Danter, John (1566-1599), printer

Danter’s reputation is stained to this day by his responsibility for the ‘bad’ quarto of Romeo and Juliet. His career in the book trade, however, had a promising start. He was bound to one of the most prestigious printers of the day, John Day, in 1682. Day, though, died only two years later and it took four long years for Danter to be turned over to a new master, Robert Robinson. In the intervening period, Danter with a group of other printers engaged in pirating two grammar books. They were caught and banned from ever becoming master printers. Fortunately for Danter, two years after being freed, the Stationers’ dismissed the restriction and he was allowed to set up in partnership William Hoskins and Henry Chettle in 1591. The partnership was short-lived and Danter ventured out as an independent printer, specialising in broadside ballads and helped by a close working relationship with satirist Thomas Nashe. In 1594, Danter entered the quarto edition of Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus in the Company Register. Yet without lucrative patents and struggling to find work, Danter resorted to piracy. In 1597, the same year that he printed the ‘bad' quarto of Romeo and Juliet, his premises were raided and his press seized and destroyed for printing the Jesus Psalter.

Printer (1589-1599)

Catherne Bunting (wife)

International Standard Archival Authority Record for Corporate Bodies, Persons and Families - ISAAR(CPF) 2nd edition - ICA 2004 ISBN 2-9521932-2-3

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Michelle Michel, ‘The Poor versus the Patents: Contextualising John Danter’s Reputation through the Lens of the Patent-Less Poor’, in Early Modern Publishers: Identities and Strategies in the Book Trade (Leiden: Brill, 2025), pp. 441-465