Lot 49: [DAY, RICHARD]

A BOOKE OF CHRISTIAN PRAYERS, COLLECTED OUT OF THE ANCIENT WRITERS, AND BEST LEARNED IN OUR TIME. LONDON: RICHARD YARDLEY AND PETER SHORT FOR THE ASSIGNEES OF RICHARD DAY, 1590

4to (185 x 125mm.), black letter, letterpress title within woodcut border illustrating the Tree of Jesse, fine full-page woodcut on verso of title page depicting queen elizabeth at prayer in her chamber, woodcut borders to all margins, woodcut printer's device, nineteenth-century gilt tooled red morocco with double fillet border and panel with cornerpiece volutes, inside dentelles, spine with six compartments, repairs to sigs 1 (bottom 30mm. of leaf supplied in facsimile) and 4 of preliminary gathering, wormholes at lower right margin with some leaves repaired and occasional loss to catchwords and borders, edges trimmed with marginal note at A3r shaved, upper cover somewhat discoloured

PROVENANCE

John William Pease, armorial bookplate.

LITERATURE

STC 6431

NOTE

a fine copy of this popular collection of prayers with richly illustrative woodcut borders, selected by the printer and clergyman Richard Day and first published in 1578. It is often known as Queen Elizabeth's Prayer Book after the fine frontispiece that depicts her on her knees at prayer, with the sword of justice abandoned at her side. However, this is something of a misnomer as the woodcut was first used in a different collection (Christian Prayers and Meditations in English) published by Day in 1569.