PATENTS AND PATRONAGE: THE LIFE AND CAREER OF JOHN DAY, TUDOR PRINTER ELIZABETH EVENDEN DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH AND RELATED LITERATURE NOVEMBER 2002 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page List of Illustrations vi Acknowledgements vii Declaration viii Abstract ix Abbreviations x CHAPTER 1 Introduction 1 From Manuscript to Print 3 The Triumph of Print 8 The Era of the Hand-Press 10 Finance and Raw Materials 11 Printing Type 15 Staff and Wages 19 Book Shops 21 CHAPTER 2 23 Apprenticeship and Early Works 26 Partnership with William Seres 30 The Threat of Arrest 34 Day's New Premises and his 38 Connections to the nearby Stranger Communities ii CHAPTER 2 (cont.) The End of Partnership with 40 William Seres The Securing of Letters Patent 44 CHAPTER 3 The Michael Wood Press 49 Proof that John Day was the Printer of 52 The Michael Wood Press The Fall of the Michael Wood Press 56 Where Day was not 1555-1558 61 Where Day really was 1555-1558 64 CHAPTER 4 1558-1563: The Return to Protestant 73 Printing The Metrical Psalms — the beginning of 75 The lucrative Elizabethan patents Works for the Dutch Church 82 Sermons and 'steady sellers' 85 William Cunningham's Cosmographical 91 Glasse Printing Protestant Divines 94 John Foxe 98 The First Edition of John Foxe's 102 Acts and Monuments CHAPTER 5 1563-1570: The Effects of the Acts and 108 Monuments on Day ill CHAPTER 5 (cont.) The loss of time 112 Music Printing and Thomas Caustun 117 Letters of the Martyrs 120 Political Protection and Patronage 124 Day's Technical Achievements: 131 Improvements in Book Illustration The Second Edition of the Acts and 137 Monuments CHAPTER 6 1570-1576: Premier Printer to the 140 Protestant Regime John Foxe's Sermon on Christ Crucified 142 The `Reformatio Legum Ecclesiasticarum' 143 Thomas Norton and the printing of 144 Gorboduc Works of Patronage 147 Parker's Patronage of Day 153 John Dee's 'Mathematical Preface' and 156 The English Translation of Euclid's Elements of Geometrie Attacks upon Day: physical and verbal 160 The Whole Works of Tyndale, Frith and 164 Barnes The Third Edition of the Acts and 169 Monuments iv CHAPTER 7 1576-1584: The Final Years 174 John Dee's The Perfect Arte of Navigation 177 1578-1580: Richard Day's Career as a 181 Printer The Battle over the Monopolies 186 The Fourth Edition of the Acts and 191 Monuments CHAPTER 8 John Day, 'Man of Business' 202 BIBLIOGRAPHY 209 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Page Figure 1. The names of parts of the impressions from types 17 Figure 2. Day's roman 70-1mm `e' and 'y', from De vera Obedientia, 55 courtesy of the British Library Figure 2.1 Day's `w' to fit roman 92-3 mm type, from An Harborrowe 55 For Faithful subiectes, courtesy of the British Library Figure 3 Pot and herb illustration, from The Treasure of Evonymus, 89 Sig.G.iv, courtesy of the British Library Figure 4 Pot illustration, from The Treasure of Evonymus, Sig.F.4v, 90 courtesy of the British Library Figure 5 Detail from the Burning of John Rogers, from Acts and 90 Monuments, Sig.FFFF.iv, courtesy of the Dean and Chapter of York Figure 6 Initial 'C' from the dedication to Acts and Monuments 100 [1570], courtesy of the Dean and Chapter of York Figure 7 Detail from woodcut of John Day, from final leaf of 101 Acts and Monuments [1570], courtesy of the Dean and Chapter of York Figure 8 Engraving of John Foxe, from Henry Holland's 101 Hercoologia (1620), Sig.R.5r, courtesy of the British Library Figure 9 Image of William Cecil, from Hatfield, CPM 11/14, by 102 kind permission of the Marquess of Salisbury Figure 10 Sample of printers' marks 122 Figure 11 Detail from the image of Justice from Whole Works of 167 Tyndale, Frith and Barnes (1573), final page, courtesy of The British Library vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost my thanks go to Tom Freeman, whose generosity with his time, information, support, and editorial skills throughout this thesis have been second to none and deeply appreciated. I am grateful also to Patrick Collinson and John Guy for their generous advice and support. Stephen Alford has been helpful to me in many ways, not least with information on William Cecil, William Seres and the Edwardian regime; his assistance throughout the thesis has been greatly appreciated. I also owe gratitude to many others, for the information and guidance they have provided, in particular: Margaret Aston (on illustrations), Jacques Berthoud (and the F. R. Leavis Fund at York University), The Bibliographical Society (for their funding), Gerald Bray, The British Academy John Foxe Project (in particular, Mark Greengrass and David Loades; I am grateful to the Project for conference funding also), John Craig, David Crankshaw, Pauline Croft, Claire Cross, Andrew Cambers, The Ecclesiastical History Society (for a conference bursary), Carrie Euler, Anthony Grafton, Simon Healy (for all his help and support at the Public Records Office), Dale Hoak, David Kastan, Erick Keleman, Peter Lake (for our many discussions about various aspects of my thesis), Guido Latre (for his encouragement and conference funding), Peter Lucas (for information about sixteenth-century type and special sorts), Scott Lucas (for information on John Wayland), Robert Noel (Lancaster Herald, College of Arms, who was most generous with his time), Chris Oastler, Ros Oates, Andrew Pettegree, Ann Rycraft (for her excellent help on palaeography), Julian Roberts (for information on Foxe, illustrations and paper), Conrad Russell (and all in the Hilt seminar group), Bill Sheils, The Tyndale Society (for a conference bursary), Nicholas Tyacke, Brett Usher (for his generous support and information on the London godly), Alex Walsham (and Exeter University for a conference bursary). I must also thanks the staff at the following libraries and archives, for their generosity with their time in fielding my many enquiries, in particular: The British Library (especially the staff in Rare Books), Emmanuel College Library and Cambridge University Library (for access to Foxe and Bull's papers), King's College Library, Cambridge (for access to Richard Day's papers), and Robin Harcourt Williams at Hatfield House (for permission to reproduce the image of Cecil). Special thanks go to Deirdre Mortimer, Adam Brace and all the staff at York Minster Library for their sheer dedication in all that they do, their generous assistance, breadth of knowledge, and (often short-notice) access to the truly excellent collections there. My deep gratitude is extended also to: Birmingham Central Library, The Borthwick Institute, Bury St Edmunds Record Office, Canterbury Cathedral Library, Chichester Cathedral Library, Dr Williams' Library, Emmanuel College Library, The Folger vii Shakespeare Library, The General Theological Seminary (St Mark's Library, New York), The Guildhall Library, Harvard University Library, Haverford College, John Hopkins University, Lambeth Palace Library, Lincoln College Library, Lincolnshire County Archives, Magdalen College (Oxford), Liverpool University Library, Norfolk County Records Office, Ohio State University Library, Oriel College Library, St Brides Printing Library, St John's College Library (Oxford), Sheffield University Library, Yale University Library and York University Library (The J. B. Morrell Library). My supervisors at the University of York have been: Sid Bradley (1998) and Graham Parry (1999-2002). My final thanks and acknowledgements are extended to those who have provided me with more support and assistance than I can ever thank them for, namely: my wonderful mum, my brothers (John and Bob) and my fiancé Ian Colson (plus his family). Thanks also to my dear friends Natalie Mears, Marie Mailer, Clare Gilchrist, and a note of gratitude to Roger Fogg, for setting me on my way. This thesis is dedicated in memory of my father. DECLARATION Much of the work on the four editions of John Foxe's Acts and Monuments has been reproduced in Elizabeth Evenden and Thomas S. Freeman, 'John Foxe, John Day and the Printing of the Book of Martyrs' in Lives in Print, ed. Robin Myers, Michael Harris and Giles Mandelbrote (Oak Knoll and The British Library, 2002) Some of the information provided in Chapter 3, on Day's Marian activities, will appear in 'The Michael Wood Myster: William Cecil and the Lincolnshire Printing of John Day' in Sixteenth Century Journal (forthcoming). Information about John Day's involvement with the Stranger Communities will occur in 'The Fleeing Dutchmen? The Influence of Dutch Immigrants on the Print Shop of John Day' in John Foxe: At Home and Abroad, ed. David Loades (forthcoming). Some of the information on music proof-reading will be used in 'Singing Psalms and Howling Errors: the Problems of Music Proof-Reading in Tudor England' (forthcoming). Where duplication of material occurs within the thesis, the relevant passages have been indicated in a footnote. Information reproduced from entries in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (forthcoming) likewise have been indicated in a footnote. Any information for which I have relied on information from other sources has been duly indicated in the same manner. ABSTRACT John Day (1522-1584) is, by common acknowledgement, the foremost English printer of the latter sixteenth-century. As well as printing works, most notably the Acts and Monuments, he also pioneered enormous advances in English typography and book illustration. This thesis will examine his life and overall career, in particular, examining the reasons for his commercial success and his significance in English book production. The thesis begins by setting Day in the context of the sixteenth century printing industry. It then examines his disputed origins and establishment as a London printer. Day is also identified as the mysterious 'Michael Wood', clandestine printer of illicit works during Mary's reign.