THE ACCOUNT BOOK OF A MARIAN BOOKSELLER, 1553-4 JOHN N. KING MS. EGERTON 2974, fois. 67-8, preserves in fragmentary form accounts from the day-book of a London stationer who was active during the brief interval between the death on 6 July 1553 of Edward VI, whose regents allowed unprecedented liberty to Protestant authors, printers, publishers, and booksellers, and the reimposition of statutory restraints on publication by the government of Queen Mary. The entries for dates, titles, quantities, paper, and prices make it clear that the leaves come from a bookseller's ledger book. Their record of the articles sold each day at the stationer's shop provides a unique view of the London book trade at an unusually turbulent point in the history of English publishing. Before they came into the holdings of the British Museum, the two paper leaves (fig. i) were removed from a copy of William Alley's The poore mans librarie (1565) that belonged to Thomas Sharpe of Coventry. They are described as having been pasted at the end ofthe volume *as a fly leaf, and after their removal, William Hamper enclosed them as a gift in a letter of 17 March 1810 to the Revd Thomas Frognall Dibdin (MS. Egerton 2974, fois. 62, 64). The leaves are unevenly trimmed, but each measures approximately 376 x 145 mm overall. Because of their format they are now bound separately, but they formed part of a group of letters to Dibdin purchased loose and later bound in the Museum, so they belong together with MS. Egerton 2974 as a collection. William Hamper indicated the provenance of the original leaves on the transcription that he attached to his letter to Dibdin; his headnote to this transcript suggested further that the leaves were from one of the 'old day books' of John Day, who printed The poore mans librarie. Hamper's transcript (MS. Egerton 2974, fois. 64-6) is sometimes helpful in deciphering a very difficult Tudor business hand. An unknown number of leaves from the original account book are missing, creating a break in the surviving ledger entries. Because all of the entries on fol. 67 date from August-September 1554, whereas those on fol. 68 date from October 1553, it seems likely that the two leaves were one of the outer bifolia of a gathering of the account book, and so would originally have been folded the other way round. This order is restored in the transcription printed below. We may assume that at least four pages separated the entries on the two leaves, thus creating the gap in date between them. 33 Fig. I a, b. MS. Egerton 2974, f. 68^ 68^. The first ofthe two leaves, showing the layout ofthe entries, and the way the edges ofthe pages have been trimmed. The leaves are shown here and in fig. ic, dm their presumed original order :,_.v^U-V 1 r-rv- ^. If, d. MS. Egerton 2974, f 67^, Ruled lines divide each page into four columns that record respectively the number of items sold, book titles and other pertinent information, and shillings and pence received. Trimming ofthe page edges sometimes results in the loss of numerals in the first column and in the money columns, especially that for pence. During the period of these ledger entries, the only formal control mechanisms were those set in place by Queen Mary's proclamation of i8 August 1553 concerning religious controversy, unlicensed plays, and printing, and by her injunctions of 4 March 1554. The 1553 order forbade the . playing of interludes and printing of false fond books, ballads, rhymes, and other lewd treatises in the English tongue concerning doctrine in matters now in question and controversy touching the high points and mysteries of Christian religion; which books, ballads, rhymes, and treatises are chiefly by the printers and stationers set out to sale to her grace's subjects of an evil zeal for lucre and covetousness of vile gain.^ Proclamations played a relatively unimportant role in managing the press, however, because the most effective controls were provided through ecclesiastical measures and legislation.^ The proclamation of 18 August 1553, for example, ignores altogether the sale of books printed during the previous reign—a major activity of the stationer in question—and the overseas origin of many Protestant books. The 1554 injunctions ordered the bishops *to travail for the condemning and repressing of corrupt and naughty [wicked] opinions, unlawful books, ballads, and other pernicious and hurtful devices, engendering hatred among the people, and discord among the same'.^ Mary's third Parliament (November 1554-January 1555) eventuafly revived the medieval statute against heresy.''• Persecution of Protestant reformers followed swiftly with the burnings of John Rogers and John Hooper on 4 and 9 February 1555. Writings by both of these authors appear in these ledger accounts, as well as texts by the most celebrated ofthe Protestant martyrs, Hugh Latimer and Thomas Cranmer (see nos. 40 and 130). All but Rogers are mentioned by name in the proclamation issued on 13 June 1555 banning the writing, sale, and possession of seditious and heretical texts. Other authors named there and listed in MS. Egerton 2974, fois. 67-8, include Peter Martyr, William Tyndale, William Turner, Thomas Becon, John Frith, and Edward Halle. Although this proclamation functions as an index of prohibited books, the Marian persecutions were not so much a response to illicit publication as to religious dissent in general.^ The inclusion of books by these eminent reformers may have supported the conjecture that these leaves were taken from the ledgers of John Day, the printer of The poore mans librarie^ when they were no longer useful as business records.^Beginning his career with Edward VFs accession as a reformist monarch. Day established himself early as a dominant figure in London publishing circles. The Marian government attempted to muzzle the publisher for the printing of 'noythy [naughty, i.e. wicked] bokes' by imprisoning him in the Tower of London on 16 October 1554,"^ the date of the final entries on MS. Egerton 2974, fol. 67^. Upon his release he went underground in England 36 or on the Continent. It seems likely that Day remained active during Mary's reign by surreptitiously printing banned Protestant texts under the notorious imprint of'Michael Wood', whose *Roane' (Rouen) press may have been located in London itself.^ Going on to become the man who arguably became the most successful master printer of the first half of Queen Elizabeth's reign, he was also a zealous Protestant who consistently published reformist authors throughout his career. The stationing activities recorded on MS. Egerton 2974, fois. 67-8, seem incompatible with the trajectory of Day's Marian career. Because of his lifelong devotion to the Protestant cause, it appears improbable that Day would have sold the Roman Catholic devotional works and government-sponsored propaganda listed in these accounts. (Nevertheless he was a shrewd and successful business man who did, after all, print at least one Catholic publication during Mary's reign.)^ These accounts list none of the seditious 'Michael Wood' imprints. Perhaps the most notable feature of this unknown stationer's book stock is its mixed character, for he trades both in the books of Protestant radicals hostile to the government and in the authorized writings of the main defenders of the legitimacy of the Marian regime: James Brooks, Stephen Gardiner, John Gwynneth, Thomas Watson, and John White. Although this seller openly trades in books likely to incur governmental reprisal, he also vigorously disseminates propaganda favouring the new regime. His sales lack the ideological commitment central to the careers of the Protestant master printers who thrived during the preceding reign of Edward VI, notably John Day, the King's Printer Richard Grafton, and his one-time partner Edward Whitchurch.^^ Beeause Robert Toy is the only publisher named in any imprint (as distinct from Whitchurch, Richard Jugge, and Nicholas Hill, who were aU printers as well), the list may perhaps be Toy's or that of someone who received his current supply of books from him.^^ These ledger entries confirm the view that Protestantism maintained its sway unimpeded in London early in Mary's reign. ^^ The heady spirit of this time resembled that of Edward VFs reign, when Parliament repealed all heresy and treason statutes enacted since the reign of Edward III, including the notorious Act of Six Articles (1536) prohibiting the expression of religious opinion without royal approval. With the blessing of Protector Somerset, Edward's first regent, the Protestant faction had effectively enjoyed freedom of the Press. Somerset was an able successor to Henry VIIFs chief minister Thomas Cromwell as a manipulator of public opinion through the medium of print. The flood of religious treatises and polemics that Somerset patronized or encouraged led to a doubling in the volume of publication that was normal during the mid-Tudor period. ^^ The book sales recorded in MS. Egerton 2974, fois. 67-8, typify the Marian regime's general inability to control publication and to comprehend how the growth of printing and literacy had elevated the role ofthe laity in the religious life ofthe nation. ^''^ Advocacy of lay reading by Luther, Tyndale, Cranmer, and other reformers may account for the overwhelming sympathy of printers for the Reformation in Germany and England.^^ 37 Compared with the eighty printers and publishers who were active under Edward, only forty-one flourished under Mary. Even when they were forced into exile under the Catholic queen, Protestant publicists published many more English texts than their Roman Catholic opponents. ^^ It does not follow, however, that Mary's government misunderstood the role that printing could play in an effective propaganda counter- attack.