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

Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queen; The Shepherds Calendar: Together with the Other Works of England's Arch-poët (London: Printed by H.L. for Mathew Lownes, 1617)

In addition to Shakespeare, Milton was profoundly influenced by the English epic poet Edmund Spenser. Frequently cited in Milton's prose, Milton refers to Spenser as "our Poet Spenser" -- a figure of unquestionable national importance. Milton had long planned to write a national epic like that of Spenser. As he wrote in 1639 he was "resolved to tell the story of the Trojan ships" that came to the British Isles, a national epic in the Virgilian mode that reaffirmed the foundation myth of a nation. When he finally turned to write Paradise Lost, however, the geography was biblical rather than national; and instead of writing about founding a place, he wrote about leaving a place.

Placement in digital exhibition

Forms part of

4

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.