Foxe's Book of Martyrs 1873

A stunning copy of Foxe's famous Book of Martyrs in a beautiful leather gilt binding with twelve full page colour plates. Condition: is commensurate with age and use but in generally good condition with some light foxing to the pages.

In 1873, Adam & Co embarked on the creation of a new edition of Foxe's Book of Martyrs, influenced by the twin factors of increasing Irish immigration to Northern England and the rapid growth of the Orange Order. To provide a preface for this edition, they enlisted the services of the Protestant preacher Samuel Potter, who was at the time the vicar of St. Luke's parish in Sheffield. Originally, Foxe's Book of Martyrs had aimed to depict a clear lineage of godliness and suffering both in its textual and visual elements. However, as Victorian sensibilities evolved, there was a growing aversion to the graphic portrayal of human suffering, particularly that of women and children. To cater to these changing sensibilities, the shock value of this edition was achieved primarily through Potter's vehement attacks on newspapers, the government, Prime Minister Gladstone, and the Pope within the text. Contrasting with the original woodcuts published by Day in the seventeenth century, the brightly coloured images in this edition were intended for family consumption and were considerably more sanitised. Unfortunately, despite Foxe's continuing popularity, Adam & Co faced financial troubles and went out of business just six years later. Subsequently, the rights to the Potter edition were acquired by John G. Murdoch, a well-known figure in religious publishing. Regarding the illustrations in the 1873 edition, Adam & Co produced a total of nineteen illustrations, although most examined copies, according to Evenden in 2014, only seemed to contain twelve. This edition holds 12.