"I AM EXPRESSLY TOLD THAT I OUGHT NOT TO MEDDLE WITH MILTON'S BOOKS, NOR TO REVIVE HIS SENTIMENTS, OR THE MEMORY OF THOSE QUARREL'S WHEREIN HE WAS ENGAGED"

[TOLAND, John]. Amyntor: Or, a Defence of Milton's Life. Containing I. A General Apology for All Writings of That Kind. II. A Catalogue of Books Attributed in the Primitive Times to Jesus Christ, His Apostles and Other Eminent Persons… III. A Complete History of the Book, Entitul'd, Icon Basilike, Proving Dr. Gauden, and Not King Charles the First, to be the Author of It… London: Booksellers of London and Westminster, 1699. Octavo, contemporary full speckled sheep rebacked, raised bands, burgundy morocco spine labels. $650.

First edition of Toland's defense of his controversial Life of Milton.

"Milton's first independent biographer carried on the controversies of his subject and created his own" (Wickenheiser). Notorious freethinker and rationalist John Toland, author of Christianity Not Mysterious, sparked controversy with a passage in his Life of Milton implying that portions of the New Testament were inauthentic. The resulting outcry included a sermon preached against him by the Rev. Ofspring Blackall before the House of Commons; in response, Toland defended himself (and Milton) with Amyntor, which expanded on his arguments that the Eikon Basilike had not been written by King Charles I and that large parts of Scriptural canon were actually apocryphal. "Toland contributed much to the free-thinking tendencies of Enlightened belief in England's Hanoverian period" (Britain in the Hanoverian Age, 707). Wickenheiser IIIA47. Wing T1760.

Text generally fresh with a bit of marginal toning, joints expertly reinforced, contemporary sheep boards expected age-wear. Still an excellent copy.