Areopagitica.
A Speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing, to the Parliament of England. With an Introduction by James Russell Lowell.
New York: The Grolier Club, 1890 Stock Code: 122297
First Grolier edition, one of 325 copies published on Holland paper. The Areopagitica was Milton's response to the licensing order of June 1643, and has come "to be valued as the most eloquent defence in English of the right to publish without prior censorship. It has also been invoked as a defence of free speech, but in fact the limits of Miltonic toleration were strictly circumscribed, and include a denial of the rights of Roman Catholics to publish works in defence of their religion" (ODNB). The frontispiece portrait was engraved and signed by George Mercier after the 1670 portrait of Milton by William Faithorne. This copy has been handsomely bound by C. & C. McLeish, the favoured binders of T. E. Lawrence.
Description
Octavo (170 x 114 mm). Contemporary brown full morocco by C. & C. McLeish, raised bands to spine, title and ruling in gilt, double rules with embellishment in gilt to sides, turn-ins ruled in gilt, top edge gilt.
Condition
Slight rubbing along joints, pale sunning to top of rear cover, very occasional foxing to text block. An excellent copy.
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