Tortures and Torments of the Christian Martyrs: From the 'De SS. Martyrum Cruciatibus' of The Rev. Father Antonio Gallonio

xvi, 242, [1] pp. 4to. Black cloth, gilt titles, top edge gilt. 46 engraved plates. An English translation of the 16th century work on Christian martyrdom, with reproductions of the original engravings showing various, and often very graphic, methods of torture and execution. Gallonio was a disciple of Philip Neri, often referred to as the Third Apostle of Rome, who founded the Congregation of the Oratory. Allinson, the translator of this volume, was a British academic who spent much of his career translating continental literature and history such as this, which played a large role in the introduction of Alexandre Dumas and Anatole France to an English reading audience. Reginald Ashley Caton, the founder of The Fortune Press which published this volume, appeared as a character in several novels by British author Kingsley Amis. Caton's press printed mainly gay erotica, for which he was prosecuted in 1934, but it was also notable for a legal dispute with The Nonesuch Press, for copyright issues related to Caton's edition of Plato's Symposium (a rather brazen near-replica of Nonesuch's version). After the obscenity trial Caton published mainly poetry, most notably Dylan Thomas's 18 Poems, though he also printed Philip Larkin's first novel, Jill.