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, π
3 B
2, C-Z
4, Aa-Yy
4, A-H
4 I
2, [A]-D
2 †D
2 E-Q
2 [A]
1 B-Z
2 Aa-Zz
2 Aaa-Zzz
2 Aaaa-Mmmm
2 [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)