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 section

Forms part of

VIII. Milton and Sons: A Family Business

MILTON AND SONS, A FAMILY BUSINESS: In 1652, after a couple of years of waning eyesight, Milton went completely blind. From about 1650 onward, Milton began to rely extensively on a team of researchers, scribes, and amanuenses. Rutgers English Professor Ann Baynes Coiro has used the term “Milton and sons” to describe Milton’s close relationship with two of these young men, Edward and John Phillips, nephews of Milton who attended Milton’s small academy in the early 1640s, and who were adopted into Milton’s household. These young men went on to have publishing careers of their own, but it still remains unclear how much they helped Milton in researching and even co-writing some of the work of the period, particularly Milton’s second Latin defense of the English people, shown here, and a defense of himself.

Exhibition caption

Forms part of

Edward Phillips, Letters of State, written by Mr. John Milton, to Most of the Sovereign Princes and Republicks of Europe. From the year 1649. Till the year 1659 (London, 1694)

Long after Milton's death, Milton's nephew assembled the letters of state that Milton had worked on during his service as secretary of foreign tongues under the commonwealth government. Phillips added an account of Milton's life, one of the early biographies of Milton, and four poems that had not previously been printed with Milton's name (three that had never been printed before at all): the sonnets to Vane (which appeared anonymously), to Fairfax, to Cromwell, and to Skinner.

Placement in digital exhibition

Forms part of

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