John Milton. The poetical works : Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, Samson Agonistes, Poems on several Occasions. — London: Jacob Tonson, 1695.

THE | POETICAL | WORKS | OF | Mr. John Milton. | Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, | Sampson Agonistes, and his Poems | on several Occasions. | TOGETHER WITH | Explanatory NOTES on each Book of the | PARADISE LOST, and a TABLE | never before Printed. | LONDON: | Printed for Jacob Tonson, at Judges-Head near Inner-Temple-| Gate in Fleet – street , M DC XC V. ||

Pagination: [6] 1-343 [5] 1-66 [4] 1-57 [5] 1-60 [2] 321 [1], frontispiece and 12 plates, one before each book of Paradise Lost.

Collation: 4to, folio; blank leaf, π³ B², C-Z⁴, Aa-Yy⁴, A-H⁴ I², [A]-D² †D² E-Q² [A]¹ B-Z² Aa-Zz² Aaa-Zzz² Aaaa-Mmmm² [N]¹, 2 blank leaves, + frontis. portrait and 12 plates extraneous to collation.

Plates:
Portrait of John Milton (British, 1608 – 1674) engraved by Robert White (British, 1645 – 1703) after William Faithorne (British, 1616 – 1691)
11 plates engraved by Michael Burghers (Dutch, c. 1640 – c. 1723) after John Baptiste de Medina (Flemish, 1659 –1710); 1 plate (for Book IV) engraved by Peter-Paul Bouché (Dutch, 1646 – c. 1697) after Bernard Lens (British, 1659 – 1725).

Binding: Folio, bound in full contemporary English panelled and speckled calf, tooled in blind, re-backed, corners repaired, the lines in Paradise Lost numbered; title pages of Paradise Regain'd and Samson Agonistes dated 1695; without a list of subscribers after the general title; with the Table for Paradise Lost; printed on laid paper, with tall "s", margins sprayed red.

Provenance: near-contemporary ex libris of Sarah Bugg inside front board; along with that of Sam Bontham, 1726; later owned by forger Osborne Charles Vyse Aldis (1843 – 1916), with his signature on general title, with a nine-line note in his hand and initialled on page 343.

Catalogue raisonné: Gordon N. Ray, Illustrated book in England (1976): p. 3.

Ref: National Gallery of Art

Contributors:

Bouché, Peter-Paul (Dutch, 1646 – c. 1697)

Burghers, Michael (Dutch, c. 1640 – c. 1723)

Faithorne, William (British, 1616 – 1691)

Lens, Bernard (British, 1659 – 1725)

Medina, John Baptiste de (Flemish, 1659 – 1710)

Milton, John (British, 1608 –  1674)

Tonson, Jacob, the Elder (British, 1655 – 1736)

White, Robert (British, 1645 – 1703)