Ray, Joseph

Dates Active in Dublin: 

1676–1708

Business Type: 
Printer
Address(es): 

College Green, 1681–94
The Three Naggs Heads, Essex Street, 1695–97
Skinner Row, opposite the Tholsel, 1698–1708

Details: 

Established one of the largest printing houses in Dublin at the time (Barra Boydell, Long Room).

Succeeded in business by his wife Elizabeth Ray.

Select Product/Work List: 

Printed

  • 'One anthem' for Christ Church Cathedral, 1683/4
  • 'All the choicest New Songs, with Musical Notes, set by the best Masters, and fairly engraven on Copper Plates, will hereafter (if these his first attempts find encouragement) be published at 2d a piece each by Robert Thornton Bookseller at the Leather Bottle in Skinner Row. Dublin. Printed by J. Ray on College Green, for Robert Thornton at the Leather Bottle, 1685 (Dublin News Letter, 30 January and 13–18 February 1686, cited in Boydell, 'Calendar')
    • See Also: 

    Thornton, Robert

    Source(s): 

    Dix, E.R. McC., 'The Ray Family - Printers in Dublin', The Bibliographical Society of Ireland: Short Papers, 2.5 (1923), 84–5 (p.84)

    Boydell, Brian, A Dublin Musical Calendar 1700–1760 (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 1988), p. 31

    Munter, Robert, A Dictionary of the Print Trade in Ireland: 1550–1775 (New York: Fordham University Press, 1988), pp. 227–28

    Boydell, Barra, 'The Development of the Dublin Music Print Trade to 1800', Long Room (1996), pp.25-33 (p. 27)

    Last Update: 20-05-2021