Texts, Lies, and Microfilm: Reading and Misreading Foxe's "Book of Martyrs"

Abstract

Despite the universally acknowledged importance of John Foxe's Acts and Monuments (popularly known as the Book of Martyrs), the actual text of any of the original editions of it remains largely unknown even to scholars. This is because many scholars continue to rely not on the original editions but on the more accessible unabridged Victorian editions of Foxe's book.Yet these nineteenth-century editions seriously distort Foxe's texts by concealing the differences between the various editions and through bowdlerizations, omissions, and even extensive rewriting of them. This article examines the extent and nature of the textual corruptions in the Victorian editions of the Acts and Monuments as well as describing their effects on subsequent scholarship. Finally, this article also argues that serious scholarship on Foxe's book must be based on the original editions of it, or the microfilms of these editions, and not on the distorted Victorian editions.