Areopagitica. A Speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicens'd Printing, to the Parlament of England

PRINTED ON VELLUM, PULLED FROM THE FLAMES

First Eragny edition. One of ten copies printed on vellum, with an additional 226 on paper [all but 10 vellum copies and 38 paper copies destroyed before publication]. Title subheadings, opening initial, marginal notes and final two lines of colophon printed in red, decorative 'Clematis' border to opening page and initials by Lucien Pissarro. 4to., 26 x 21cm, 36, [4]pp. Later full vellum by Douglas Cockerell & Son, gilt binders signature to lower turn-in 'D.C. & Son 1946.' London, Eragny Press.

Near fine, slight creasing to a handful of leaves, most notably pp.33-4, not at all inconsistent with the sheets having been salvaged from the bindery.

Printing of the 18th book to be issued by the Eragny Press began in August 1904, and the completed sheets were sent to the bindery of Leighton, Son and Hodge on the 9th of November that year. It wasn't until the 24th of November that the Pisarros learned that a fire had engulfed the bindery, and they 'had every reason to believe the whole edition had been destroyed' (prospectus II). Thankfully, 40 unbound paper copies and all ten vellum copies were discovered to have survived' and 'by late January 1904, Esther was carefully going through the copies and sheets that were salvaged. In early March, she asked Leighton to look through the copies and provide an estimate for how long it would take to get the books cleaned and resewn' (A History of the Eragny Press, Marcella D. Genz).

  By March 1904, Lucien and Esther were able to publish these 40 copies, alongside a reprinted second edition of 134 copies. These 40 salvaged paper copies were bound with Michaellet blue paper boards, with an inset 'carnation and flames' wood engraving printed in three colours to commemorate the fire. There does not seen to have been an edition binding for the vellum copies, and several of the known bindings are dated rather later than the printing. It is likely that, as in the case of the present copy, the vellum copies remained as unbound sheets for a significant time.

  Although rather different to the main output of the press, not least for being the only book set in two separate columns, the Areopagitica was a triumph. T.S. Moore found it to be 'Magnificent' (Genz), and more recently Colin Franklin praised 'the severity of black initials, and spare use of red for shoulder-notes, [which] takes away the customary prettiness from this Eragny book and gives a classical seriousness quite appropriate to the theme and the author. The beautiful initials to each paragraph divide the text agreeably, and altogether the success of this makes one wish that other experiments of such an ambitious kind had been attempted. The opening page, with its heavy, bold black flowery border and great red initial T, seems also to suggest the character of some tract, with its heading FOR THE LIBERTY OF UNLICENC'D PRINTING.' (The Private Presses, Colin Franklin)

Stock Code: 247072