| Description | Some pages including the title page are missing. Contains a note in a late eighteenth century hand that the book belongs to Austrey parish.
[The following is a note submitted to WCRO by Mark Rankin, PH.D, Associate Professor of English, editior of 'Reformation', and used here with his permission:
"This is a copy of volume 2 of the seventh edition (1631/32) of the 'Acts and Monuments', containing the story of the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI. Foxe's 'Acts and Monuments' was printed in folio in 9 distinct editions, beginning in 1563, and continuing 1570, 1576, 1583, 1596/7, 1610. 1631/32, 1641, and 1684. Each of these editions contain a unique 'fingerprint' and allows for copies of respective edtions to be dated definitively without title page evidence.
The 1631/32 edition was the first to split the work into three distinct volumes. The early pages of this copy are marked with upper-case single letters in the lower-right corner, signature markings meant originally for the binder. This indicates [this is] the 1631/32 edition, because it was the first to begin each distinct volume in this way; earlier editions carried the signature markings on from earlier sections in lenghthy large and smaller letter combinations. We can also rule out earlier editions on the basis of the woodcuts in this copy; these were made from the original wood blocks that were first cut in 1563. By the 1630s, these wood blocks were severly deteriorated from woodworms, and this damage transfers onto the printed illustrations. The pattern of woodworm damage in the illustrations in this copy (eg. William Gardner, signature Rrr2r), matches the pattern of damage exactly in the same illustration in the 1631/32 edition in the Huntington Library in California, [USA] but not earlier editions. [Professor Rankin is] also certain that it is1631/32, because in 1641, the woodcuts were remade in substantially inferior quality of craftesmanship that can be detected by comparing copies containing the earlier images. These woodcuts were without worm holes. In 1684, the woodcuts were discarded in favo[u]r of copperplate engravings, which are also recognisable.
The dating can be verified by examining the 1631/32 editions in the Early English Books Online database, or at the British Library"]
[See also notes for later edition at DR155/104 and 105 - Monks Kirby.] |