Richard Grafton's Device.Fig. 16.—Richard Grafton's Device.
From the affidavit of Emmanuel Demetrius [i.e.Van Meteren], discovered in 1884 at the Dutch Church in Austin Friars,[3]it seems clearthat in 1535 Edward Whitchurch was working with Jacob van Metern at Antwerp in printing Coverdale's translation of the Bible.
Richard Grafton was the son of Nicholas Grafton of Shrewsbury. The first record we have of him is his apprenticeship to John Blage, a grocer of London, in 1526. He was admitted a freeman of the Company in 1534, and at that time seems to have employed himself chiefly in furthering the project of an English translation of the whole Bible. On the 13th August 1537, Grafton sent to Archbishop Cranmer a copy of the Bible printed abroad. The text was a modification of Coverdale's translation ostensibly by Thomas Mathew, but in reality by John Rogers the editor. In 1538, Coverdale, Grafton, and Whitchurch were together in Paris, busy upon a third edition of the Bible. In June of that year they sent two specimens of the text to Cromwell, with a letter stating that they followed the Hebrew text with Chaldee or Greek interpretations. The printing was done at the press of Francis Regnault, but before many sheets had been struck off, the University of Paris seized the press and 2000 copies of the printed sheets, while the promoters had to make a hasty escape to this country. The presses and types were afterwards bought by Cromwell, and the work was subsequently finished and published in 1539. The work had an engraved title-page,ascribed to Holbein, and the price was fixed at ten shillings per copy unbound, and twelve shillings bound.
Before leaving Paris, Grafton and Whitchurch had issued an edition of Coverdale's translation of the New Testament, giving as their reason that James Nicholson of Southwark had printed a very imperfect version of it.
In 1540 Grafton and Whitchurch printed in 'the house late the graye freers,'The Prymer both in Englysshe and Latin, to be sold at the sign of the Bible in St. Paul's Churchyard. In the same year they printed with a prologue by Cranmer, a second edition of the Great Bible, half of which bore the name of Grafton and half of Whitchurch, and in all probability the subsequent editions were published in the same way. Two very good initial letters were used in the New Testament, and seem to have been cut especially for Whitchurch. On the 28th January 1543-44 Grafton and Whitchurch received an exclusive patent for printing church service books (Rymer,Fœdera, xiv. 766), and a few years later they are found with an exclusive right for printing primers in Latin and English. Upon the accession of EdwardVI. Grafton became the royal printer, but upon the king's death he printed the proclamation of Lady Jane Grey, and was for that reason deprived of his office by Queen Mary. The remainder of his life he spent in the compilation of EnglishChroniclesin keen rivalry with John Stow.
Richard Grafton died in 1573. He was twice married. By his first wife, Anne, daughter of —— Crome of Salisbury, he had four sons and one daughter, Joan, who married Richard Tottell, the law printer. By his second wife, Alice, he left one son, Nicholas.
Grafton used as his device a tun with grafted fruit-tree growing through it.
Among the noted booksellers and printers in St. Paul's Churchyard at this time must be mentioned William Bonham. As yet it is not clear whether he belonged to the Essex family of that name, or to another branch that is found in Kent.
From a series of documents discovered at the Record Office relating to John Rastell and his house called the Mermaid in Cheapside, it appears that in the year 1520 William Bonham was working in London as a bookseller, and on two different occasions was a sub-tenant of Rastell's at the Mermaid. Yet not a single dated book with his name is found before 1542, at which time he was living at the sign of the Red Lion in St. Paul's Churchyard, and issued a folio edition of Fabyan'sChronicles, besides having a share with his neighbour, Robert Toye, in a folio edition of Chaucer. Even at this time William Bonham held some sort of office in the Guild or Society of Stationers, for from a curious letterwritten by Abbot Stevenage to Cromwell in 1539, about a certain book printed in St. Albans Abbey, he says he has sent the printer to London with Harry Pepwell, Toy, and 'Bonere' (Letters and Papers, H. 8, vol. xiv. p. 2, No. 315), so that it would look as if they were commissioned to hunt down popish heretical and seditious books. By the marriage of his daughter, Joan, to William Norton, the bookseller, who in turn named his son Bonham Norton, the history of the descendants of William Bonham can be followed up for quite a century later.
At the Long Shop in the Poultry we can see the press at work almost without a break from the early years of the sixteenth century till the close of the first quarter of the seventeenth. Upon the removal of Richard Bankes into Fleet Street its next occupant seems to have been one John Mychell, of whose work a solitary fragment, fortunately that bearing the colophon, of an undated quarto edition of theLife of St. Margaret, is now in the hands of Mr. F. Jenkinson of the University Library, Cambridge. Whether this John Mychell is the same person as the John Mychell found a few years later printing at Canterbury there is no evidence to show. Nor do we know how long he occupied the Long Shop. In 1542 Richard Kele's name is found in aPrimer in Englysh, which was issued from this house. He may have been some relationto the Thomas Kele who, in 1526, had occupied John Rastell's house, the Mermaid, as stated by Bonham in his evidence. During 1543, in company with Byddell, Grafton, Middleton, Mayler, Petit, and Lant, Richard Kele was imprisoned in the Poultry Compter for printing unlawful books (Acts of Privy Council, New Series, vol. i. pp. 107, 117, 125). Most of the books that bear his name came from the presses of William Seres, Robert Wyer, and William Copland. Perhaps the most interesting of his publications next to the edition of Chaucer, which he shared with Toye and Bonham, are the series of poems by John Skelton, calledWhy Come ye not to Courte?Colin Clout, andThe Boke of Phyllip Sparowe. They were issued in octavo form, and were evidently very hastily turned out from the press, type, woodcuts, and workmanship being of the worst description. At the end ofColin Cloutis a woodcut of a figure at a desk, supposed to represent the author, but it is doubtful whether it is anything more than an old block with his name cut upon it.
Looking back over the work done at this time, it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that the art of printing in England had much deteriorated since the days of Pynson, while the best of it, even that of Berthelet, could not be compared with that of the continental presses of the same period. There was an entire absence of originality among the English printers. Types, woodcuts, initial letters, ornaments, and devices, were obtained by the printers from abroad, and had seen some service before their arrival in this country. But just at this time a printer came to the front in this country, who for a few years placed the art on a higher footing than any of his predecessors.
John Day.Fig. 17.—John Day.
J
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 theResurrection 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'sGodly Meditacion upon the psalms, and Tyndale'sParable of the Wicked Mammon.
Their work in 1548 included a second edition of theConsultationof Hermann, the bishop of Cologne, Robert Crowley'sConfutation of Myles Hoggarde, a sermon of Latimer's, a metrical dialogue aimed at the priesthood and entitledJohn Bon and Mast Person, and, as a relief to so much theological literature, theHerbalof 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 belongedto 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.
From a Bible printed by John Day. London, 1551. 4to.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 greatmany 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 EdwardVI. 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 deadbefore 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.
Heraldic Initial containing the Arms of Dudley, Earl of Leicester.Fig.19.—Heraldic Initial containing the Arms of Dudley, Earl of Leicester.
It does not follow that because Day's nameoccurs 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'sHundred Points of Good Husserye(i.e.Housewifery); William Bullein'sGovernment 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 folioThe Cosmographicall Glasseof 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, towhom 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 theCosmographicall Glasseappeared 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 theCommentariesof 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 ofActs 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 ofCommentarii 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 theBook of Martyrs. He did notreturn 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.
From Foxe's 'Actes and Monumentes,' printed by John Day, 1576.Fig.20.—From Foxe's 'Actes and Monumentes,' printed by John Day, 1576.
Foxe'sActes and Monumentesis a work of 2008 folio pages, printed in double columns, thetype used being a small English black letter, the same which had been used in Becon'sWorks, 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 ofA 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 hisOld 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.'
'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 thePsalter, 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 thePsalterwith musical notes. In 1568 he used the Saxon types again to print William Lambard'sArchaionomia, a book of Saxon laws. Amongst his other productions of that year must be mentioned the folio edition of Peter Martyr'sCommentary on the Epistle to the Romans; Gildas the historian'sDe excidio et conquestu Britanniæ, 1568, 8vo; and a French version of Vandernoot'sTheatre 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. TheTheatre for Worldlingswas translated into English the following year, and contained verses from the pen of Edmund Spenser, then aboy 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'sScholemaster, in quarto. In 1571 Day was busy with Church matters. There was just then much talk of Church discipline, and it shows itself in theReformatio 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.
TheBooke 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 ofThe 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 himannoyance. 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' bookDe Visibili Monarchia, and amongst those whom he selected for the work was Dr. Clerke of Cambridge, who accordingly wrote a Latin treatise entitledFidelis 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 theResponsiowas printed in a new fount of that type, clear, even, and free from abbreviations.
In the same year (1572) Day printed at theArchbishop's private press at Lambeth his great workDe Antiquitate Britannicae Ecclesiaein folio, in a new fount of Italic, with preface in Roman, and the titles and sub-titles in the larger Italic of theCosmographicall 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.
TheDe Antiquitateis 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 entitledA Second Admonition to the Parliament, in which he defended those who had been imprisoned for airing their opinions in the firstAdmonition. 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'sYpodigme NeustriaandHistoria 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 thedisposal 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 theDe Antiquitateare 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, entitledGeneral 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 hisA B C and litell Catechism, a book for which he had obtained a patent in the days of EdwardVI.
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 decreepassed 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 theA 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 thisA B Cof 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 theyhad 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.
Day's large Device.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.
Amongst the men whose names were not included in the charter were:—
M
ost notable of all the men who lived and worked with Day, was Reginald or Reyner Wolfe, of the Brazen Serpent in St. Paul's Churchyard. Much as we have to regret the scantiness of all material for a study of the lives of the early English printers, it is doubly felt in the case of Reginald Wolfe. The little that is made known to us is just sufficient to whet the appetite and kindle the curiosity. It reveals to us an active business man, evidently with large capital behind him, setting up as a bookseller, under the shadow of the great Cathedral, and rapidly becoming known to the learned and the rich. We see him passing backwards and forwards between this country and the book-fair at Frankfort, executing commissions for great nobles, and at the same time acting as the King's courier. Later on we find him adding the trade of printer to that of bookseller, and I have very little doubt that it was partly to the advice and influence of ReginaldWolfe that we owe the improvement that took place in John Day's printing after his return from abroad. As a printer he stands beside Day in the excellence of his workmanship, and he was the first in England who possessed any large stock of Greek type.
Reyner Wolfe was a native of Dretunhe(?), in Gelderland, as shown by the letters of denization which he took out on the 2nd January 1533-4. (State Papers, Hen. 8. vol. 6. No. 105.) He had been established in Saint Paul's Churchyard some years before this, however, as in a letter from Thomas Tebold to the Earl of Wiltshire, dated the 4th April 1530, he says he has arrived at Frankfort, and hopes to hear from his lordship through 'Reygnard Wolf, bookseller, of St. Pauls Churchyard, London, who will be here in two days.'
Again, in 1539, in the same series ofLetters and Papers(vol. xiv. pt. 2. No. 781), is an entry of the payment of 100s. to 'Rayner Wolf' for conveying the King's letters to Christopher Mounte, his Grace's agent in 'High Almayne'. But it was not until 1542 that he began to print. The British Museum fortunately possesses copies of all his early works as a printer, which began with several of the writings of John Leland the antiquary. The first wasNaeniae in mortem T. Viati, Equitis incomparabilis, Joanne Lelando, antiquario, authore, a quarto, printed in a well-cut fount of Roman. This was followed in the same year byGenethliacon, a work specially written by Leland for Prince Edward, with a dedication to Prince Henry, the first part being printed in Italic and the second in Roman type. On the verso of the last leaf is the printer's very beautiful device of children throwing at an apple-tree, certainly one of the most artistic devices in use amongst the printers of that time.
Wolfe's Device.Fig. 22.—Wolfe's Device.
To this work succeeded, in 1543, theHomiliesof Saint Chrysostom, of which John Cheke, Professor in Greek at Cambridge University, was editor. The whole of the first part of the work, with the exception of the dedication, was in Greek letter, making thirty lines to the quarto page. The second part, which had a separate title-page, was printed with the Italic, and the supplementary parts with the Roman types. Some very fine pictorial initial letters were used throughout the work, and the larger form of the apple-tree device occurs on the last leaf, with a Greek and Latin motto.
A very rare specimen of Wolfe's work in 1543 is Robert Recorde'sThe groūd of artes teachyng the worke and practise of Arithmetike moch necessary for all states of men, a small octavo printed in black letter, but of no particular merit. In the same type and form he issued in the following year a tract entitledThe late expedicion in Scotlande, etc. Chrysostom'sDe Providentia DeiandLaudatio Paciswere printed in the Roman and Italic founts during 1545 and 1546, and are the only record we have left of Wolfe's work as a printer during those years. In 1547 he was appointed the king's printer in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and was granted an annuity of twenty-six shillings and eightpence during his life (Pat. Rol. 19 April 1547).
In 1553 trouble arose between Wolfe and Day as to their respective rights of printing Edward the Sixth's catechism. The matter wassettled by Wolfe having the privilege for printing the Latin version, and Day that in English, but neither party reaped much benefit, as upon the king's death the book was called in, having only been in circulation a few months. During Mary's reign the only important work that seems to have come from Wolfe's press was Recorde'sCastle of Knowledge, a folio, with an elaborately designed title-page, and a dedication to Cardinal Pole. In 1560 Wolfe became Master of the Company of Stationers, a position to which he was elected on three subsequent occasions, in 1564, 1567, and 1572. His patents were renewed to him under Elizabeth, and he came in for his share of the patronage of Matthew Parker, whose edition of Jewel'sApologiahe printed in quarto form in 1562. In 1563 appeared from his press theCommonplaces of Scripture, by Wolfgang Musculus, a folio, chiefly notable for a very fine pictorial initial 'I,' measuring nearly 3-1/2 inches square, and representing the Creation, which had obviously formed part of the opening chapter of Genesis in some early edition of the Bible. It was certainly used again in the 1577 edition of Holinshed'sChronicle.
Almost his last work was Matthew Paris'sHistoria Major, edited by Matthew Parker, a handsome folio with an engraved title-page, several good pictorial initials, and his large device of the apple-tree, printed in 1571. Without doubtthe printer was greatly interested in this work. He had himself collected materials for a chronicle of his adopted country, which he amused himself with in his spare time. But he did not live to print it, his death taking place late in the year 1573. His will was short, and mentioned none of his children by name. His property in St. Paul's Churchyard, which included the Chapel or Charnel House on the north side, which he had purchased of King HenryVIII., he left to his wife, and the witnesses to his will were George Bishop, Raphael Holinshed, John Hunn, and John Shepparde.[6]His wife, Joan Wolfe, only survived him a few months, her will, which is also preserved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury,[7]being proved on the 20th July 1574. In it occurs the following passage: