A Short History of English Printing, 1476-1898 Part 5

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 t.i.tles and sub-t.i.tles in the larger Italic of the _Cosmographicall Gla.s.se_. 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 ent.i.tled _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 a.s.ser's Life of Alfred the Great (_Aelfredi Regis Res Gestae_) 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 Academiae.

2. a.s.sertio Antiquitatis Oxoniensis Academiae.

3. Historia Cantabrigiensis Academiae.

4. Johannis Caii Angli De p.r.o.nunciatione Graecae et Latinae linguae c.u.m 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 t.i.tle-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, ent.i.tled _General and Rare Memorials concerning Navigation_, came from his press in 1577. This work had an elaborate allegorical t.i.tle-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, _Christianae pietatis prima inst.i.tutio_, 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 pa.s.sed 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 cla.s.ses 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 21.--Day's large Device.]

John Day died at Walden, in Ess.e.x, 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 t.i.tle-page.

[Footnote 4: See Strype's _Life of Parker_, p. 541. Arber's Transcript, vol. ii.]

[Footnote 5: Strype's _Life of Parker_, pp. 382, 541.]

APPENDIX

LIST OF PRINTERS AND STATIONERS ENROLLED IN THE CHARTER

Alday, John.

Baldwyn, Richard.

Baldwyn, William.

Blythe, Robert.

Bonham, John.

Bonham, William.

Bourman, Nicholas.

Boyden, Thomas.

Brodehead, Gregory.

Broke, Robert.

Browne, Edward.

Burtoft, John.

Bylton, Thomas.

Case, John.

Cater, Edward.

Cawood, John.

Clarke, John.

Cleston, Nicholas.

Cooke, Henry.

Cooke, William.

Copland, William.

Cottesford, Hugh.

Coston, Simon.

Croke, Adam.

Crosse, Richard.

Crost, Anthony.

Day, John.

Devell, Thomas.

Dockwray, Thomas.

Duxwell, Thos.

Fayreberne, John.

Fox, John.

Frenche, Peter.

Gamlyn _or_ Gammon, Allen.

Gee, Thomas.

Gonneld, James.

Gough, John.

Greffen _or_ Griffith, William.

Grene, Richard.

Harryson, Richard.

Harvey, Richard.

Hester, Andrew.

Hyll, John.

Hyll, Richard.

Hyll, William.