Welcome to the home page of The Examinations of Anne Askew Online. Although richly deserving of study from various points of view, these sixteenth-century records of the interrogation and execution of a twenty-five year old woman for heresy with a contemporary editor’s commentary do not yet have proper scholarly representation on the web. Indeed, at the time of writing, the only electronic source other than EEBO for The first examinacyon of Anne Askewe, latelye martyred in Smythfelde, by the Romysh popes vpholders, with the elucydacyon of Iohan Bale (1546, STC 848) and The lattre examinacyon of Anne Askewe, latelye martyred in Smythfelde, by the wycked Synagoge of Antichrist, with the Elucydacyon of Iohan Bale (1547, STC 850) appear to be the Women Writers Online archive, which does not provide free access to the texts. All the other available online texts at the time of writing are reproduced from John Foxe’s Actes and Monumentes (1563) edition which obviously omit John Bale’s commentary. The ambition of this edition is to present the texts in as minute detail as possible, and in as rounded a context, so that they can support readings from a plethora of scholarly perspectives.
On this website you will find an annotated PDF edition of the First Examination of Anne Askew (1546) in modern spelling under Texts. A detailed introduction about the project is available on the About pages. The Resources pages provide more information on textual background and contain discussions about author, editor, printer and textual witnesses. There is a bibliography of books, articles, websites and blogs, with links to external open source material when available. The People page contains a list of the individuals (literary and historical figures) referred to in the texts with external links to biographies when available freely online. The Bible References page collects together all Biblical citations in the First Examinacyon. There is also a Chronology of English women’s writings, 1500–1600, again with links to freely accessible texts when available online. An Images page, also under Resources, contains a few relevant images with captions and descriptions, including the header image. This gallery will be augmented with time. Clicking on the header image will also lead you to the full uncropped image with description and metadata.
This site is a result of the individual efforts of Debapriya Basu, Research Fellow of the School of Cultural Texts and Records, Jadavpur University, Calcutta, India; supported by the Faculteit der Geesteswetenschappen Capaciteitsgroep Engelse taal en cultuur (Faculty of Humanities Department of English Language and Culture) of the University of Amsterdam and funded by an Erasmus Mundus EMINTE Post-Doctoral fellowship from India to that University. What you see at present is the outcome of nine months of work (and a little bit of play) at the institution that is affectionately known as the UvA. It is also hosted on the UvA server under the kind auspices of Myrthe Bil.
What you are offered at the moment of publication is by no means the full extent of the project. To learn more about what this edition wishes to ultimately offer see the About pages. The next step, finding funding and collaborators for the rest of what the editor envisages as further development, is under way. Please get in touch via the Contact page for any kind of feedback. Your participation will enable us to achieve our goal sooner.