The Printer As Author In Early Modern English Book History: John Day And The Fabrication Of A Protestant Memory Art (Routledge Studies In Early Modern Authorship)

John Day (1552-84) was responsible for the look, style, and authorized content of a significant body of English Reformation printing. Unlike previous treatments of Day's achievements, this book focuses on the aesthetic and mnemonically oriented cultural elements that informed his hybrid role as author, printer and "stationer" and which positioned him to create, distribute, and own the rights to the first English Protestant catechism, collection of psalms, home devotional manual, and John Foxe's extremely influential Book of Martyrs. Among his many innovations, Day introduced into England clear italic font and high-quality pictures with his printing of Cunningham's Cosmographical Glass (1559). He also undertook an early Protestant emblem book, Van der Noot's Theatre (1568) in both Dutch and French editions that influenced, among others, Edmund Spenser. As Master of the Stationers' Company he defended against book piracy and implemented the first widely enforced means for printers to stake claims to intellectual property and collect damages. Consequently, he amassed considerable profits, enabling him to risk larger, long-term projects. His religious, political, and aesthetic preferences--and (as this book is the first to show) his finely honed mnemotechnical sensibilities--set a trend and provided models for the printing of similar and related works during the period. Taken as whole Day's output, which included best-selling books for people of all ages and reading-abilities, established and stabilized a Protestant Memory Art which, although drawing on earlier Catholic literary genres and graphic models, presented Reformation ideals in a form that found unprecedented acceptance in Elizabethan England.

• | Author: William Engel
• | Publisher: Routledge
• | Publication Date: Apr 27, 2022
• | Number of Pages: 220 pages
• | Language: English
• | Binding: Hardcover
• | ISBN-10: 036714588X
• | ISBN-13: 9780367145880