Not for the faint of heart! But pretty amazing! And made even better by the warning on the first page, in lieu of a cover: "To The Reader Beware if you are found with this Book in your possession you are in danger. Please be carefull [sic]." Plus symbolic representations of Pope Alexander and Christ. And then, just after the title page: "Please preserve. This is the last copy in existence," noted by Phil S. Heuss in 1942. Wow! A little research tells me this may not actually be the only copy in existence but that it is indeed quite a rare one, published in 1835, including Volumes I and II bound together, and featuring 60 pretty gruesome engravings in each volume, detailing various forms of torture inflicted upon early Christians. Really quite a thing both as object and information, with hints as to its possession in the 1940s woven through, including a bookmark advertising the Webster Dictionary and another for a publisher of Biblical interpretation books, plus a page of notes that seem to have a conspiracy theory sort of flavor. Consider yourself warned!
8 13/16" x 5 11/16" x 2 1/4". Pages are not traditionally numbered but I'd guess 6 or 7 hundred. Front cover is long gone and the book is plenty worn and aged (making it feel all the more like the last copy in the world), with age toning, some tearing around the edges of pages, etc. Binding is holding together pretty well though and pages are stable.
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