The History of Britain (1695)
Description
The History of Britain (1695)
by John Milton
Full Title: The History of Britain, That Part especially now call’d England. From the first Traditional Beginning, Continu’d to the Norman Conquest. Collected out of the Ancientest and Best Authors thereof.
7 x 4 ¼. In English. Printed for Ri. Chiswell. Sold by Nath. Roles . . . St. Paul’s Church, London, 1695. Early edition. 357 pp. excluding unpaginated 56 pp. Index. Verified complete via WorldCat. Skillfully rebacked in period style with four raised bands and gilt title label added. Minimal wear to Cambridge style, full calf boards. Corners neatly rounded during a previous restoration. Original pastedowns and endpapers. The 12th Earl of Westmoreland’s handwritten bookplate on front pastedown. Text block is clean and bright with minimal flaws. Overall, a very handsome copy that is especially well-preserved internally. Rare in both institutional holdings and commerce.
A near-fine, late 17th century copy of John Milton’s “History of Britain,” containing republican thoughts regarding the crisis of the English Revolution. It is an unfinished and censored, prose work, first published in 1670. Milton began this work around 1649, completing four books in the first phase, then continued in the 1650s adding two additional books. Milton, who had allegiances with the revolutionary cause, mixed actual history based on a wide range of sources with comments on the restored monarchy of his time. He admitted the inaccuracy of many sources, but justified his use of popular fables, "be it for nothing else but in favor of our English poets and rhetoricians, who by their art will know how to use them judiciously." His work remains a broken monument to the controversies of a 17th century, revolutionary Britain.
PROVENANCE
Once owned by Francis Fane (1825 – 1891), 12th Earl of Westmoreland. A well-known and decorated British Army Officer, he campaigned in the First Anglo-Sikh War as well as the Battle of Gujrat during the second war. Fane also participated in the Crimean War, serving with distinction at the Battle of Alma in 1854. He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1855, and awarded the Medjidie and the Légion d'honneur in 1857. The 12th Earl of Westmoreland also received the Crimea Medal in 1858.
Price: $695
Inventory Number: 76350
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