MILTON, JOHN.

Pro Populo Anglicano Defensio, contræ Claudii Anonymi, alias Salmasii Defensionem Regiam.

London, Du Gardianis (Elzevier), 1651. 12mo. Contemp. full vellum. Last inner hinge weak. Woodcut device on title-page. (20),244 pp. Clean. A small tract has been removed at the end.

One of the imprints from 1651 (second edition ?) with the same collation as the original (1650) of Milton's polemic defence of the peoples of England and the English Parliament, against a royalist tract (Defensio Regia pro Carolo I), defending absolute monarche, a tract published under the name of Salmasius (Claude de Saumaise) and probably sponsored by the King himself. "The best apology that ever was offered for bringing kings to the block." (T. Warton).
Willems, 1134.

Order-nr.: 55409