Woodcuts from John Foxe’s Acts and Monuments

Complete set of woodcut illustrations from the first (1563), second (1570), third (1576), and fourth (1583) English editions of John Foxe’s Actes and Monuments; complete set of woodcut illustrations from the second Latin edition (1559); title page images from the Latin editions (1554 and 1559); and Kalender and almanacs selected from first four English editions. Materials supplied from the collections of The Ohio State University Libraries and Bridwell Library, Southern Methodist University; Large three-page composite woodcut, “Table of the Ten First Persecutions of the Primitive Church,” here included by permission from the personal library of John N. King, Distinguished University Professor and Humanities Distinguished Professor of English & of Religious Studies, The Ohio State University.

The image-specific metadata incorporates Foxe inventory numbers supplied by Ruth Samson Luborsky and Elizabeth Morley Ingram, A Guide to English Illustrated Books, 1536-1603, 2 vols. (Tempe, AZ: Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, 1998). Unless otherwise noted, woodcut illustrations appear once in each specified edition and only in designated editions. Woodcuts occur in the database in the order of their first appearance in the Foxe volumes themselves, according to the following progression: 1554, 1559, 1563, 1570, 1576, and 1583. Foxe uses selected woodcuts repeatedly throughout the Book of Martyrs. The database employs a letter/number system to describe these cuts, whereby numbers distinguish the use of woodcuts of similar designs and letters distinguish each use of any given cut across different Foxe editions. The names of martyrs given with these repeated cuts are transcribed verbatim from respective Foxe volumes. Square brackets indicate expanded abbreviations or other supplied text. When modernized versions of literatum transcriptions are not given, the modern use of “u/v” and “i/j” is maintained.

Mark Rankin would like to thank Christopher Bungard, Richard Firth Green, Leslie Lockett, Christopher Manion, Katie Rankin, and Rocki Wentzel for assistance with translation. Thanks also go to Marti Alt, Wesley Boomgaarden, Harry Campbell, Valerie Hotchkiss, John N. King, Ben McCorkle, and Betsy Walsh, as well as the staff of the Rare Books and Manuscripts Library of The Ohio State University and the staff of Special Collections, Bridwell Library, Southern Methodist University. A Bridwell Library Visiting Scholar’s Fellowship facilitated the completion of the work.