Title: Actes and Monuments of Matters Most Speciall and Memorable, Happenyng in the Church, with an Uniuersall History of the Same, wherein is set forth at large the whole race and course of the Church, from the primitiue age to these latter tymes of ours, with the bloudy times, 1583. The Scarce Fourth Edition of Foxe’s Great Book of Martyrs
Author: John Foxe
Publisher: London, John Daye
Condition: Very Good
A scarce late 16th century, and Fourth Edition of John Foxe’s ecclesiastical history, Actes and Monuments, and more famously known as the Book of Martyrs, largely being a reprint of his 1570 Second Edition, but still being one of his lifetime imprints.
Published rather early in Queen Elizabeth the First’s Reign, the work is a polemical account of the sufferings of Protestants under the Catholic Church, focusing particularly on England and Scotland. The powerful Protestant messaging in Foxe’s work, combined with the narrative and visual impact of the martyred English very much helped shape the perception of Catholicism among the English and Scottish for centuries to come.
Volume I is an "Ecclesiastical History" containing "the acts and monuments [no capitals] of thynges passed in every kynges tyme in this realm [England], specially in the Church of England". It describes "persecutions, horrible troubles, the suffering of martyrs [new], and other such thinges incident ... in England and Scotland, and [new] all other foreign nations".
Volume II has its own title page and, again, an altered subject, being an "Ecclesiastical History conteyning the Acts and Monuments of Martyrs".
There are numerous woodcuts throughout, with the cuts to the second volume providing vividly brutal imagery of various Protestant martyrs in their final stages of life, whether burnt at the stake, beheaded, or executed in some other gruesome fashion.
The title page to volume one is lacking, as are the 15 preliminary leaves, the initial text leaf A1, leaves A6, D1, D2, D5 & D6, and the Poysoning of King John folding plate. Leaves A1, A6, D1, D2, D5 & D6 and the King John plate are provided in facsimile. Other than the folding plate, none of the in-text woodcuts are lost.
There is a bookplate for one George Weare Braikenridge of Broomwell House to the upper pastedown
The first volume has been bound in near contemporary blind panelled calf, being rebacked and repaired to the corners. The second volume is in modern blind panelled calf, with red morocco title labels to the spines of each volume.
The second volume is lacking the Ridley/Latimer and Bucer/Paulus folding plate, and the last five index leaves, also provided in facsimile.
ESTC records 30 existing copies of this edition in libraries. Of those 30 copies, 15 are either defective, imperfect, or otherwise orphan volumes.
Two finely bound volumes in large folio, 293 of 305+307-373+373-1221, 1223-2110+2112-2154+(22 of 32) pages
These volumes are in very good shape, with some rubbing and wear to the original calf. A few leaves bear repaired torn margins and have occasional loss mostly of marginal notes, and there are a few repaired closed tears. There is some toning and marginal browning, as well as old dust soiling scattered throuhgout.