[The whole workes of W. Tyndall,

first and only collected edition

The first and only edition of the collected English works of the Protestant martyrs William Tyndale, John Frith, and Robert Barnes.

The text was compiled, or at least overseen by the historian John Foxe (d.1587) in John Day's printing house shortly after the second edition of the Actes and Monuments had been brought to the press. This, the 1570 edition, greatly expanded upon the life of this 'blessed martyr', an expansion that was transmitted to the present work, which contains 478 pages of Tyndale's English prose, including his biblical exegesis, treatises on Mammon, The Obedience of a Christen Man, Papisticall Prelate, his Answer to Sir Thomas More and others, with an index containing perhaps 1500 entries (see Patrick Collinson, 'William Tyndale and the Course of the English Reformation', Reformation, Volume 1, 1996).

In full, the collection includes all of Tyndale's non-translation prose, including two works of spurious origin: 'A Protestation of the State of Souls Department' and treatise upon 'Signes and Sacramentes'. Frith contributes a further twelve works, and Barnes some fifteen. This was to be the sole edition produced, and Tyndale's works were not reprinted again until the Park Library series in the mid-nineteenth century.

An impressive example, substantially complete (with one of the three woodcut illustrations present; lacking six leaves in total) of this important anthology of the 'principall teachers of thys Church of England' (Preface).

In the contemporary London binding of blind-tooled calfskin over wooden boards. The central lozenge incorporating the heads-in-medallions roll tool identified by J. Basil Oldham in English Blind-Stamped Bindings as no. 775, and the perimeter border no. 772.

With numerous early annotations in pen, including a distinctive monogrammed stylised dragon device incorporating the initials 'CF' to the verso of leaf D4, with a similar manuscript illustration to the verso of 2Y4 and occasional throughout. Further annotations in Latin to 3H3-4, and English to 3H6. The retained front endpaper with extensive ownership inscriptions for the Lawton family, and further inscriptions throughout.

First edition; small folio (30 x 21 cm); lacking 6ff. of text comprising: general title, gathering A (including woodcut of Tyndale's martyrdom), 2C3, and 3R4 (final f. of text with the anti-Papal woodcut to verso), otherwise complete including the woodcut depicting the martyrdom of John Frith which was later incorporated into the 1583 edition of John Foxe's 'Actes and Monuments...', woodcut divisional titles to works of Frith and Barnes, historiated initials, text in black letter, headings in Roman type, early marginalia in pen, including ink drawings of dragon heads and MS annotations in a range of hands, extensive ownership inscriptions in pen to front free endpaper, closed tears to gutter margin of D3 and to S1 extending into text, repaired with archival tape, 3R3 frayed with slight loss to text, opening ff a little dampstained and frayed, otherwise a crisp and clean copy; contemporary London blind-tooled calf binding over wooden boards, central roll-tooled lozenge and perimeter borders incorporating heads-in-medallions Oldham 772 & 775, remnants of the original clasps, rebacked with modern red morocco lettering-piece,corners repaired, edges sprinkled red, a little rubbed and abraded with slight loss; [6], 452, 455-478, [20], 172, [12], 183-376, [2]pp.

ESTC S117761; Luborsky & Ingram 24436; Oldham 772 & 775.