Collecting Pandemonium: John Milton in the Alexander Turnbull Library
Picturing Paradise Lost
Frédéric-Jean Schall, Illustration for Le Paradis Perdu, Paris, Chez Defer de Maisonneuve, 1792, Special Printed Collections, Alexander Turnbull Library, Reference: qREng MIL 1667 Para 1792
Picturing Paradise Lost
For centuries, Paradise Lost has challenged artists and illustrators to convey the impact of Milton's words through images.
Alexander Turnbull's Milton collection includes this bilingual edition of Paradise Lost with lavish colour stipple engravings, published in Paris in 1792.
Artist Frédéric-Jean Schall produced a series of paintings to be used as designs for the engraved illustrations that accompany Milton's text. Sections of the copper plates were hand-painted with coloured inks before the printing process to create the dramatic colour and tonal effects of this image.
This edition of Le Paradis Perdu was part of Alexander Turnbull's initial bequest to the Library in 1918. The bequest also included a French translation of Areopagitica, Milton's impassioned defence of the freedom of the press. This translation was published on the eve of the French Revolution, in 1788.
Permission of the National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga O Aotearoa, must be obtained before any reuse of this image
