SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
381
lUaionera' company after they had received their charter from Pbilip and Maiy.
After the accession of Elizabeth, Day received a lai^ share of the patronage of those labourers in the cause of the Reformation, with whom he had previously suffered; and became one of the principal publishers (to use the modern word,) trading in England, now su conspicuously and permanently Protestant. He was chosen war- den of the stationers^ companv in the years 1564, 1566, 1671, and 1575, and master in 1580. In 1572 he erected a new shop in St. Paul's Church- yard; regarding which, and the important pa- tronage he received from archbishop Parker, some interesting particulars will be found in a letter of that prelate to lord Burghley, dated on Dec. 13 that vear, the substance of which is given below. The archbishop was then anxiously engaged in providing suitable replies to the great work of popish polemic, Nicholas Sanders,* De Visibili jUonarchia Eccletia; and, in the same letter he informs his lordship that he had engaged Dr. Clercke, of Cambridge, to assist in tnat task.f It is well known that at the date of this epistle, and for many years after, English books were almost entirely printeS in the type now called black letter; the Roman type was only occasionally used for quotations, ace. and the italic, was still more rarely employed, as may be perceived from the following statement of the archbishop : " To the better accomplbhment of this worke and other that shall followe, I have spoken to Dale the printer to cast a new Italian letter, which he is aoinge, and it will cost him xl marks; and loth he and other printers be to rinte any lattin booke, because they will not eare be uttered, and for that Bookes printed in Englande be in suspition abroade." It is noticed by Herbert that the only portion of Clercke's Rapoiuio printed in italic, are the quotations; but it is very remarkable, with reference to the clause of Parker's letter " this worke and other
- Hie writers in defence of the catboUc religioo, daring
the reipi of Elizabeth, were nomeroos, wnone whom the priodpil were Nicfaolaii Sandets, Thomai Stapleton, Willl- am Rainolds, Ednrand Campian, Robert Tomer, WUUam Alien, Thomas Harding, and Robert Parsons. Nicholas Bandera rendered himself consplcnoos on various occa- sions, br his oratorical abilities, and especially at the coondl of Trent , bat whatever talents he was endowed with, he never can be considered as an impartial historian. Two of bis worlcs were more famous than the rest. The tnt was a treatise on the ViMle Monarckn of the VhmrcH, and the other an account of the Origin and Pngre— tf Sckttm of Bmgland, which was so popular that it went Cirou|;h manj edlUons, and wa* translated into Italian and French.
t The history of this oontro versy, and of those engaged in it, will be found in Strype's Life of Parker, pp. 377 SM. Soch was the ubiquitous sup^intendence of the great minister Burfchley, that be received (Tom the archbishop from time to time, portions of Dr. Clercke's book in quires, as they came from the press. Id order to complete the printing, other works were laid aside ) in particular, it is recorded that bishop Field's Book of Epigramewna delayed firom Felmiary until after Easter. Dr. Clercke's essay was Inally poblished without his name, under the title of Fidelit een/i euMUo ii^fideH Re«p»tuio; and was accompa. Died or shortly followed by another treatise by George Aeworth, LL.D. which, in parody of Saondei's title, was called De ViMMIi ilom' Annrchia. (Ste the tall titles given by Hcrtiert and Dibdin, among Day's books of the year 1573.)
n(
that thall followe," that about this time the arch- bishop's own work, De Antiquitate Britannica Ecclma, was printed by Day in a type which Mr. Dibdin terms " a full-sized, close, but flowing italic letter." As that great work, however, is dated 1572, and the answers to Sanders ap- peared in 1573, and the size of the type employed in the former (a folio) may be larger than that of the latter, (which are in quarto) this circum- stance may only show the archbishop's partiality for the " Italian" style of printing.*
Slrype, in his Life of archbishop Parker, thus speaks of John Day: "And with the archbishop's engravers, we may joyn his printer Day, who printed his British Antiqvitiet, and divers other books by his order, and especially such as related to the injunctions and laws of the church, for whom the archbishop had a particular kindness. For as he was a promoter of learning, so, in order to that, of printing too. Day was more ingenious and industrious in his art, and proba- bly richer too, than the rest, and so became envyed too by the rest of his fraternity; who hindered what they could the sale of his books; and he had in the year 1572, upon his hands, to the value of two or three thousand pounds worth, a great sum in those days; but living under Aldersgate, an obscure comer of the city, he wanted a good vent for them. Whereupon his friends, who were the learned, procured from the dean uid chapter of St. Paul's, a lease of a little shopt to be set up in Su Paul's church-yard. Whereupon he got framed a neat handsome shop. It was but little and low, and flat-roofed aua leaded like a terrace, railed and posted, fit for men to stand upon in any triumph or show; but could not in any wise hurt and deface the same.^ This cost him forty or fifty pounds. But ^ovii il rlc^avt rsic^ov, his brethren the book- sellers envied him, and by their interest got the mayor and aldermen to forbid the setting it up, though they bad nothing to do there, but by
- For a portion of the above notice of John Day, I am
indebted to a very able article communicated to the Oemtlemm't Mngweine by J. O. N. inserted in the nnmber for November, 183S. — Edit.
t tills shop is mentioned in the imprints of four several books printed by Day in 1578, but not in any other year. The imprint of TAe Oovemaunce of Vertue, 1578, is thus minutely conceived : Printed at London by John Day, dwellyng over Aldersgate, beneath Saint Martins; and are to be solde at his long shop at the Noith-west dore of Paules. In Uie next year, however, whether the St. Paul's shop was given up or no, we read instead, "and sold at his shop under the gate." The imprints do not bear Herbert ont In bis assertion that Day " kept at the same time several shops in different parts of the town;" for more than two cannot be traced at any one period.
t It will be readily Imagined how much the erectien of shops and small houses against St. Paul's, tended both to deface and dilapidate the edifice. A zealous promoter of the repairs In the reign of James I. had a painting made of the cathedral, stuck over with mottoes, one of which vras
Vlewe, O King, how my wall-creepers Have made mee worke for chimney-sweepers.
The same painting shows, also, how the shops were con- verted into stands for spectaton on occasion of a proces- sion. It is In the possession of the Society of Antiquaries; one portion of which is engraved in WilkineoiCa Loniimia llluetrata, and another in Nichol's Progretea of king James Iht First.
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