Londini: Typus Du Gardianis [Amsterdam: J. Jansson], 1651. First Edition, later issue. 12mo, recent marbled boards and endpapers, (xl) 330 pages, woodcut of Commonwealth arms at title page. Binding fine, text very firm, title page once detached and now on a stub, brief aging, few leaves with a few ink underlines, early ink notation on verso of title page, light foxing at few leaves at front and rear. Madan 9.
One of a number of 12mo editions which followed the 4to and folio initial printings in 1651; several of the smaller versions were done by Elzevir (in Amsterdam or Leiden), although all continued with the London credit of Du Gardianis. The copy in this lot is the only 12mo edition with 330 text pages. "Milton was inordinately proud of this work, which brought him European fame - or notoriety - because it was an officially commissioned and effective 'defense of the English people' against an attack on the new Republic by one of Europe's greatest scholars, the learned Claudius Salmasius. "If it proved nothing else, it proved that the Puritans, widely considered uneducated, had some real scholars on their side. Milton, as spokesman for his country, believed it to be a reasoned defense of regicide (the execution of Charles I in 1649), an eloquent defense of liberty, and his best work in prose" - William Riley Parker. |
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