Bonhams 1793 : FOXE (JOHN) The First Volume of the Ecclesiasticall History... Actes and Monumentes...Sufferyng of Martyrs, 1570

The First Volume of the Ecclesiasticall History... Actes and Monumentes...Sufferyng of Martyrs, first volume only, black letter, title within fine woodcut border, royal coat of arms on verso, folding woodcut at p.335 (poisoning of King John), 35 text woodcuts, ranging from 2 coins (p.912) to the series of popish history at the end which are almost half-page, a few minor wormholes but a particularly clean and crisp copy, given as a Christening present in 1575 to James Pytt (inscription on title verso), title with motto "Semper idem" and signature of Edwarde Pytt (cost 21s. in 1573), signs of careful reading throughout (tick marks and e.g. deletion on p.493 in the same ink), and list of salient points in a nice italic hand at the end (e.g. "Chaucers questions to the fryers folio 341.342"), nineteenth-century label of Pytt's Book Room at Kyre [Worcestershire] pasted to front cover, contemporary London binding of blind stamped calf over wooden boards [Oldham's rolls HM a 3 & HM a 6 (nice clear impressions)], spine repaired, clasps missing [STC 11223], folio, John Daye, 1570

Sold for £5,625 inc. premium

Footnotes

James Pytt's godparents included Sir James Dyer, Lord Chief Justice. Sir Edward Pytt (1546-1618) had a lucrative office in the Court of Common Pleas. He bought Kyre Park in 1575 and started building "I bought John Bentley freemason from Oxford (where he wrought the newe addition to Sir Thomas Bodleigh his famous library)...". His son Sir James (1575-1640) succeeded him; the choice of Foxe's Book of Martyrs rather than a Bible as a christening present suggests a puritan family, and his son Edward was sequestration commissioner for Worcester in 1647. See VCH Worcester, 4, 279-85.

Category: Books / Books, Maps and Manuscripts

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