MILTON, John (1608-1674). Paradise Lost. A Poem in Twelve Books. London: Miles Flesher for Jacob Tonson, 1688.

Folio (368 x 222 mm). Engraved portrait frontispiece of Milton, 12 engraved plates, 6pp. subscriber's list. (Spotting, few ink stains on title-page, some offsetting from plates to text.) Contemporary tree calf with single gilt frame (re-backed, some rubbing to extremities).

Fourth Edition, LARGE PAPER COPY OF THE FIRST ILLUSTRATED EDITION, "the earliest serious effort to illustrate an important work of English poetry" (Hodnett). Printed 21 years after the first edition and 14 years after Milton's death, this is the first folio edition as well as the first edition published for subscribers, with a limited issue of 500 copies. Most of the plates were drawn by John Baptist Medina and engraved by Michael Burghers. ESTC R13313; Grolier Wither to Prior 607; E. Hodnett, Five Centuries of Book Illustration (1988), p.63; Shawcross 345; Wing M2146.