Foxe's Book of Martyrs. 1583 Actes and Monuments by John Foxe. Last Foxe edition

A textually complete (all text pages, from the title page to the "end" leaf at the rear) copy of the 4th edition, the last (and most enlarged) edition issued during John Foxe's lifetime. The colophon and five added illustrations are not present.

Many copies of this work have had text leaves lost/stolen due to the many illustrations. I've personally collated (looked at every page) of this copy and can report that it's only missing the colophon (the last page, a portrait of Foxe with the printer's details), and the five extra plates (illustrations) that were to be added in by the binder.

Of note, the scholar Mark Rankin studied the five added plates, their inclusion in existing copies, receipts and writings of 16th century buyers, etc. and Rankin came to the conclusion that the five added plates were offered, by the printer Day, at an additional charge and not bought with all copies. Therefore, the lack of those five plates in this copy does not necessarily mean they were removed. Rankin published his research in as "John Day's Production of Woodcut Prints from John Foxe's Acts and Monuments".

To provide my customer with the full context of the work, I did labor hard to find high-quality scanned examples of the colophon and five missing plates, which I've printed on acid-free laid artist's paper and will include with the book. These are not meant to be reproductions replacing the originals, they are simply meant to give a full context and are a free gift to the next owner and are not part of the sale. They have no monetary value and cannot be added to the book as their quality does not match that of the original press-printed plates.

The fourth edition is considered the most complete of Foxe's efforts. "Each edition changed significantly as Foxe sought to incorporate new materials, answer his critics, and adjust its polemical force to the needs of the moment" (from the University of Sheffield website, "John Foxe's The Acts and Monuments Online")

About Foxe's "Book of Martrys"

First, I offer Foxe's thoughts on the moniker, "I wrote no such booke bearying the title Booke of Martrys. I wrote a book called the Actes and Monuments wherein many other matters be contayned beside the martyrs of Christ."

Foxe sought to capture the highlights of Christian activity through to his time. But, due to the persecution of the church in the 17th century, martyrdom was a resonant theme to Foxe.

Foxe's work became a classic of Christian society, reminding Christ's followers that many brave and courageous believers have come before them in worldly persecution, but still lived blessed and impressive lives, changing culture for the better despite what might happen to their worldly body.

Provenance -

The ticket (a small bookplate) and signature of the Arthurian scholar Nathan Comfort Starr decorate the front pastedown and FEP. He may have had interest in the work for its inclusion of items such as a Saxon sermon (page 1142), in Saxon type.

A laid-in receipt indicates that the book was sold by Sotheby's on 9/22/82 and includes a catalog entry (lot 413, but there's also a note about #4926, so the catalog entry here might be from a different auction). The condition description is of the greatest brevity, mentioning only one chip and the last leaf (colophon), both of which and much more I catalogue below.

Bibliographic Details -

English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC) number S122167; they list 29 copies including many of those listed in the OCLC entries listed below.

Universal Short Title Catalogue (USTC) number 509757; also 29 copies as it is tied to the ESTC entry.

Worldcat OCLC catalogue number 8394301; eleven copies listed. Also, OCLC 34834734; adds five copies.

Pollard and Redgrave, reference 11225.

Physical Attributes -

Measures approx. 38.5 x 24 x 11 cm. Folio. Old leather boards with a blind fillet border. Respined, with the old spine label relaid (no endbands used). Illustrated throughout.

Pages Volume 1 - xxxii, 1-794, [2 unnumbered pages that still advance the numbering]

Collation Volume 1 - S6,*6, paragraph mark4, A-Y6, Aa-Yy6, AA-XX6, YY8

Pages Volume 2 - 797-2154 (leaf signed 5F4), [30 of 32, missing last leaf of colophon)

Collation Volume 2 - AAa-YYy6, AAA-SSS6, TTT-UUU4, AAAa-YYYy6, AAAA-YYYY6, AAAAa-YYYYy6, AAAAA-FFFFF6, GGGGG-HHHHH4, IIIII5 (leaf 5I6, the colophon, missing).

The five added plates not present.

Condition -

See pictures. Older boards quite crazed and worn (corners, edges, rubbing, etc.). Rudimentary rebacking, with no endbands; old spine title label retained.

FEP (Free front endpaper) loose. Endpapers with a number of exlibris stickers, annotations, bookseller notes, auction numbers, tipped-in descriptions, etc.

Text block toned throughout with occasional fox spots, dog-eared pages, thumbing, ink and candle ember and wax spots, etc. Some dampstains from the edges/gutter, mostly marginal.

Title page mounted, several stains in bottom margin, trimmed ink shelfmark at top-edge; general toning and thumbing consistent with rest of book.

Some underlining and notes (mostly marginal) throughout; not excessive.

Chip to bottom corner leaves par4, N1, Ff5, GGGGg3.

A few marginal annotations, and several headlines, are trimmed by the bookbinder, indicating a rebind at some point.

1” hole near bottom of Ff2, some text affected.

Ink smudge Ss5, MMm5, 4P5.

Repairs and chips to the fore-edge of FF4.

3" of fore-edge margin of QQ2 chipped away, some loss of marginal printed notes text.

Manuscript note added to fore-edge margin of YYy6.

Tear repair to bottom of DDD4, FFF6. Tear repair at LLL3 with an added note on it in fore-edge margin.

1 cm hole in bottom margin OOO2, BBBBb6.

Bottom corner of LLLl4 repaired.

2” chip to fore-edge margin 4C5, some loss of marginal notes.

1 cm hole in QQQQq4, some text affected.

1” chip to fore-edge of 5F1, some margin notes affected.

Last extant leaf, 5I5 heavily repaired, mounted, etc.

Missing very last leaf. Looking at the Folger's copy (which is scanned online), this was a colophon with a portrait of Foxe.

No added plates in this copy. Some copies have five added, non-paginated, non-collated plates (they were to be added in by the binder and were printed separate of the text block sheets).