Curator

Fernanda Perrone

Special Collections and University Archives, Rutgers University Libraries

Curator

Thomas Fulton

Department of English, Rutgers University

Funder

New Jersey Council for the Humanities

The exhibition was made possible by a grant from the New Jersey Council for the Humanities, a state partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations in the exhibition do not necessarily represent those of the national Endowment for the Humanities or the New Jersey Council for the Humanities.

Exhibition catalog

John Milton and the Cultures of Print: An Exhibition of Books, Manuscripts, and Other Artifacts

http://hdl.rutgers.edu/1782.1/rucore00000002112.Book.000057889

Published by Rutgers University Libraries in conjunction with the exhibition opening.

Exhibition caption

Forms part of

Pindar, Pindari Olympia, Pythia, Nemea, Isthmia (Saumur, 1620)

A great deal of Milton's reading was not in English, but in Latin, Greek, Italian, and other languages. Books in languages other than English were printed in London, but many were European imports. The proportion of foreign imprints in Milton's reading notes is 73 percent. Foreign books could be obtained in London bookshops, and Milton also shipped books home from Europe, and had friends send him books from abroad. In comparison with other personal libraries for which we have shelf-lists, the surprisingly low percentage of British imprints in Milton's notes is quite normal, and it may well represent the proportions in Milton's own library. Milton cites Pindar in his writing, probably drawing from this edition. A copy of this same imprint long thought to have been Milton's, with annotations included in the Columbia edition of Milton's works, is housed at Harvard University. Whether the copy now at Harvard actually belonged to Milton is now debated.

Placement in digital exhibition

Forms part of

3

Exhibition section

Forms part of

I. Milton's Library

MILTON'S LIBRARY: Milton's personal letters show that his access to books came in part from libraries and borrowed books, but also from his own substantial collection, which he had amassed from books acquired at shops in London and Europe. Regrettably, unlike contemporaries whose libraries are still intact or whose collections can be reconstructed with shelf lists or signed books, few of Milton's actual books can be identified with certainty: there are extant only seven books from Milton's own library. This is probably because he stopped signing books quite early in his career. Yet, like many early modern writers and readers, Milton kept a reading notebook or a Commonplace Book, which was a structured repository for reading notes. From this manuscript, in conjunction with references in his written work, we are able to piece together a detailed record of what Milton read and what he took away from his reading. This manuscript is presently housed in the British Library.