Duodecimo contemporary calf blind ruled & floral corner ornaments (very worn to top edge & corners, spine in need of a reback though covers held firmly by vellum cords) 192pp (A-H8) Titlepage with signature of Amos A Laurence, Boston 1845 and by another hand "given to his son Rev. Wm. Laurence" (William Lawrence was Bishop of the Episcopal Church for Massachusetts). No other marks/writing and crisp and clean with the final blank. Although the imprint is given as London, and by the London publisher Du Gardianis, this was most probably a surreptitious imprint printed on the continent by the Elzevirs and has the typical miniscule italic type here used for the Preface. The work, commissioned by the Commonwealth Council, was aimed primarily at the continental educated classes especially those of the United Provinces in answer to "Defensio Regia pro Carolo I" by the French protestant Claude de Saumaise (or Salmasius) who was comissioned by the exiled Charles II to write a memorial to the reign of Charles I and an attack on Parliament for its execution of a King (carried out in the previous year). The Commonwealth rightly perceived the tract to be a threat to the reputation of the regime and ordered Milton to publish this rebuttal as he was the Secretary for Foreign Tongues to the Council of State. Milton spent most of 1650 on this repsonse. His energies and eyesight, what remained of it, were destroyed by this labour. See also our copy of the Defensio Regia (V70275).