FOXE, JOHN. 'ACTES AND MONUMENTS OF THESE LATTER AND PERILOUS DAYES, TOUCHING MATTERS OF THE CHURCH, WHEREIN AR COMPREHENDED AND DESCRIBED THE GREAT PERSECUTIONS [AND] HORRIBLE TROUBLES THAT HAVE BENE WROUGHT AND PRACTISED BY THE ROMISHE PRELATES, SPECIALLYE IN THIS REALME OF ENGLAND AND SCOTLANDE, FROM THE YEARE OF OUR LORDE A THOUSANDE, UNTO THE TYME NOWE PRESENT'. LONDON: JOHN DAY, [(20 MARCH) 1563]

Folio (12 x 8 in.; 305 x 203 mm). Text chiefly in black letter, and printed in double columns, 53 (of 54) woodcuts inclusive of which 2 full-page, 2 printed on slips, 3 are repeats with the wording changed in the banderolles, large 18-line woodcut initial "C" depicting Queen Elizabeth enthroned in her coronation robes, numerous woodcut initials; *² (title-page and preface), [fleuron] 1,4 (calendar), UUUU2–4 (end of index), and woodcut of Henricus supplied in facsimile, a few of the preliminaries dampstained in gutters and guarded, about 16 leaves remargined ([fleuron]2–3 of the calendar cut round and remargined), 3 long tears affecting text (tear on IIi3 the width of one column), other marginal tears (a few repaired) and 2 or 3 holes slightly affecting text and two woodcuts, some marginal worm trails in inside margins not touching text. Full sprinkled calf antique.

Acquisition: Bernard Quaritch

STCF 11222; ESTC 122006; PMM 86

First edition of a valuable source of English Church history. A very good copy—most that have appeared at auction are largely imperfect and defective.  "Foxe's Book of Martyrs," as it has been called ever since its first English publication, is in the main an augmented translation of the author's 'Rerum in Ecclesia gestarum ... Comentarii' (Basel, 1559). This polemical work, punctuated with its vividly horrific illustrations, was one of the most widely read books for two centuries. Foxe's account justified the establishment of the Church of England as a continuation of the true Christian church while strongly prejudicing the English nation against Roman Catholicism. The work comprises five books, first covering the early Christian martyrs, a brief history of the medieval church, and the Wycliffite or Lollard movement. It then examines the reign of Henry VIII during which the dispute with Rome led  to the separation of the English Church from papal authority. The final book treats the reign of Queen Mary and the Marian Persecutions. Foxe based his accounts of martyrs before the early modern period on writers such as Eusebius, Bede, Matthew Paris, and others. While critics faulted him for inaccuracies, he did compile his English martyrology (Lollards through the Marian Persecutions) from primary sources such as episcopal registers, trial reports, and eyewitness testimonies.