Historical Milton : manuscript, print, and political culture in revolutionary England / Thomas Fulton.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Fulton, Thomas (Thomas Chandler)

Contributor:

University of Massachusetts Press, publisher.

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Library (University of Pennsylvania)

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Fund.

Stuart Curran-Joseph Wittreich Milton Collection (University of Pennsylvania)

Series:

Studies in print culture and the history of the book.

Massachusetts studies in early modern culture.

Studies in print culture and the history of the book

Massachusetts studies in early modern culture

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Milton, John, 1608-1674--Notebooks, sketchbooks, etc.

Milton, John.

Milton, John, 1608-1674--Manuscripts.

Milton, John, 1608-1674--Political and social views.

Milton, John, 1608-1674--Books and reading.

Polemics in literature.

Commonplace books--History.

Commonplace books.

Books and reading--England--History--17th century.

Books and reading.

Political culture--England--History--17th century.

Political culture.

Milton, John, 1608-1674.

Manuscripts.

Notebooks.

Political and social views.

England.

Genre:

History.

Penn Provenance:

Curran, Stuart A. (honoree) (Milton Collection copy)

Wittreich, Joseph Anthony (donor) (Milton Collection copy)

Physical Description:

xiii, [5], 304 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Amherst ; and Boston : University of Massachusetts Press, [2010].

Summary:

John Milton's Commonplace Book is the only known political notebook of a radical polemicist writing during the English civil war, and the most extensive manuscript record of reading we have from any major English poet from this period. In this rethinking of a surprisingly neglected body of evidence, Thomas Fulton explores Milton's reading practices and the ways he used this reading in his writing. Fulton's close study of the Commonplace Book suggests that this reading record is far from the haphazard collection of notes that it first appears but is instead a program of research which had its own ideology that responded to the reading habits and practices of Milton's contemporaries. Created mostly in the late 1630s and during the overthrow of the Stuart government in the 1640s, Milton's reading notes yield a number of surprises, the most fundamental being a highly structured commitment to political history. Fulton explores the relationship between the manuscript author and his polemical persona, placing the Commonplace Book, the manuscript "Digression" to the History of Britain, and some wartime poems in revealing contrast to the printed political texts of this period.

Contents:

Introduction

A material history of texts in Milton's England

Combing the annals of barbarians: the Commonplace book and Milton's political scholarship

Areopagitica: books, reading, and context

"The digression" and Milton's return to polemics

History and natural law in the tenure of kings and magistrates

"His book alive": defending popular sovereignty after the execution

Conclusion: historical politics and the instability of print culture

Appendix A: the index politicus of Milton's Commonplace book: authors, texts, and citations

Appendix B: the scribal entries in Milton's Commonplace book: amanuenses, students, researchers, or visitors.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Furness copy acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Horace Howard Furness Memorial Fund.

Milton Collection copy has manuscript underlines and marks in ink and pencil in text.

Milton Collection copy presented to the Penn Libraries by Joseph A. Wittreich in honor of Stuart A. Curran.

ISBN:

9781558498457

1558498451

9781558498440

1558498443

OCLC:

632133174

Publisher Number:

40018822190

99940940557