A-B2, C-2X4, 2Y2-2Z2, 2a2. [4], 343, [1 blank], [6] pp. Illustrated with frontispiece portrait by R. White after Faithorne and 12 engraved plates chiefly after John Baptist Medina by Burgesse. Includes subscriber's list. (Folio) 14¾x9, period dark red morocco, panelled in blind. "Fourth Edition", the First Illustrated Edition, Large-Paper Copy.

Large-paper copy (with the grape cluster watermark) of the first illustrated edition, in a handsome binding. The period red morocco binding is unusual and was probably commissioned for a special presentation. Medina's baroque illustrations, the first printed visual response to "Paradise Lost", are wonderful and proved quite influential in their own right. This copy with two ownership signatures on the title-page; that of George Downing dated 1769 (perhaps a descendant of one of the Downings listed among the subscribers) and Mary Frances Wright dated 1855, a third signature has been effaced. Wing M2147.