For The Liberty Of Unlicenc D Printing

Areopagitica: A speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing to the Parliament of England is John Milton's famous tract against censorship. Named after a speech by Isocrates, a fifth century BC Athenian orator, the work is counted as one of the most influential and inspired defenses of the right to freedom of expression in history. It is also a personal issue for Milton who was submitted to censorship himself when he tried to publish his defenses of divorce, radical works for the time that gained no quarter with censors. Distributed as a pamphlet, Milton's powerful arguments against 1643's Licensing Order note that classical Greek and Roman society was never subjected to such censorship, and he uses many classical and biblical references to reinforce his argument.

This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.

From the introduction of printing into England, the liberty of the press had been modified from time to time by royal proclamations. In 1557 the Stationers Company of London was formed. The exclusive privilege of printing and publishing in the English dominions was given to 97 London stationers and their successors by regular apprenticeship. All printing was thus centralised in London under the immediate inspection of the Government. No one could legally print, without special license, who did not belong to the Stationers Company. The Company had power to search for and to seize publications which infringed their privilege.In November, 1644, Miltons Areopagitica, a plea for the free expression of opinion, was published as a protest against this Order. It is a pamphlet in the form of a speech supposed to be addressed to the Parliament.This Premium edition is annotated with a commentary by Sir R. C Jebb and a biography by A. W Verity. It also comes with a beautiful layout that makes reading comfortable.