England's preeminent epic poet, John Milton was also the author of a logic textbook: Joannis Miltoni Angli, Artis logicae plenior institutio, ad Petri Rami methodum concinnata, adjecta est praxis annalytica et Petri Rami vita (Englishman John Milton's Fuller Course in the Art of Logic Conformed to the Method of Peter Ramus, to Which Is Added an Analytical Exercise and the Life of Peter Ramus). Written in the 1640s but not published until 1672, Artis logicae plenior institutio was neither innovative nor particularly influential. Because of its late publication date, however, it is usually regarded as the last noteworthy Ramist logic manual produced in England. This dubious distinction is, no doubt, responsible in part for its limited success as a textbook: it appeared long after the European, though not the American, enthusiasm for Ramism had waned and at the dawn of a new age of mathematical logic. Nevertheless, Artis logicae plenior institutio merits serious consideration for what it reveals about its author.
