Blanchard, Amos. Book of Martyrs, or, A History of the Lives, Sufferings, and Triumphant Deaths of the Primitive and Protestant Martyrs, from the Introduction of Christianity, to the latest periods of Pagan, Popish, Protestant, and Infidel Persecutions. Cincinnati: Robinson & Fairbank, 1832. Third Edition. [11720]
Full calf, worn yet with good joints, tight, 7 1/2 x 4 1/2 inches. Two wood engravings per page, with frontispiece and 11 additional pages of engravings (24 total). The text has foxing and stains, 540 pp.
Title continues: Embracing, Together with the usual subjects contained in similar works; the recent persecutions in the Cantons of Switzerland; the persecutions of the Methodist and Baptist missionaries in the West India Islands; and the narrative of the conversion, capture, long imprisonment, and cruel sufferings of Asaad Shidiak, a native of Palestine. Likewise, a sketch of the French Revolution, as connected with persecution. Compiled from Fox's Book of Martyrs, and other Authentic Sources. Embellished with Twenty-four Engravings.
The engravings are grotesque scenes of torture.
We believe the author to be Amos Blanchard (1800-1869), b. Peacham, VT; d. Barnet, VT. A Congregational minister, he graduated from Andover Theological Seminary in 1828. He was for a year employed by the American Tract Society in Western New York, afterward moving to Cincinnati, Ohio, as editor of the Cincinnati Christian Journal. Blanchard was the pastor of several different congregations during his ministry, including that of the church in Meridan, CT, where he ministered fro twenty-five years.
