The Book Fish

[VirginiaHuguenot]

http://www.puritanboard.com/f18/john-frith-14602/

I was reading about Jeremiah Dyke and there is a fast sermon he preached in 1628 that touched upon an anecdote that is recounted in the thread above. I thought it was worth mentioning again.

The story is recapped here: Vox Piscis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Vox Pisces, or The Book-Fish, contayning 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 (or Mead) of Christ's College, Cambridge, was walking through Cambridge's market, when a fishwife found a small sextodecimo book wrapped in sailcloth inside the stomach of a codfish caught at King's Lynn.

These texts were attributed to protestant reformer John Frith, 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.

It is not known how the original book got in the fish's stomach.

Wilson's Almanac free daily ezine | Strange tale of the Book-Fish | Vox piscis ichthiobibliophage Book Fish King's Lynn Cambridge fortean Dr Joseph Mede book-eating fish Protestant John Frith