Letters of State, written by Mr. John Milton,: to most of the Sovereign Princes and Republicks of Europe. From the year 1649. till the year 1659. To which is added, an Account of his Life. Together with several of his poems; and a catalogue of his works, never before printed.

FIRST PRINTING OF FOUR MILTON SONNETS & OF A LIFE BY HIS NEPHEW
first edition thus 12mo. [6], xlviii (Life), [6 (catalogue of works)], 336pp., contemporary sprinkled calf, spine panelled by raised bands, panels gilt tooled, edges sprinkled red, binding skilfully refurbished at ends of spine and joints and with a new sympathetic maroon morocco label. An attractive copy in its first binding.
Signed "A. Perkin/ 1729" on endpaper and with a note in his hand to the effect that Phillips was "elder nephew of Milton". A very few neat Mss notes in the same hand. Inscribed "Edward Berwick/ 1791" on facing endpaper.
ESTC r4807 Wing M2126 Pforzheimer, 713 Shawcross, J. Milton, 367, 368 Coleridge Milton Collection in Turnbull Library, 34
A translation, by Edward Phillips, of Literæ pseudo-senatûs Anglicani, Cromwellii, reliquorumque perduellium nomine ac jussu conscriptæ, a publication of dispatches written by Milton in his capacity of Latin secretary to the Council of State, between the years 1649 and 1659 and originally published surreptitiously in 1676. "The Life of Mr. John Milton" (caption title) was written by Edward Phillips. "Milton's four preliminary sonnets to Cromwell, Fairfax, Vane and Skinner are here first printed" [Pforzheimer]. Shawcross calls these "garbled versions". Shawcross #367 (as this copy) has the words "Six Verses" and Shawcross #368 has the words "Ten verses" on p. xxxv, line 6.
Although widely held institutionally this book is uncommon in commerce with the last copy recorded at auction being in 2005, and previously to that 1991 and 1978.Edward Berwick (Co. Down., 1753 – 1820), Church of Ireland clergyman and writer, was while a student at the centre of a furore at Trinity College Dublin when he ran foul of arbitrary regulations lad down by the new college provost Major Hely Hutchinson which became the subject of published lampoons. "In 1775 Berwick, along with several other non-complying students, was deprived of his scholarship, ostensibly because he had failed to reside in college as regularly as the statutes demanded. He appealed to the college's visitors — the archbishops of Armagh and of Dublin — and after a hearing which occupied three days, in the course of which Hutchinson admitted that his 'unexceptionable character entitled him to every indulgence', Berwick was reinstated. .... A friend of Sir Walter Scott, Berwick provided considerable help in Scott's edition of the works of Jonathan Swift" [O.D.N.B.] and himself published several books.