Type: Exhibition caption
Name: Milton, Pro Populo Anglicano Defensio (1651)
Detail: This copy's frontispiece bears the arms of the newly created British Commonwealth, which united England, Scotland, and Wales without a monarch. This was a major work of Latin -- now the largest printed book produced by Milton, and by far the most extensively produced -- ranged from 104-389 pages in its various editions. In London, it was printed officially by William Dugard, who was thrown in jail for "printing several scandalous books against the Commonwealth," including Eikon Basilike and Salmasius's Defensio Regina, which he was apparently trying to print when, as the description in the Record Office reads, "he was cast into Newgate...and had been tried for his life by an High Court of Injustice, had not Sir James Harrington saved him from that danger, and procured his release." Shortly thereafter, Dugard managed somehow to find his way into the position of "Printer to his Hignes the Lord Protector" -- that is, Oliver Cromwell.