Legal documents relating to
The left-hand document is a receipt for £5 paid to Milton by his publisher Samuel Simmons for the right to publish Paradise Lost. Since Milton had already been blind for several years, the hand is that of an amanuensis. The sum of £5 was agreed for the first edition, with the promise of another five when the printed run had been sold. Payment of a further £5 was also agreed for two subsequent editions (nos. 26 & 27 on display here). The law of copyright was in a fledgling state by the time of the Restoration. Previously, authors might only have been able to rely on erratic payments from publishers for their writing, if at all. The right-hand manuscript is dated 1680, six years after Milton’s death. It records his widow, Elizabeth Milton, releasing her rights over the poem to Simmons for a payment of £8.