The English poet and polemicist John Milton lived at the time of the English Civil War. The Milton Collection in the Alexander Turnbull Library includes works in the original and in translation dating from the 17th century to the present. It also includes Miltoniana (books from and about Milton and his times) and modern fine print editions of Milton's works with their often very beautiful illustrative material.
A strong supporting collection is held in the Alexander Turnbull Library General Collection.
History of the collection
The Milton Collection is based on the collecting interests of Alexander Horsburgh Turnbull (1868-1918), the founder of the Alexander Turnbull Library. His decision to collect the works of John Milton was one way in which the English-educated Turnbull could transplant a part of what he regarded as his homeland to the colony of New Zealand.
Alexander Turnbull began his Milton collection in 1892, when, at the age of 23, he wrote to the London bookseller Bernard Quaritch, saying: "I intend forming a Milton collection & making it as complete as possible if I can see my way to do so" and asking the bookseller to obtain the 1645 and 1673 editions of the Poems. By the time he died in 1918 Turnbull had assembled one of the finest collections in private hands.
The Library has continued to add to this and today the Milton collection is still numbered among the world’s best. While described as the 'Milton Collection', the volumes are not kept separately but are dispersed among the rest of the Rare Books and Fine Printing Collection.
The purchase of 694 volumes of Milton and Miltoniana from the library of the North American collector, G. William Stuart in 1974 was a major addition. This purchase increased the Library's total holdings of Milton editions from 523 to 611, adding nine new 17th-century editions and 44 editions published in the 18th century. Of equal value were the 323 new titles or editions of Miltoniana, including 186 published in the 17th century and 108 in the 18th century.
In 1976 the purchase of a collection of 289 broadsides published between 1641 and 1714 added to the holdings concerning Milton and his times.
Today, the Milton Collection continues to expand by donation and purchase.
Access items in this collection
This collection is currently available at Archives New Zealand.
A growing number of items in the collection are listed on the National Library Catalogue.
Other forms of access include:
- Card catalogue - provides access to items catalogued before 1963.
- Microfiche catalogue - provides partial access up to 1984.
- Printed sources - A descriptive catalogue of the Milton collection in the Alexander Turnbull Library by Kathleen Coleridge, 1980; Early imprints in New Zealand libraries: a finding list of books printed before 1801 held in libraries in the Wellington region, 1995.
Contact the Alexander Turnbull Library for help with your search.
You can also search the British Library's English Short Title Catalogue by library name 'Alexander Turnbull Library' to find descriptions of items in the Rare Books and Fine Printing Collection.
English Short Title Catalogue - British Library website
Further information about the collection
'John Milton at the Turnbull' by J.E. Traue and V.G. Elliott, Turnbull Library Record 8 (May 1975) pp. 14-18.
'The Milton Collection in the Alexander Turnbull Library' by K. A. Coleridge, Turnbull Library Record 10 (1977) pp 38-48.
Alexander Turnbull: his life, circle, his collections by E.H. McCormick (Wellington: Alexander Turnbull Library, 1974).
Access and borrowing
Image
Engraving of John Milton. Frontispiece in John Milton, Paradise lost. A poem in twelve books. London: Printed by Miles Flesher, for Richard Bently, at the Post-Office in Russell-Street, 1688. Rare Books and Fine Printing Collection, Alexander Turnbull Library, qRStuart 355.
