724 - Gallonius, A.

Gallonius, A. De SS. Martyrum cruciatibus liber. Antwerp, Frisius 1668. Small 8°. With copperplate title page (paginated), engraved title vignette, and 44 full-page text engravings. 12 leaves, 576 pp., 24 leaves in a contemporary cloth binding with gilt lettering (caps and joints damaged). Brunet II, 1468. Graesse III, 19. — Small-format edition of this impressively illustrated work on the martyrdoms of the saints, first published in Rome in 1591. A total of 44 different, extremely agonizing and cruel torture procedures, methods of execution, and instruments of torture are depicted, all of which are illustrated and explained. These include, among others, various methods of hanging and crucifixion, breaking on the wheel, quartering, dismemberment, beheading, pouring hot oil over the body, sawing in half, beating to death with clubs, and binding victims over red-hot coals. Also depicted are impalement with spears, driving stakes into the head and body, cutting out the tongue, being torn apart by wild animals, being buried alive, various methods of drowning, etc. — Binding partially Binding somewhat loose, with occasional light staining. Cover laminated with a modern paper jacket.