Treasures from the Rare Books Collection – Foxe’s Book of Martyrs – St. Thomas Libraries Blog
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Treasures from the Rare Books Collection – Foxe’s Book of Martyrs

 

The Rare Books collection in the UST Libraries Department of Special Collections holds a number of rare, unique and just plain interesting books in its collection.  One item that was pulled out recently for a researcher to examine was the Ecclesiastical History Conteynyng the Actes and Monuments of Martyrs, popularly known as Foxe’s Book of Martyrs.   Written by the English historian John Foxe, this title was first published in English in 1563.   It is a polemical account of the sufferings of Protestants under the Catholic Church (particularly those living in England and Scotland). The book was highly influential in its time and helped shape long lasting popular notions of Catholicism in those countries.

The 1563 edition of the book was to that time the largest publishing project ever undertaken in England. One of the most interesting features of this work are the sixty distinctive woodcut impressions found on its pages (see an example below).

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The UST Libraries’ copy of this book is from the third edition, published in 1576.  What makes this edition different from the previous two versions is that the book is printed on smaller size paper and with a smaller type font than the earlier editions.

For more information on the UST Libraries rare books and manuscripts collections see : http://www.stthomas.edu/libraries/special/rare/ .

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