The Spider and the Flie, with an original leaf from the edition of 1556.

Heywood, John

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San Francisco: (Grabhorn Press), 1939. 12mo. (9)pp. One of fifty-five copies. Tipped in after the title page, the leaf features a large woodcut of John Heywood at his desk. On the window behind him, several spiders observe a fly trapped in a web. On the verso of the page are three verses above a woodcut ornament. This leaf book was printed as a Christmas keepsake for David Magee, who provided context for the leaf in the accompanying text. Magee described the woodcut scene of Heywood at his desk as "a refreshing picture of peace and leisure to be regarded with envy in these troubled days of 1939." First published in 1556, Heywood's long, involved allegory of religious controversy in sixteenth-century England, written in verse, used flies to represent Catholics and the spiders Protestants. Stab-bound in marbled paper wrappers. Occasional light soiling, else fine. (Item ID: 24139)

(de Hamel, 81; Book Club of California Newsletter v. XXVI, no. 4, 39).