An Abridgement of the Booke of Acts and Monumentes of the Church:

first abridged edition

The first abridged edition of John Foxe's (d.1587) seminal history of the Protestant Reformation in England.

This monumental work had run to four editions in Foxe's lifetime, each in turn more lavishly illustrated, and at its maximum spanning more than 2000-pages of text. This did much to catapult Foxe into literary celebrity, but precluded private ownership of the book for all but the very rich.

Bright's abridgement was begun shortly after Foxe's death in 1587. Cheaper, at just one quarter of the length and without the costly woodcut illustrations, ensured it a wider circulation than the original texts. The edition was dedicated to Sir Francis Walsingham, with whom Bright had found refuge following the outbreak of the St. Bartholomew's day massacre on 24th August 1572.

First abridged edition; 4to (9 x 14.5 cm); woodcut initials and ornaments, lacking the title (supplied in crude facsimile) and final preliminary f., opening 2ff of preliminary torn with major loss to text, and remainder of prelims with old worm damage to lower margin, otherwise complete, ownership inscription in pen to final f. of dedicatory epistle, underlining and manicule in pen to C6 recto, text block a little toned with occasional light staining; seventeenth-century sprinkled calf boards, ruled in blind, rebacked, rubbed with significant loss to corners and edges; [10], 504, 288, [64]pp.

ESTC S102503.