Second only to the Bible, John Foxe's Acts and Monuments, known as the Book of Martyrs, was the most influential book published in England during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The most complex and best illustrated English book of its time, it recounted in detail the experiences of hundreds of people who were burnt alive for their religious beliefs. John N. King offers the most comprehensive investigation yet of the compilation, printing, publication, illustration, and reception of the Book of Martyrs. He charts its reception across different editions by learned and unlearned, sympathetic and antagonistic readers. The many illustrations included here, most of which are reproduced for the first time, introduce readers to the visual features of early printed books and general printing practices both in England and continental Europe, and enhance this important contribution to early modern literary studies, cultural and religious history, and the history of the book.