The Printing and the Printers of The Book of Common Prayer, 1549–1561

A groundbreaking new history of the origins and evolution of the Anglican liturgy which transforms understanding of the English Reformation.

Peter W. M. Blayney (Author)

9781108837415, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 13 January 2022

278 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 1.8 cm, 0.61 kg

'… a densely written, excellently priced volume, generously illustrated with colour and black-and-white plates throughout. … the book will remain crucial reading material for book historians, bibliographers, and bibliophiles specialising in early modern European printing and the book trade in the years to come.' Hannah Yip, The Review of English Studies

Bibliographers have been notoriously 'hesitant to deal with liturgies', and this volume bridges an important gap with its authoritative examination of how the Book of Common Prayer came into being. The first edition of 1549, the first Grafton edition of 1552 and the first quarto edition of 1559 are now correctly identified, while Peter W. M. Blayney shows that the first two editions of 1559 were probably finished on the same day. Through relentless scrutiny of the evidence, he reveals that the contents of the 1549 version continued to evolve both during and after the printing of the first edition, and that changes were still being made to the Elizabethan revision weeks after the Act of Uniformity was passed. His bold reconstruction is transformative for the early Anglican liturgy, and thus for the wider history of the Church of England. This major, revisionist work is a remarkable book about a remarkable book.

1. From Henry VIII to the first Edwardian prayer book
2. The second Edwardian prayer book
3. Mary's reign and Elizabeth's first Parliament
4. Richard Grafton's edition (STC 16291)
5. The first Jugge-and-Cawood edition (STC 16292)
6. The preliminaries: collaboration and cancels
7. The orphaned ordinal
8. The third and fourth editions
9. The quarto and octavo editions
10. The 1561 revision of the calendar
11. Concluding summary.

Subject Areas: Church history [HRCC2], Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], Literary studies: c 1500 to c 1800 [DSBD], Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB], Literary studies: general [DSB], Literature: history & criticism [DS]