Following
the editors’ introduction to the collection, the essays in Scholarly Milton examine the
nature of Milton’s own formidable scholarship and its implications for his
prose and poetry–“scholarly Milton” the writer–as well as subsequent scholars’
historical and theoretical framing of Milton studies as an object of scholarly
attention–“scholarly Milton” as at first an emergent and later an established
academic discipline. The essays are particularly concerned with the topics of
the ethical ends of learning, of Milton’s attention to the trivium within the
Renaissance humanist educational system, and the development of scholarly
commentary on Milton’s writings. Originally selected from the best essays
presented at the 2015 Conference on John Milton in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, the
essays have been considerably revised and expanded for publication.