In Folio: Rare Volumes in the Stanford University Libraries

John Foxe, 1516-1587.

The First[-second] Volume of the Ecclesiasticall History: Contayning the Actes & Monumentes of Thinges Passed in Euery Kinges Time, in This Realme, Especially in the Churche of England ….

At London: Printed by Iohn Daye ..., 1576.

John Foxe, born in Lincolnshire in 1516, was early on a supporter of the Protestant reformers. With the ascension to the throne of the Catholic Mary Tudor in 1553, Foxe fled to the Continent, joining other Protestant exiles. Even before leaving England Foxe had begun his history of the persecutions suffered by the Reformers; while in exile in Basel, he received more reports of Protestant persecutions under the reign of “Bloody Mary.” He returned to England after the Protestant Queen Elizabeth took the throne in 1558, and was ordained in 1560. He added yet more accounts (going as far back as the time of John Wycliffe [ca. 1320-1384]), and his Actes and Monuments was finally published in 1563, though it became appropriately and almost immediately known as Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. Foxe openly admitted to errors of fact and constantly edited the text, with the result that “corrected” and expanded editions (1570, 1576, and 1583) came forth in his lifetime; five more editions were published over the following 100 years. The book is illustrated throughout by memorable if not always high-quality woodcuts, many of them grisly protrayals of the sufferings of the martyrs, others showing the triumph of the Reformation in England. Its highly graphic qualities—the large physical volume containing densely-printed text and vivid illustrations—appealed to the lettered and unlettered alike. The Book of Martyrs is a remarkable and massive achievement, a successful effort at creating a Protestant iconography that would enjoy a remarkable popularity in England.

 

Previous Image | Next Image

In Folio Exhibit Index