Books

Two vols., uniform 8vos, [xxxii] 416pp & lxix, 390pp; contemporary calf, rebacked with elaborately gilt-tooled spines. The first Baskerville books in English (preceded by Virgil in Latin), with all cancels called for, p. 135 correctly numbered and italic I in headline on p. 346 of Paradise Lost. Includes full list of subscribers, including Benjamin Franklin. Gaskell 4, 5. Bookplates (John Hadmar Sticht); wear to edges, hinges, and spine ends; signature N in Paradise Regain'd pulled loose; front cover of Paradise Lost detached, still an attractive set.

Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton. The first version, published in 1667, consisted of ten books with over ten thousand lines of verse.