John Milton (1608–1674) Paradise lost. A poem in twelve books...The fourth edition, adorn’d with sculptures (London: Richard Bently & Jacob Tonson, 1688). Ee.2.13, frontispiece and title page.

After the third edition of 1678, no new edition of Paradise Lost was printed for a decade. In 1683, the bookseller Jacob Tonson obtained from Samuel Simmons a half-share in the rights to Paradise Lost, securing full ownership seven years later, upon which this edition was printed. Tonson did much to enhance and cement the status of Milton’s poem by publishing it in a series of monumentalising folio editions. This lavish fourth edition of 1688 was the first to contain illustrations, which are the work of at least three individual artists, including John Baptist de Medina and Bernard Lens. A selection of its plates can be seen in the case ‘Illustrating Paradise Lost’ (nos. 45 & 46).

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