Beschreibung:

CHARLES I, King of England . Eikon Basilike. The Pourtraicture of His Sacred Majestie in His Solitudes and Sufferings. N.p. [London: Printed for Richard Royston] 1648. Small 8vo, probably a presentation binding of contemporary black morocco, sides and spine within double-line gilt border, small gilt tooled ornaments in the angles and at top and bottom spine, g.e., a bit rubbed, top of spine neatly repaired, slight marginal browning to the title-page and other leaves, small tear in title-pageexpertly repaired , black half morocco folding case. FIRST EDITION, second issue, without Royston's name on the title-page but with the mispaginations in signature G uncorrected, double-page engraved frontispiece by William Marshall in second state (with the figures in the vaulting over the window slightly reworked), errata printed on the verso of the leaf following the contents, three blank leaves at the end of text. Madan 1 (second issue); Almack 1 (noting this copy); Wing E268. Eikon Basilike, purportedly the meditations of King Charles before his beheading, has been something of a cause celebre since its first issuance by the renegade Royalist publisher Richard Roylston at the time of the King's execution. Its strong exposition of the Royalist cause prompted Pÿarliamet tto commission a replyto it, Milton's famous Eikonoklastes . Milton was the first of many to cast doubts on Charles' authorship. Opinion swung back and forth , seeming to settle on the authorship of Dr. John Gauden, until the publucation in 1950 of Francis M. Madan's A New Bibliography of the Eikon Basilike, which demonstrated that Gauden had worked closely from Charles' own papers. A very good copy, in the attractive contemporary presentation morocco binding (the binding is the contemporary uniform black morocco gilt noted by Madam as "perhaps intended for distribution among the leading Royalists").