing of Law Books, Master Jugge the sole printing of Bibles, James Roberts and Richard Watkins the sole printing of Almanacs; Thomas Vautrollier, a stranger, was allowed to print all Latin books except the Grammars, which were given to Thomas Marsh, and John Day had received the right of printing and selling the A B C and Litell Catechism, a book largely bought for schools, and which Christopher Barker, in his Complaint, declared was once 'the onelye reliefe of the porest sort of that Company.' On every side the best work was seized and monopolised. Nor did the evil cease there. These patents were invariably granted for life with reversion to a successor, and they were bought and sold freely. Hence the poorer members of the Company daily found it harder to live. There was very little light literature, and what there was had few readers. Their appeals for redress of grievances, whether addressed to the State or to the Company, which pretended to look after their welfare, were alike in vain, and at length they rose in open revolt. Half a dozen of them, headed by Roger Ward and John Wolf, boldly printed the books owned by the patentees. Roger Ward seized upon this A B C of Day's, and at a secret press, with type supplied to him by a workman of Thomas Purfoot, printed many thousand copies of the work with Day's mark. Hence the proceedings in the Star Chamber. They did very little good. Ward defied imprisonment; and the agitators would undoubtedly have gained more than they did, and might even have saved the art of printing from falling into the hopeless state it afterwards reached, had it not been for the desertion of John Wolf, who, after declaring that he would work a reformation in the printing trade similar to that which Luther had worked in religion, quietly allowed himself to be bought over, and died in eminent respectability as Printer to the City of London, leaving Ward and others to carry on the war. This they did with such effect, that, forced to find a remedy, the patentees of the Company at length agreed to relax their grasp of some of the books that they had laid their hands upon. Day is said to have been most generous, relinquishing no less than fifty-three, and this number is in itself a commentary on the magnitude of the monopolies.

Fig. 21.—Day's large Device.

John Day died at Walden, in Essex, on the 23rd July 1584, at the age of sixty-two, and was buried at Bradley Parva, where there is a fair tomb and a lengthy poetical epitaph on his virtues and abilities. He was twice married, and is said to have had twenty-six children, of whom one son, Richard, was for a short time a printer, and another, John, took Orders, and became rector of Little Thurlow, in Suffolk.

John Day had three devices. His earliest, and perhaps his best, was a large block of a skeleton lying on an elaborately chased bier, with a tree at the back, and two figures, an old man and a young, standing beside it. This may have been typical of the Resurrection, the sign of the house in which he began business. Then we find the device of the Heart in his later books, and finally there is the block of the Sleeper Awakened, but this almost always formed part of the title-page.

APPENDIX

LIST OF PRINTERS AND STATIONERS ENROLLED IN THE CHARTER

Amongst the men whose names were not included in the charter were:—