page_title: John Day (printer)
section_title: Elizabethan period
hierarchical_section_title: John Day (printer) / Elizabethan period
context_page_description: John Day was an English Protestant printer. He specialised in printing and distributing Protestant literature and pamphlets, and produced many small-format religious books, such as ABCs, sermons, and translations of psalms. He found fame, however, as the publisher of John Foxe's Actes and Monuments, also known as the Book of Martyrs, the largest and most technologically accomplished book printed in sixteenth-century England.
  Day rose to the top of his profession during the reign of Edward VI. At this time, restrictions on publishers were relaxed, and a wave of propaganda on behalf of the English Reformation was encouraged by the government of the Lord Protector, Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset. During the reign of the Catholic Queen Mary I, many Protestant printers fled to the continent, but Day stayed in England and continued to print Protestant literature. In 1554, he was arrested and imprisoned, presumably for these illicit printing activities. Under Queen Elizabeth I, Day returned to his premises at Aldersgate in London, where he enjoyed the patronage of high-ranking officials and nobles, including William Cecil, Robert Dudley, and Matthew Parker.
context_section_description: With the death of Mary and the accession of Elizabeth I in 1558, Day's business blossomed once more. Day was already close to Cecil, who had now become one of the new Queen's top advisors. Through Cecil, Day was awarded the valuable monopoly on printing ABCs. He also befriended Robert Dudley (son of John Dudley), another of Elizabeth's favorites. With the help of his connections, Day was able to obtain a lucrative patent to print William Cuningham's Cosmographical Glasse. He produced the first edition in 1559 using a new italic font of the highest quality (probably cut by François Guyot) and a large number of impressive woodcuts. Day absorbed the high production costs himself, since he knew the work would solidify his reputation as a master printer. Day's patent to print Cuningham—his first under Elizabeth—gave him exclusive rights to the work for life; it also allowed him to retain a monopoly for seven years on any other original works that were not covered by other patents, were "compiled at Day's expense", and were "not repugnant to Holy Scripture or the law". This stipulation would be an important source of income for the rest of his life.
  Day took advantage of the monopoly clause, reestablishing his Edwardian patent for The ABC with Little Catechism. In 1559, he obtained a patent for The Whole Booke of Psalmes, Collected into English Meter, a metrical psalter, compiled mostly by Thomas Sternhold and John Hopkins, that Day first published in 1562. The Stationers' Company guaranteed Day the right to print all "psalmes in metre with note", in other words, psalms with music. Despite the fact that psalmes had usually been learned by rote, the business proved lucrative, reflecting a rise in musical literacy during the period. The Whole Booke of Psalmes became the period's best-selling book and the standard English psalter of its time. Day's monopolies on these perennially popular works would be the basis of great wealth over the years and a good deal of conflict between him and his fellow stationers. In legal proceedings towards the end of Day's life, it was estimated that these particular patents were worth between £200 and £500 per year.
caption: A page from Cuningham's Cosmographical Glasse printed by Day in 1559
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