Type: Exhibition catalog

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

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

Type: Exhibition section

Name: III. The Scribal Publication of Verse

Detail: THE SCRIBAL PUBLICATION OF VERSE: The scribal “publication” of these poems was probably as effective as print, since even now over 4,000 extant manuscript texts attest to an extraordinary rate of production. Survival rates vary in puzzling ways: in spite of the value they must have had even then, the survival rate of poems in Donne’s own hand is extraordinarily low: only one survives, and it was discovered n 1970. Scribal circulation was the central mode of publication for poets like Donne, Thomas Traherne, Andrew Marvell, or Katherine Phillips, most of whose poetry was not printed until after their deaths.

Type: Exhibition caption

Name: "Cromwell's Ghost" [sonnet] ("Rouze upp my Sons: redeeme your lost Renown.")

Detail: A radical republican sonnet, perhaps written in 1659 or 1660, which bids readers to remember 1641 -- probably as the restoration of the monarch was nearly at hand. Scribal publication was a major vehicle for subversive views, since there were no authorities to license publication, and the source of publication is virtually untraceable. Milton's on political sonnets to Cromwell and Fairfax (among others) remained in manuscript until after his death.