Henry VIII | A "critical moment in the history of the English Reformation"

From the Library of Clayre and Jay Michael Haft

Henry VIII

Assertio Septem Sacramentorum Aduersus Martin. Lutheru[M]. [London: Richard Pynson, 1521]

4to (210 x 155 mm). Woodcut border on title-page by H. Holbein, woodcut initials, printed marginal notes, with the final two blanks; washed and pressed. Remboîtage binding of 17th-century vellum, gilt arms of Pope Urban VIII at center of sides; stained and repaired.

First edition of this “critical moment in the history of the English Reformation" (PMM): Henry VIII's scathing condemnation of Martin Luther, for which Pope Leo X, to whom the work is dedicated, awarded the king the title "Fidei Defensor." Pynson's woodcut compartment on the title-page was adapted from a design by Hans Holbein for the Aenei Platonici Christiani de immortalitate animae by Aeneas Gazaeus, printed by Froben in Basel in 1516.

REFERENCE:

STC 13078; ESTC S123359