MILTON, John.

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Eikonoklastēs [in Greek] in Answer To a Book Intitl'd Eikōn basilikē [in Greek]. First editions, Pro Populo in third issue, of two of Milton's major polemical works, both explicitly marked for destruction in a royal proclamation of 1660. The execution of Charles I sent shockwaves throughout Europe and threatened the Commonwealth's trade prospects on the Continent. In 1649, Cromwell's Council of State commissioned Milton to write the official response to Eikon Basilike, the popular hagiography of the king. In 1651, Milton further published Defensio pro Populo Anglicano in response to Defensio regia pro Carolo I, a scholarly defence of Charles's rule. The two tracts contain some of Milton's most forceful and complex political writing. At the Restoration in May 1660, Milton went into hiding in London, where he was soon targeted by the new regime. An arrest order was drawn up in June, while August saw the issue of a proclamation which called for these two works "to be publickly burnt by the hand of the common hangman". On 27 August, copies of Milton's books were burnt by the hangman at the Old Bailey. The poet was imprisoned in the Tower of London under serious threat of execution, until pardoned in December.Eikonoklastēs saw a single reprint in the Commonwealth period, in 1650, and was not reprinted after that until 1690. Shawcross cites three issues of the first edition of Pro Populo, distinguished by the state of gathering A. This third issue is identified by printing the titl

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