Charles I. Eikon Basilike. [Greek transliterated] The Pourtracture of His Sacred Majestie in His Solitudes and Sufferings. London, 1648.
This emblematic frontispiece appeared in the first edition of the Eikon Basilike and was included in many later editions. The frontispiece engraving, playing on the Greek title Eikon Basilike (translated as "royal portrait"), represents Charles I. Kneeling in prayer with his earthly crown at his feet, Charles reverently fixes his eyes on a heavenly crown, while holding in his hand a crown of thorns, symbol of suffering and martyrdom. The praying figure introduces the subject matter of Charles's book, which consists largely of the King's personal meditations and prayers. When Charles was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, advance copies were already circulating. Within a month and a half of Charles's death approximately twenty English editions had been printed in England. By the end of 1649, thirty-five English editions had been printed in England. It would shortly come to be the most widely read and discussed work of royalist propaganda from the English Civil War. Doubts about Charles's authorship of the work were expressed almost as soon as it was published and continued to provoke controversy into the 1690s. Francis Madan has provided the most plausible explanation for the composition of Eikon Basilike: he suggests that it was composed by Charles I in stages from 1642, and that Dr. Gauden, an Exeter clergyman, assisted the King in organizing and revising his manuscript.
This description is based on the Introduction by Philip A. Knachel in Eikon Basilike, The Portraiture of His Sacred Majesty in His Solitudes and Sufferings (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1966). For more information, consult Francis Falconer Madan, New Bibliography of the Eikon Basilike (London: B. Quaritch, 1950).
Folger Call No. E287.8.
