''Vox Piscis, or The Book-Fish, three treatises which were found in the belly of a cod-fish in Cambridge market, on Midsummer Eve last'' is a book published in 1627 with a very unusual origin. The original text of the work was found in the belly of a fish. On June 23, 1626, scholar and theologian Dr.

Joseph Mede Joseph Mede (1586 in Berden – 1639) was an English scholar with a wide range of interests. He was educated at Christ's College, Cambridge, where he became a Fellow in 1613. He is now remembered as a biblical scholar. He was also a naturalist ...

(or Mead) of

Christ's College, Cambridge Christ's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college includes the Master, the Fellows of the College, and about 450 undergraduate and 250 graduate students. The c ...

, was walking through

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

's market, when a

fishwife A fishwife, fish-fag or fishlass is a woman who sells fish. She is typically the wife of a fisherman, selling her husband's catch, but other sources of fish have been used. Some wives and daughters of fishermen were notoriously loud and foul-mo ...

found a small thin book (size '' sextodecimo'') wrapped in sailcloth inside the stomach of a codfish caught at

King's Lynn King's Lynn, known until 1537 as Bishop's Lynn and colloquially as Lynn, is a port and market town in the borough of King's Lynn and West Norfolk in the county of Norfolk, England. It is north-east of Peterborough, north-north-east of Cambridg ...

. These texts were attributed to Protestant reformer

John Frith John Frith may refer to: * John Frith (assailant) (fl. 1760–1791), English petitioner and asylum inmate * John Frith (cartoonist) (), Australian cartoonist, at ''The Herald'' in Melbourne in the 1950s and 1960s * John Frith (martyr) (1503–1533 ...

, who was imprisoned in a fish-cellar in Oxford and later burned at the stake. The texts were published as a book the next year with a preface written by

Thomas Goad Thomas Goad (1576–1638) was an English clergyman, controversial writer, and rector of Hadleigh, Suffolk. A participant at the Synod of Dort, he changed his views there from Calvinist to Arminian, against the sense of the meeting. Life He was b ...

. The texts have also been attributed to Richard Tracy of Stanbury Manor,

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...

. It is not known how the original book came to be inside the fish.

*Preface *"Praeparatio Crucem or Of the Preparation to the Cross" *"A Lettre which was Written to the Faithfull Followers of Christes Gospell" *"A Mirror, or, Glasse to know thyselfe"

References

* *

External links

Images from the book at the Folger Shakespeare Library
shelf mark STC 11395. 1627 books Books about Christianity {{Christian-book-stub

Contents

References

External links