The History of Britain (1695)
Description
The History of Britain (1695)
by John Milton
Full Title: The History of Britain, that Part especially now called England; from the first traditional Beginning, continued to the Norman Conquest. Collected out of the antientest 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, perhaps, Third Edition. Complete. Spine expertly rebacked with raised bands and a black and gilt title label. Original pastedowns and endpapers present. Pages clean and bright, very well kept inside and out. with minimal flaws. Copy for sale was owned and signed by Francis Fane, 12th Earl of Westmoreland (well-known British soldier-Sikh/Crimean War hero-see below) and contains his handwritten bookplate on the pastedown from 1856. His predecessor (most likely his grandfather, John Fane, 10th Earl of Westmoreland) has also signed the title page at the top, as shown. Bound in original Cambridge style boards in fantastic shape, with pleasant rounding.
A fine 17th century copy of John Milton’s "History of Britain," containing republican thoughts at 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 with two additional books. In this work, Milton, who had allegiances with the revolutionary cause during the English Civil War, 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 of his 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 17th-century revolutionary Britain.
Price: $1,250
Shipping: FREE via USPS Priority Mail
Inventory Number: 76350
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