The book that I chose for my Pet Book Project is titled Certain most godly, fruitful, and comfortable letters: of such true Saintes and holy Martyrs of God, as in late bloodye persucution here within this Realme, gave their lyves for the defence of Christes holy gospel: written in the type of theyr affliction and cruell imprysonment. This book is extremely old and was printed in 1564 by John Day in London. While looking around for a book to choose I knew I wanted something that had some religious connection. Luckily, this book caught my eye when we had our first class in the Special Collections room and it peaked my interest because of its simplicity yet beauty. The smaller sized book is 682 pages long and is a collection of letters and stories about people that the author considers Saintes and Martyrs that gave up their lives in order to defend the holy gospel.

 

The first thing that I noticed about this book is how well the overall condition of it is for a book that is so old. The outside cover of the book has some marks on it but it is fully in tact and the pages inside are kept in very good shape. One reason this book looks so good is because there is a newer chain stitch binding. Having a book that is in such good condition makes it a lot easier to handle and navigate. The spine of the book has a little bit of wear on it which leads me to believe that it was meant to be read but also may have spent some time on a shelf because of the overall condition of it. Another reason I think it could have been used for display is because the only color present is gold on the cover of the book along with the edges of the pages. The designs on the front and spine of this brown, leather covered book are extremely simple and accent the book very nicely.

 

Something that catches the eye immediately is the old, fancy styled font that is inside of the book. The font size is medium but this unique font style definitely makes it hard to read. This also leads me to believe that it is not supposed to be read by just anybody. There are some images present in thebook that are extremely detailed in black and white coloring. I also noticed that the first letter of every new entry is much larger than the rest of the text and is extremely decorative.

 

Although the pages are kept in really good condition there is still some yellowing present along with stains and smudges. Throughout the book there is a ton of printed marginalia that is put there for a reason. This reason is to reference the bible and it lets the reader know which reading is being referenced. I found this rather interesting because I expected to see a page dedicated to these references instead of printed marginalia on the page. Along with this, the margins are relatively large which makes room for these printed marginalia and leaves the text on the page rather compact. In the front of the book there is also a signature that says “C.W.H. Sotheby 1863” which is interesting because it indicates who the owner was in the late 1800s.

I am extremely excited to be able to get to work with this book and look forward to finding out more about it. I hope to find out what the true use of this book is and if it was meant to be read or kept on a shelf for decoration. Along with this, I hope to find out where this book has been throughout time and possibly who has owned it.