BEDE | The history of the Church of Englande, Antwerp, 1565, old calf

The Property of the Downside Abbey General Trust

BEDE

The History of the Church of Englande... translated out of Latin in to English by Thomas Stapleton. Antwerp: Hans de Laet, [1565]

4to (184 x 135mm.), woodcut printer's device on title-page, large woodcut arms of Elizabeth I on verso of title-page, woodcut initials and tailpieces, woodcut illustrations, seventeenth-century calf, foot of title-page excised with loss of date, occasional light staining, rebacked

The first translation of Bede's influential Ecclesiastical History of the English People into "modern" English, by the Catholic writer Thomas Stapleton (1535-1598), who unsurprisingly used Bede's writing to support the firmly Catholic origin of the English church, just as Matthew Parker would similarly use it to claim the independent status of the Church of England from Rome. Stapleton's long dedicatory letter is addressed to Elizabeth I (entitled "Defendour of the Faith"), and in his preface to the reader he mentions the Protestant writers who most offend, including John Bale and John Foxe.

The three woodcut illustrations depict St Augustine preaching before the king of Kent, Æthelberht of Kent with his bishops of St Paul's and Rochester, and King Oswald raising a cross before a battle (the Battle of Heavenfield). 

LITERATURE:

Allison & Rogers II 733; STC 1778

PROVENANCE:

Johannes Townleius; given by him to Robert Maltimere [?]; Ro: Grosvenor July 1611; P. Constable, 1749 (early inscriptions on title-page)