Sanders / Rishton - Warhaffte Engelländische Histori - 1594

HERETICAL ENGLAND SEEN FROM SALISBURY: THE CATHOLIC HISTORY OF SANDERS AGAINST ELIZABETH
Rare German edition of 1594 of the famous religious history of England by Nicholas Sanders, compiled from manuscript material and published under the editorship of Edward Rishton. An openly polemical and militant work, it reconstructs the religious events of the last sixty years in England from a Catholic perspective, denouncing the English Reformation and Queen Elizabeth I’s policy. Printed in Salzburg in a Counter-Reformation milieu, it testifies to the European circulation of anti-Elizabethan Catholic propaganda.
MARKET VALUE
Fifteenth- and sixteenth-century editions of Sanders’s works, especially in German or Latin, printed in Catholic areas, are relatively scarce on the market. Complete, good-condition copies generally range from 800 to 1,500 euros, with variations tied to the freshness of the paper, presence of the original binding, and the quality of the margins.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION AND CONDITION
Later half leather binding with marbled boards; joints cracked. Title page in red and black within a typographic border; headpieces and initials woodcut. Present is a stamp of an old library at the foot of the title page. First and last leaves with outer lower corner fraying; some stains. As with all old books, with a multi-centennial history, some imperfections may be present not always noted in the description. Pages (2); 40 pages?; 358; (2).

FULL TITLE AND AUTHOR
Warhaffte Engelländische Histori in wellicher was sich besonder in religionssachen von LX. jahren verloffen gründtlich beschriben.
Salzburg, Konrad Kürner, 1594.
Nicholas Sanders; edited by Edward Rishton.

CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE
Nicholas Sanders was one of the most active Catholic polemicists against the English Reformation. His history of the English Church during the religious turmoils of the sixteenth century stands as a counter-narrative to Protestant historiography. The work describes the events from the break with Rome to the consolidation of the Elizabethan regime, emphasizing persecutions, Catholic martyrs, and the religious illegitimacy of the Anglican monarchy. The 1594 German edition fits the Central European Counter-Reformation climate, when the English question was seen as a paradigm of the struggle between Catholicism and Protestantism. The text enjoyed wide circulation among Catholic circles on the Continent and helped shape the “black” image of Elizabethan England.

BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR
Nicholas Sanders (c. 1530–1581), English Catholic theologian and polemicist, actively participated in attempts to overthrow Elizabeth I and supported insurgent movements in Ireland. He died during a failed campaign on Irish soil.
Edward Rishton (1550–1586), Catholic priest and collaborator of Sanders, was sentenced to death in England for priestly activity and banished in 1581. He edited and published Sanders’s manuscript papers, contributing to the European diffusion of his work.

PRINTING HISTORY AND CIRCULATION
The work initially appeared in Latin; translations and adaptations followed in several European languages. The Salzburg 1594 edition represents one of the major sixteenth-century German versions. Surviving copies are relatively rare; not uncommon to find copies showing signs of use from the polemical and militant reading of the text.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
VD16 S 1608.
Comparisons with the Latin and English editions of De origine ac progressu schismatis Anglicani.
Studies on Catholic anti-Elizabethan propaganda in the sixteenth century.