Heywood, John

4to (7 1/2 x 5 3/8 in.; 191 x 136 mm). Title within woodcut architectural border (McKerrow & Ferguson 50) with printer's initials below the border, woodcut portrait of Heywood on verso of title-page, text in black letter, woodcut initials and tailpieces, 36 woodcut text illustrations (38 repeats), thirteen full-page woodcut illustrations, including portrait of the author (with 39 repeats) of which 25 are combined to resemble double-page illustrations, one true double-page woodcut, imprimatur on colophon leaf; top margin of title-page and verso with author portrait repaired, with a portion in facsimile, rust holes on 2G2–3 costing a few letters, some of the full-page woodcuts shaved along top margin.  Nineteenth-century straight-grain red morocco paneled gilt after a cottage-style binding, the spine gilt in six compartments (two with lettering), rose watered silk doublures, gilt dentelles, edges gilt; joints rubbed.

Robart Boyel (inscription on title-page: Liber Robart Boyel 2⁶"). acquisition: Seven Gables, 1970

STC 13308; ESTC S106106; Pforzheimer 469

First edition. Most likely because of the inscrutability of the allegory (Catholics are represented by the flies and Protestants by the spiders), combined with its expensive and complicated series of woodcuts, it was