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Title
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The whole Workes of W. Tyndall, Iohn Frith, and Doct. Barnes
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Heading
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The ‘excellent arte of printing’
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Description
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This volume is the first collected edition of the writings of the Protestant reformers and martyrs William Tyndale, John Frith, and Robert Barnes. Edited by the Protestant martyrologist John Foxe and printed by the prominent London printer John Day in 1573, the collection sought both to preserve the writings of early English reformers and to promote a providential understanding of the English Reformation.
The prefatory material presents printing as a divinely ordained technology capable of spreading true religion and combating error. Foxe describes the printing press not as a vehicle for profit or personal fame, but as an instrument given by God for the advancement of Protestant truth. Such claims were common among English Protestant writers of the sixteenth century, who frequently associated print with the dissemination of vernacular scripture and reformist ideas. In this context, the printed book became more than a container of text: it functioned as evidence of divine favour and English national religious identity.
John Day was among the most important printers of Protestant literature in England, producing not only Foxe’s famous Actes and Monuments but also numerous sermons, Bibles, catechisms, and polemical works. Through publications like these, print helped consolidate Protestant memory by preserving the writings and alleged sufferings of reformers for later generations.
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Date of Publication
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1573
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Format
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Folio
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Century
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16th
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Illustrations
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Woodcut
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