Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Day, Richard
DAY, DAYE, or D'AJE, RICHARD (1552–1607?), printer, translator, and divine, son of John Day [q. v.], printer, was born at Aldersgate, in London, 21 Dec. 1552. He was educated at Eton (Harwood, Alumni Eton. 1797, p. 184), and having been elected to King's College, Cambridge, was admitted a scholar there 24 Aug. 1571. He matriculated in the following November, was admitted a fellow 24 Aug. 1574, and proceeded B.A. 1575. Herbert says he was M.A., but there is no record of the fact (Cooper, Athenæ Cantab. ii. 476). His first literary production consisted of some verses prefixed to the edition of Foxe's ‘Acts and Monuments’ printed by his father in 1576. Day gave up his fellowship shortly after Michaelmas 1576, and having been made free of the Stationers' Company, probably by his father's copy, was sworn and admitted to the livery 30 June 1578 (Arber, Transcript, ii. 865). The first book licensed to him was on 28 May 1578, for ‘Christ Jesus Triumphant,’ by John Foxe, translated and published by himself, and again in 1579, ‘at Aldersgate beneath St. Martines.’ This edition is dedicated to Mr. Richard Killigrew. The dedication of one of 1607 to Lord Howard is signed D'Aije, which has given rise to the supposition that the family was of foreign origin. In 1578 he brought out, with a new preface, ‘A Booke of Christian Prayers, collected out of the Auncient Writers,’ commonly known as ‘Queen Elizabeth's Prayer Book,’ printed by his father, who is believed to have been the compiler of the first edition of 1569, from which the second differs so materially as to form a new work. The charming woodcut borders and illustrations are finer and more varied in the 1578 edition. It was reprinted in 1581, 1590, 1608, and subsequently, and was included by W. K. Clay in ‘Private Prayers put forth by authority during the Reign of Queen Elizabeth’ (Parker Society, 1851). ‘Antwerpe's Unitye,’ the proclamation of William of Orange, was translated and printed by him in 1579. He contributed a brief preface to ‘De fide, ejusque ortu Explicatio P. Baronis Stempani,’ printed by him ‘in Occident. Cœmeterio D. Pauli sub Arbore,’ 1580, with his device of three lilies on a stalk in the midst of thorns, and the motto ‘Sicut lilium inter spinas.’ In this book the differences between the letters i and j, u and v, are observed throughout as in modern use. The last book printed by him was ‘The First Part of the Key of Philosophie, by Theophrastus Paracelsus,’ 1580, ‘to be sold at the long shop at the west ende of Paules,’ his father's house, which was used jointly by the son. He only printed four or five books, and parted with his apprentice in 1581. Between that date and 1604 a number of books have the imprint ‘by the assignes of Rich. Daye.’ In 1581 he edited, with a preface, ‘The Testamentes of the Twelve Patriarches, Englished by A[ntony] G[ilby],’ which has been frequently reprinted down to the present century. On 26 Aug. 1577 a license was granted to John Day and Richard, his son, during their lives and that of the longest liver, for the ‘Psalmes in Meeter’ and ‘A B C with the lyttel Catechisme.’ John Day died 23 July 1584, and pirated editions of these privileged books were issued. Hence the Starchamber case of R. Day and his assigns v. T. Dunn, R. Robinson, and others, Michaelmas term, 1585 (Arber, ii. 21, 790–3).
He took orders and was appointed to the vicarage of Reigate 29 May 1583, and resigned in 1584 (Manning and Bray, Surrey, i. 323). The date of his death is not known, but it must have happened some time after 1607.
[Ames's Typogr. Antiq. (Herbert), i. 680–3; the same (Dibdin), iv. 178–82; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), i. 530; Gent. Mag. November 1832; Timperley's Cyclopædia, 1842, pp. 363, 384; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. viii. 673; Notes and Queries, 4th ser. iii. 83; Townsend's Life of Foxe; Cat. of the English Books in the British Museum printed to 1640, 1884, 3 vols.]