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This is a catechism, a very popular form of print which introduced schoolchildren to the essentials of Christianity in the form of questions with ideal answers which they were expected to learn by rote.

The woodcut image on the title-page depicts a schoolroom with children seated at their lessons. A dog chews a bone in the middle of the floor, while two boys in the foreground are up to some sort of mischief.

The dog-eared nature of the pages indicates that this book was heavily used. The final pages show extensive evidence of gnawing by vermin, probably mice. Had this copy not found its way into the book collection of the noted scholar Edward Stillingfleet (1635–99), it would almost certainly have been destroyed, and all traces of this edition would have been lost.

Citation:
Christianæ Pietatis Prima Institutio ad usum Scholarum Latinè Scripta (London, 1593).,
Marsh's Library Exhibits,
accessed December 6, 2025,
https://www.marshlibrary.ie/digi/items/show/461