Folio (302 x 182 mm). Engraved portrait frontispiece of Milton, 12 engraved plates, 6pp. subscriber's list. (Title, frontispiece and a few leaves remargined with some losses, repairs occasionally affecting text, plates trimmed into image, some staining and dampstaining.) 19th-century straight-grained blue morocco gilt, edges gilt (spine sunned, covers starting, slight wear to extremities). Provenance: Tan-y-Bwlch, the 19th-century estate built by the Oakeley family in Gwynedd, Wales (armorial bookplate with Welsh motto).

Fourth Edition, THE FIRST ILLUSTRATED EDITION, "the earliest serious effort to illustrate an important work of English poetry" (Hodnett). Printed 21 years after the first edition and 14 years after Milton's death, this is the first folio edition as well as the first edition published for subscribers, with a limited issue of 500 copies. Most of the plates were drawn by John Baptist Medina and engraved by Michael Burghers. ESTC R13313; E. Hodnett, Five Centuries of Book Illustration (1988), p.63; Wing M2146.