1800 to 1849

| 1800 - 1805 | 1806 - 1810 | 1811 - 1815 | 1816 - 1820 | 1821 - 1825 |

| 1826 - 1830 | 1831 - 1835 | 1836 - 1840 | 1841 - 1845 | 1846 - 1849 |

1800 - 1805

1800 Fabeln nach Desbillons: Zum Vergnügen und Nutzen. Xaver Weinzierl. Hardbound. Munich: Im Verlag bei Joseph Lentner. $107.31 from Daniel Thierstein, Bern, through abe, August, '12.

Here are five books containing 220 of Desbillons' fables translated into German from their original Latin. The order of poems does not follow Desbillons' order, but the translations here are numbered within their books, and each gives a reference to its place in Desbillons' work. I have sampled the German against Desbillons' Latin and found both surprisingly clear. Those I tried are I 1, I 3, I 10, I 42, and I 43. There are several surprises for me in this book. The first is that the spine's indication -- "Passau, 1819" -- probably has to do not at all with the book's title or date but rather with the fact that the book was a school prize for a certain Michael Maier. The second surprise is the extensive introduction to the person and writer Desbillons. I learned a great deal from Weinzierl's loving description. I am happy to get information about Desbillons because we have a great deal in common: Jesuits who love fables and Latin and old books. His library in Mannheim got to 17000 volumes; ours here has just passed 8000, and I am going strong! Among helpful reports to fill out my impressions of him are these. He deeply missed Jesuit community. He got at least some of the money for his books, many antiquarian and bought cheaply, from his well-to-do family. The publisher in Paris wanted to add racy illustrations to his already written large Phaedrus text and commentary, and Desbillons refused. What he published later was a scaled down school edition. The first of his fable books, published in Glasgow in 1754, ran through two editions elsewhere soon afterwards, since it was so popular. Our collection has a little treasure in that first edition! There is a T of C between the introduction and the beginning of the first book of fables. I find no illustrations except the lovely etching of Lisette on the title-page. Not in Bodemann.

1800 Les Fables d'Ésope, avec Figures d'après Barlow.  Hardbound.  Paris: Gueffier.  €360 from Antiquariat Löcker, Vienna, August, '19.

"Recueil de Gravures piquantes et d'Apologues ingénieux pour l'amusement et l'instruction des Enfants.  Seconde Livraison."  Whew!  That was all part of the title!  Analysts will want to compare this book with our original Barlow of 1666 and with Barlow's contribution to L'Estrange's "Les Fables d'Esope" of 1714.  As it is, this book means that we have four of the five first entrees in Bodemann #187, with only the 1799 Balleu edition lacking.  The present book is a particular favorite of mine because it presents Barlow so dramatically, even in imitation.  57 copper plates.  The seller opines that this is the third edition of the images, with the second coming in 1714 in Rotterdam.  (Bodemann has nothing following the first edition in #74.)  Is it perhaps because it is a "Seconde Livraison" that it starts with Fable "LI" and ends with Fable "XCXVII"?  The illustration pages are not printed on the verso.  The large landscape pages (8¼" x 6¾") allow for the large copperplate illustrations.  Good examples are LVIII and LXIX.  I am so proud of finding this book.  Now to find "Tome Premier"!  "An VIII."

1800 Favole Esopiane. Di Luigi Grillo. Apparent Second Edition. Hardbound. London: G. Polidori and James Wallis. $150 from Serendipity Books, Berkeley, August, '05. 

This is a small volume (3¼" x 5½") containing some eighty-nine verse fables on 194 pages. A T of C at the back lists the fables. They seem from the titles to be closely patterned after La Fontaine. Is this a second edition or a second collection of fables? See the author's comments near the end of the preface. Luigi Grillo is not in either Bodemann or my favorite private collector. Serendipity has done a great job of finding unusual fable books and holding on to them for me!

1800 Phaedri Fabulae or Phaedrus's Fables with the Following Improvements in a Method Entirely New. By John Stirling. Hardbound. Fourteenth Edition. Printed in London. London: F.F. and J. Robinson, R. Baldwin, S. Hayes, J. Scatchard, T.N. Longman, and C. Law. $38 from E.J. Shelley, Buckingham, by mail, July, '99.

AI at the beginning. The title probably describes the book's method better than I can. "The Words of the AUTHOR are placed according to their Grammatical Construction beneath every Fable: the Rhetorical Figures also as they occur: And to make the Pronunciation easy, all Words of above two Syllables are marked with proper Accents. A Collection also of Idioms and Phrases in PHAEDRUS, and all the Proverbial Mottos to the Fables, with the English Phrases and Proverbs answerable, are set over against them. And lastly, an Alphabetical Vocabulary of all the Words in the Author, shewing their Parts of Speech and Signification; to which are added, the Themes of the Verbs, with their Government." Whew! That is what the book does. And it is helpful. The figures of speech are footnoted. The "Collection of Proverbial Mottos" in the first appendix should be helpful: a bilingual list of appropriate morals for each of the fables. Then comes a list, poem by poem, of colloquial Latin phrases with an appropriate translation. The vocabulary seems comprehensive, and the layout of principal parts of the verbs exhaustive. A very nice find occasioned by my purchasing something else from Shelley.

1800? Fables de La Fontaine. 70 woodcuts. Hardbound. Tournay: J. Casterman. £36.45 from Knightsbridge Antiquarian through eBay, July, '10.

This is a curious little book. I enjoy thoroughly its seventy woodcuts, two to a page, with an indication for each of the page of the fable to which the illustration belongs. Each illustrated fable also has a reference to the page on which its illustration can be found. That process gets cumbersome! The illustrations present engaging material. The frontispiece of La Fontaine borders on the hideous! There are one hundred and nine fables in the book, and so some thirty-nine fables are not illustrated. Particularly good illustrations include these: "The Lion Grown Old" (35); "The Cat and the Old Rat" (37), which has the cat within the flour bin; "The Horse and the Wolf" (53), which features a great knock-out kick; "The Eagle and the Owl" (58), which shows the eagle devouring one of the little owlets; and "The Fox, the Wolf, and the Horse" (107), which features another knock-out kick. I particularly enjoy #97 on 204, with its illustration on 206; it presents the "treasure digger and his companion," La Fontaine X 4. The dolphin depicted on 97 suggests that the artist never saw one. Not in Bodemann.

1800? Fables de La Fontaine, Vol. I.  Ornées des Figures de Jean-Louis Delignon.  Hardbound.  Paris: Ledentu.  €125 from Clignancourt flea market, August, '14.  

I came on a Friday to Clignancourt and found this dealer -- and almost no others -- open for business.  The special feature of this pair of small (4" x 7") volumes is the hand-colored illustrations.  There are many of them!  I find between four and six full-page hand-colored illustrations in each of the seven books printed here.  Among the best of them are "L'Enfant et le Maitre d'Ecole" (21); AD (39); FK (58); and DS (143).  Some of the paint has bled through onto the blank back of the page of these interpaginated pictures.  Many of them still retain their protective tissues.  I consider this a wonderful find!  This volume ends with the end of Book VII on 185.

1800? Fables de La Fontaine, Vol. II.  Ornées des Figures de Jean-Louis Delignon.  Hardbound.  Paris: Ledentu.  €125 from Clignancourt flea market, August, '14.  

I came on a Friday to Clignancourt and found this dealer -- and almost no others -- open for business.  The special feature of this pair of small (4" x 7") volumes is the hand-colored illustrations.  There are many of them!  I find between four and six full-page hand-colored illustrations in each of the seven books printed here.  Among the best of them are "Two Dogs and a Hide" (41); "Two Doves" (50); "The Oyster and the Litigants" (62); and "The Matron of Ephesus" (195).  I believe that this last story does not appear in this volume!  Some of the paint has bled through onto the blank back of the page of these interpaginated pictures.  Many of them still retain their protective tissues.  I consider this a wonderful find!  Pages 5-8 are loose.  There is an AI for the whole two volumes closing this book (215-28).

1801 Fables Amusantes Avec Une Table Générale et Particulière des Mots et de leur Signification en Anglois. Par Jean Perrin. Full calf. Dublin: Chez P. Wogan. $18.50 from Luis Porretta Fine Arts, Vancouver, Canada, Jan., '00.

My earliest edition to date had been an 1804 edition from Philadelphia. This edition from Dublin follows the format known from that volume. I note several differences. The preface here starts one paragraph with "J'ai évité" where the American version has "On évite." The last sentence of the preface is completely different. In this version Perrin dares to promise himself that an impartial and judicious public will recognize the utility of the changes he has made. There the last sentence refers rather to small changes made in the morals of individual fables. In the story of "The Boy and the Butterfly" he is here a garçon (28) and there an enfant (56). This edition does not give a running vocabulary beneath each fable. The running vocabularies are gathered rather in a section (117-220) after the 140 fables are finished and a two-page concentrated vocabulary is offered (115-16). There are finally several pages of advertisements at the back. See my comments under 1804 and 1840.

1801 Fables by the Late Mr. Gay. In One Volume Complete. London: C. Whittingham. $57 at Simon Ellis, Oxford Antique Trading Co., July, '92.

A lovely little volume, with cameo-shaped illustrations of the fables. Are they Bewick's? Maybe it is only my taste, but I prefer the 1783 Buckland Strahan illustrations. This is my fifth edition of Gay's fables, and all five are strong visually. Do not be fooled by the frontispiece mask: it appears in the 1727 (original) and 1783 editions as well. A fine, well-aged book.

1801 Fables Choisies Mises en Vers, Tome Seconde.  Jean de La Fontaine.  (Auguste) Blanchard.  Hardbound.  Paris: F. Dufart.  $25.44 from antiquusgallery through eBay, April, '17.

This volume seems to be identical with the volume published in "An 5e" that added "1797."  This one is unequivocably "An neuvième" and only that.  The major difference I find is that the same illustrations are placed by the binder at different places.  Thus the two phases "The Crow, Turtle, Rat, and Gazelle" that were facing 129 in that volume face 169 in this.  I notice in fact that Bodemann #195 is dated 1801, the year of this edition's publishing.  Blanchard signs each of the plates.  There are nine pages of illustrations, two to a page.  They can be found facing 3, 83, 141, 143, 159, 169, 176, 189, and 203.  I thus seem to find, in this volume as in the earlier one, two more pages of illustrations than Metzner did.  The page facing the beginning of fables continues to balance its two illustrations nicely (3).  Among the best illustrations are "The Cat and Two Birds" (141), and "Two Goats" (143).  Best of all may be "The Horse and the Wolf" (176).  Metzner rightly characterizes the illustrations as following Chauveau and Oudry.  Small work and frequently nice.  3½" x 5¼".

1801 Fables de la Fontaine, dédiées a la Jeunesse, Tome I. Avec Un nouveau Commentaire par Coste. Ornées de 216 Figures en taille douce. Hardbound. Paris: Chez Le Prieur. £74.50 from Amtrad, UK, through eBay, August, '03.

Bodemann#191.1. Coste's commentary had been used in several editions prior to this one. See my entries for 1790 and 1793, for example. Bodemann places the first Coste edition in 1743. The entry for this edition correctly notes the misnumeration of the last few pages as 200-6 rather than 300-6. Yes, the frontispiece is after Oudry, but the Aesop figure is more misshapen, and the lion has a more human face. The book is small to start with (4" x 6¾"), and so the illustrations, which come three to a page, are quite small. The entry notes the lack of background in the outdoor scenes. The illustrations are described as presenting "Darstellung durch feine, genaue Zeichnungen der Personen und Tiere mit überzeichneter Mimik und Gestik." Good examples are BC (139); "Le Lion et le Moucheron" and SS (148); "Le Singe et le Dauphin" (213); FWT (237); GGE (258); and DS (286). This copy is in excellent condition.

1801 Fables de la Fontaine dédiées a la Jeunesse, Tome II. Avec Un nouveau Commentaire par Coste. Ornées de 216 Figures en taille douce. Hardbound. Paris: Chez Le Prieur. £74.50 from Amtrad, UK, through eBay, August, '03. 

Bodemann#191.1. Coste's commentary had been used in several editions prior to this one. See my entries for 1790 and 1793, for example. Bodemann places the first Coste edition in 1743. The book is small to start with (4" x 6¾"), and so the illustrations, which come three to a page, are quite small. The entry notes the lack of background in the outdoor scenes. The illustrations are described as presenting "Darstellung durch feine, genaue Zeichnungen der Personen und Tiere mit überzeichneter Mimik und Gestik." Good examples in this second volume are "Le Lion, le Loup et le Renard" (49); "Le Rat et l'Elephant" (71); "Le Mari, la Femme et le Voleur" (130); "Le Loup et le Renard" (189); and "Le Renard, le Loup et le Cheval" (249). This copy is in excellent condition.

1801 Fables d'Ésope, Ornées de Cent Huit Figures d'apres Barlow, Tomes Premier et Second. Hardbound. Paris: Chez Guefflier jeune. $240 from Giuseppe Marzo-Contrada, Campofreddo, Apulia, Italy, Jan., '09.

Bodemann # 187.2. This is a landscape-formatted presentation of 107 fables, with two title-pages but just one frontispiece. The frontispiece makes a good comparison point with the frontispiece for Barlow's original 1666 version. The lion prominent there is less prominent here, and the face of Aesop has undergone some softening. This book makes for fascinating comparisons both with the original Barlow and with my later (1810?) French version, Bodemann #187.5. There are here, for example, no illustrations to scenes in the life of Aesop, as there are in the "1810?" version. The pages here are very thin; frequently two pages are stuck together. This book follows a standard formula: full-page illustration on the left and the French prose fable with moral on the right, with a page number in the upper right. The second volume, here bound with the first, continues its pagination. Though I have to work somewhat from memory, these are clearly Barlow's designs, many of them with a great deal of Barlow's strength. There's a certain shading or softening added that loses Barlow's strength. Metzner notes that La Fontaine's fables are thoroughly excluded. Let me mention in particular the errors and curiosities of this volume and then the strongest of its illustrations. The book is dated in "An IX -- 1801." There is significant writing on 41 of Volume I and on the page facing the title-page of Volume II. "XIV" on 47 should be "XXIV." "XXII" on 51 should be "XXVI." Fable XXXVI has in its title "Renad" for "Renard." Page 89 in Volume I reads "99." Volume II is missing page 7 (Fable LIV). "57" is used twice for a page: Fable LXXIII is really on 55 in Volume II. The Roman Numerals here avoid the simple "C" for some reason. Thus "100" here is "XCX." My prize among the illustrations goes to X: "The Wolf in a Lamb's Skin." As in the later French version of "1810?" it is easy to see and feel the imprint that the printing press made on each of the pages here.

1801 Les Fables d'Ésope, mis en Français, Avec le sens moral, en quatre vers, à chaque Fable. Tome Premier. Ornée de figures. Nouvelle edition.. Hardbound. Paris: Chez Billois. $59 from Bruce McKim, Voyager Books, Harpers Ferry, WV, through eBay, Dec., '10.

"Dédiée à la Jeunesse." Note that I have only the first volume. Not in Bodemann. A charming little book, not least for its few but lovely illustrations. After a word "to youth," there is Planudes' life of Aesop, embellished by an engraving facing 23 of the rejection of the ugly Aesop by Xanthus' wife. There follow eighty-one prose Aesopic fables concluding on 156. After each is the usual verse quatrain offering a moral. The illustrations are LS (73); FS (96); "Horse and Ass" (115); and "The Fox and the Rooster" (138). The illustrations have an unusual format. There is an open quadrangle under a "portrait" engraving, offering a space as though for a title. A very faint signature under each seems to be "G. Texier sculp." Texier seems not to appear in Bodemann. Billois appears in Bodemann in #135.11, an 1802 two-volume La Fontaine edition using reproductions of Oudry and Coste's commentary. Leather binding. Marbled end-papers.

1801 Recueil de Fables d'Ésope.  Augustin Legrand.  Boxed.  Hardbound.  Paris: Chez Debray - Legrand.  €13 from Librairie de Sèvres, July, '19.

This book has several unusual features, starting from its unusual landscape orientation (7¾" x 4¼").  Any French edition of Aesop seems to me unusual because the French are so close to their beloved La Fontaine.  Bodemann rightly puts this into the family of work done after Barlow.  This edition is a selection of 50 of the 75 fables originally illustrated by Legrand in 1799.  That edition paired verse texts from La Fontaine and prose Aesopic texts, apparently those used here.  That 1799 edition was published by Bailleu.  New to this edition is the frontispiece of Aesop leading children to encounter animals.  Like the illustrations in that edition, these are "verkleinerte Bearbeitungen" of Barlow's illustrations.  Barlow's strength remains in illustrations like "The Fox and the Goat" (45); DS (71); "The Ass and the Lapdog" (72); and FS (80).  This book was delightful find in an out-of-the-way antiquarian bookshop!  Boxed.

1802 Fables de la Fontaine dédiées a la Jeunesse. Avec Un nouveau Commentaire par Coste. Ornées de 216 Figures en taille douce. Hardbound. Leipzig: Chez Gerard Fischer le Cadet. $225 from Second Story Books, DuPont Circle, Washington, DC, Jan., 11.

This stocky little volume reproduces, one year later, Le Prieur's Paris edition. Here the three volumes (I-VI, VII-IX, X-XII) are bound together with fresh paginations and clear dividing points. As Bodemann (#191.2) notes, the illustrations are changed and mirror-opposites of those in the Le Prieur original edition. My inspection suggests that they are not necessarily inferior to the earlier engravings. The seventy-one pages of illustrations -- three to a page -- are all gathered at the ends of the respective volumes. As I mention a propos of the original edition, Coste's commentary had been used as early as 1743. This book is the same size as the original edition (4" x 6_"), and so the illustrations are quite small. Many of them are here nicely hand-colored. The illustrations in this edition feature each a second title in German. Bodemann's earlier entry notes the lack of background in the outdoor scenes, which continues here. The illustrations were described as presenting "Darstellung durch feine, genaue Zeichnungen der Personen und Tiere mit überzeichneter Mimik und Gestik." That tendency continues here. Particularly good examples here include "Les Deux Mulets" (I 4); CJ (I 20); "The Crow Imitating the Eagle" (II 16); WC (III 9); "The Ass and the Lapdog" (IV 5); "The Man and the Wooden Idol" (IV 8); TB (V 20); DS (VI 17); MM (VII 10); "Two Cocks" (VII 13); "Le Dépositaire Infidèle" (IX 1); and "Le Renard, le Loup et le Cheval" (XII 17). The lions and elephants here are not very realistic. This is a very nice find in those closed bookcases at Second Story Books.

1802 Fables of Aesop and Others. Translated into English. With Instructive Applications and a Print before each Fable. By Samuel Croxall. First Wilmington Edition. Hardbound. Wilmington: Peter Brynberg. $40 from Tom and Barbara Linton, Atlanta, Feb., '00.

For a start on this little book, consult my comments on the eleventh edition (1778) and seventeenth edition (1805) of Croxall's original work of 1722. This very early American Croxall (perhaps the first US edition?) falls between the two of them. It has the typical Croxall elements of a preface (with British references changed to American) and AI before the 196 fables and an index of qualities after it. If there was a frontispiece, it is gone. The book is in poor condition, but easy to cherish nonetheless. It is missing 37-40 and parts of 313-16. The curious thing about the illustrations here is that they are ovals without rectangles around them. I have not seen that before for Croxall; Kirkall established "oval within a rectangle" as the standard way to illustrate a Croxall fable, and editions contemporary with this one (e.g., those in 1804 and 1807 from Mozley) follow the Kirkall pattern even as they create inferior copies of his pictures. Here the illustrations strike one as simple but strong. "The Old Woman and Her Maids" on 235 is done simply as a rectangle without any oval. Both covers are separated, and the book is falling apart. This book finishes the fables on 316. The other four copies I have mentioned all finish on 329.

1802 Fablier en Vers, a l'Usage de l'Enfance et de la Jeunesse. Hardbound. Lyon: Bruyset Ainée et C. $20.50 from Alexander Ryley, Astoria, NY, through eBay, Dec., '09.

The T of C at the end gives the basic structure and tells who wrote each fable. There are three books of fables here, with one hundred, one-hundred-and-fourteen, and forty-one fables in them, respectively. That adds up to two-hundred-and-fifty-five on 458 pages. Unless ten pages have been lost, the pagination jumps from 456 to 467 and keeps rising from there. It is hard to tell whether pages have been lost because the last work is a fairly endless "Debate of the Flowers," labeled as a "Poeme Allégorique." I will let someone else delve into that mystery. Check Bodemann 194.1: that is a fable book for mature children. This, done a year later by the same publisher, apparently acts as an introduction and complement to that book. The engraved frontispiece has a child reading to the birds and animals from a sheet of paper. A rapid scan of the T of C reveals a wide variety of authors, including Desbillons and Berenger, the author of the 1801 Bruyset edition. Offhand, the fable authors seem all to be French. Leather covers, the front cover separating from the spine. Marbled end-papers. A great little find!

1802 Fabulae Aesopi Selectae, or Select Fables of Aesop. With an English Translation, more Literal than any yet extant, Designed for the Readier Instruction of Beginners in the Latin Tongue. By H. Clarke. Philadelphia: Printed for John Conrad et al. $32.50 from Carl Sandler Berkowitz, Jan., '92.

Early American edition of a book of many editions in England; see my ninth edition (1784). The introduction has tighter typeface. The texts follow 1784's exact pagination and divisions but with new typeface. The Latin and English are in two columns, with Roman and italic print for alternate words. 202 fables. No illustrations or index. The front cover is missing.

1802 Les Cinq fabulistes, ou les trois cents fables d'Ésope, de Lockmann, de Philelphe, de Gabrias et d'Avienus, Vol. I.  (Jean-Baptist Morvan) de Bellegarde.  Dixieme Edition.  Hardbound.  Paris: J. - Ch. Poncelin.  $77 from Maksim Zintsov, Kansas City, MO, through Ebay, May, ‘21.  

Here is another strange experience in collecting.  This spring I have been approaching a purchase of more expensive books with some grant money.  “Les Cinq Fabulistes” was a pair of volumes I was long considering and finally decided for, basing my decision on the book’s high recommendation and pedigree on ABE.  Some weeks before that final decision, this single book appeared on Ebay, advertised as “1802 THE FIVE FABULISTS.”  I was struck mostly by the prolific and good illustrations.  I never put the two offerings together until this week.  Having finished cataloguing that other pair of volumes, I discovered this duplicate.  It is such a lovely and, I believe, rare book that I am going to include it in the collection.  I do note that the full-page illustration "The Snake and the Laborer" (56) seems to be missing in this copy.  Otherwise, I repeat the essentials in my comment on the first volume of the set catalogued earlier.  This is a serious treasure in the collection.  It is rare, I believe, for bringing together five fabulists.  It is also rare in France for not including La Fontaine.  A particular strength of the book lies in the illustrations.  This volume includes a frontispiece of Aesop in 18th century costume with the animals.  There are five further full-page illustrations.  One example of these faces 34, "The Two Cocks and a Falcon."  Then there are some 58 pages with two illustrations.  The first of these, facing 3, features CJ and WL in particularly high definition and very well preserved.  One of my favorites among these pages faces 115: "The Thief and His Mother" and "The Man with Two Mistresses."  Bodemann comments correctly that the illustrations draw their inspiration chiefly from Barlow and Baudoin.  In this volume, there are 206 fables on 212 pages, as the closing T of C indicates.  My understanding is that there is no attempt to assign authorship among the five fabulists here.  It is also my understanding that Bellegarde is responsible for the quatrains accompanying these prose fables.  About 4" x 6½".

1802 Les Cinq fabulistes, ou les trois cents fables d'Ésope, de Lockmann, de Philelphe, de Gabrias et d'Avienus, Vol. I.  (Jean-Baptist Morvan) de Bellegarde.  Dixieme Edition.  Hardbound.  Paris: J. - Ch. Poncelin.  $219.42 from Charlotte Du Rietz Rare Books, through ABE, June, ‘21.  

This is a serious treasure in the collection.  It is rare, I believe,for bringing together five fabulists.  It is also rare in France for not including La Fontaine.  A particular strength of these two volumes lies in the illustrations.  This volume includes a frontispiece of Aesop in 18th century costume with the animals.  There are five further full-page illustrations.  Two examples of these face 34, "The Two Cocks and a Falcon" and 56, "The Snake and the Laborer."  Then there are some 58 pages with two illustrations.  The first of these, facing 3, features CJ and WL in particularly high definition and very well preserved.  One of my favorites amont these pages faces 115: "The Thief and His Mother" and "The Man with Two Mistresses."  Bodemann comments correctly that the illustrations draw their inspiration chiefly from Barlow and Baudoin.  In this volume, there are 206 fables on 212 pages, as the closing T of C indicates.  My understanding is that there is no attempt to assign authorship among the five fabulists here.  It is also my understanding that Bellegarde is responsible for the quatrains accompanying these prose fables.  About 4" x 6½".

1802 Les Cinq fabulistes, ou les trois cents fables d'Ésope, de Lockmann, de Philelphe, de Gabrias et d'Avienus, Vol. II.  (Jean-Baptist Morvan) de Bellegarde.  Dixieme Edition.  Hardbound.  Paris: J. - Ch. Poncelin.  $219.42 from Charlotte Du Rietz Rare Books, through ABE, June, ‘21.  

As I wrote of Volume I, this is a serious treasure in the collection.  It is rare, I believe, for bringing together five fabulists.  It is also rare in France for not including La Fontaine.  A particular strength of these two volumes lies in the illustrations.  This volume includes a frontispiece of a bull and boar fighting.  There is one other full-page illustration, facing 93.  A hunter captures an eagle and removes his wings to keep him from escaping.  The eagle is full of chagrin, but one day is bought by a better owner, who lets him grow back his flying wings.  The eagle rewards the second owner, but a wise fox urges him to give instead to the first.  If he is ever caught again, he might receive better treatment.  Then there are some 21 pages with two illustrations.  Among these notice the page facing 10.  It has a strong presentation of GGE and then a surprising presentation but one that fits the text for “A Male Monkey and His Child.”  This father’s embrace of his favored child is so fierce that the child cannot breathe and thus perishes.  Bodemann comments correctly that the illustrations draw their inspiration chiefly from Barlow and Baudoin.  This volume contains Fables CCVII through CCC on 104 pages, followed by some 45 “fables mythologiques” on 105-278, as the closing T of C indicates.  My understanding is that there is no attempt to assign authorship among the five fabulists here for the 300 fables.  It is also my understanding that Bellegarde is responsible for the quatrains accompanying these prose fables.  About 4" x 6½".

1802 Les Fables d' Ésope, Mises en François, Avec le sens moral en quatre vers et des figures á chaque Fable. Hardbound. Lyon: Chez Amable Leroy, Libraire. $20.50 from Alexander Ryley, Astoria, NY through eBay, Dec., '09.

The title continues "Nouvelle edition, revue, corrigée et augmentée de la vie d'Esope, dédiée á la Jeunesse." What a wonderful find on eBay! This little book is about 3½" x 5½". The life of Aesop, unillustrated, takes the first 94 pages. The two-hundred-and-twenty-five fables run then from 95 to 396. There are then separate tables of contents for the life of Aesop and for the fables. There is a double-line marking the end of each fable. Benserade's quatrain comes after the small illustration for each fable. The woodcut itself is bordered by a double line. The woodcutter challenges himself to include a great deal in a simple scene, as with the shepherd who from time to time cried "Wolf!" (207). Note that this is not a boy in this version! This artist can get a good deal of vigor into a scene, as with the workman ready to hatchet the snake (105, 133, and 277). That illustration is not the only one used more than once; see 101 and 367. The monkey on 142 looks suspiciously human. Someone has colored red figures in perhaps three woodcuts, e.g. on 347. Metzner writes in Bodemann that there are 125 woodcut illustrations here for the 225 fables. After almost all of the first fifty fables are illustrated, the illustrations become more rare as the book goes along. The illustrations derive, Metzner writes, from Benserade's 1729 and Lallemant's 1764 and 1787 editions. The frontispiece portrait of Aesop is missing.

1802 Select Fables of Esop and Other Fabulists in Three Books. Ancient, Modern, and Original. R. Dodsley. A New Edition. Hardbound. London: S. Fisher. €45 from Wolverhampton Books and Collectables, Staffordshire, UK, through eBay, August, '11.

According to Bodemann, the text makeup of this book is the same as in the origianal 1761 edition with the exception of "A New Life of Aesop." Osborne and Mozley in London had apparently issued a new edition in 1800, and this volume follows that exactly for its texts but not its illustrations. Here is Bodemann's description of the illustrations: "Kupferstiche (Nachstiche). 159 Illustrationen auf 15 Tafeln, jeder der drei Sammlungsteile hat fünf Tafeln, in der Regel mit 12 Illustrationen, nur die jeweils letzte Tafel mit weniger Illustrationen. Alle mit zugehoriger Seitenzahl und Fabeltitle versehen." Each set of illustrations is bound in here its book, at 42, 88, and 136, respectively; apparently in the Metzner copy they are bound in at the beginning of the book. The exception is the last page of illustrations for "Modern Fables": it occurs here as the frontispiece, illustrating Fables 49-53 of that set. Page numbers 133 and 134 have apparently been skipped through a printer's miscalculation, but there are no pages missing. 171-186 is a detailed T of C at the end. The designs on the title-page and the printer's design at the book's end are curious compositions of various smaller printing elements. Inscribed in 1820. Two tapes across the top and bottom of the leather spine. "Esop" is the spine's title. 

1802? Figures des Fables de La Fontaine. J. Punt & R. Vinkeles after Oudry. Hardbound. Amsterdam?: J. van Gulik? $350 from Dailey Rare Books, Los Angeles, August, '10.

This is a gorgeous mystery book! It seems to be a one-off gathering of the illustrations to J. van Gulik's edition of La Fontaine from 1802. The book is without title-page or texts. Someone has written "275 figures -- suite complete" on the front end-paper. As far as I can tell, this book contains only illustrations to individual fables, modeled after those of J.B. Oudry from 1755-59. That is, there are no vignettes or book-opening illustrations. There is also no frontispiece. The illustrations are generally of very high quality, and done on high quality paper. William Dailey calls this Gulik 1802 a second edition of Elias Luzac's six volume edition of 1761-81, which Bodemann lists as #135.6. She seems to date the first volume rather to 1764. Dailey quotes Brunet in praise of these beautiful smaller but quite exact reproductions of the large Oudry illustrations. "Here bound together in a single volume, ostensively for a private collector." The book may be unique. It is certainly unique in this collection for offering nothing but illustrations, without even a title-page! My, what one finds! This is a little treasure.

1803 Aesop's Fables, new versified, from the best English editions in three parts.  H. Steers, Gent.  First edition.  Hardbound.  Hull: Robert Peck.  £50 from Jonathan Hyde, Lichfield, UK, through Ebay.  Jan., '20.

I quote an online description: "Despite the impression given by the title page that this is merely a verse translation from the English of Aesop's Fables there is in fact a large element of original verse. The volume starts with a verse dedication to the Earl of Carlisle, mentioning his embassy to America. Each of the early fables is preceded by a verse addressed to a contemporary figure, for example Thomas Grimston, William Eddis, John Blades, Francis Const, Philip Leslie, Edward Topham, R. B. Sheridan, Charles James Fox etc. This address is usually extensive and sometimes longer the actual Fable itself."  Where this quotation writes "addressed," I wonder if the better expression might be "dedicated."  This edition is known online but seems quite rare.  This copy lacks 209-218, the last two-and-a-half fables.  There is a T of C at the beginning.  The first part, 41 fables, seem all to have dedicatees.  The second part, #42-100, lack them.  The fulsome praise of the dedicatees and the "poetic" elaboration of the fables is not our taste today.  I am however delighted to have found this unusual fable creation from a bygone era.  The title-page continues: "sold by J. Harris, (successor to E. Newbery,) corner of St. Paul's Church-Yard; and E. Williams, No II, Strand, London; also by Rawson and Rodford, Lowgate, Hull; M. Turner, Beverley; J. Etherington, Driffield; G. Sagg, Malton; Turner and Ainsworth, Scarborough; W. A. Henderson, Durham; J. Wolstenholme, Minster-Yard, York; T. Binns, Leeds; W. Sheardown, Dorchester; and all the principal booksellers."

1803 Fables de la Fontaine dédiées a la Jeunesse, Tome I.  Avec Un nouveau Commentaire par Coste.  Ornées de 216 Figures en taille douce.  Hardbound.  Paris: Chez Le Prieur.  $15 from 1220sonk on Ebay, Dec., '17.

The collection has a copy of this Volume 1 from the first edition in 1801.  Now here is a copy of Volume 1 in the second edition from 1803.  I have found at least one correction that was made for this second edition.  The error corrected was noted in Bodemann and in my comment on the first edition.  After this first volume of the second edition finishes its appropriate material on 297, what follows is a table of contents, which should be paginated, as it is here, 300-306.  In the first edition it is paginated 200-206!  I have not searched for other discrepancies.  As I wrote about the first edition, Coste's commentary had been used in several editions prior to this one.  See my entries for 1790 and 1793, for example.  Bodemann places the first Coste edition in 1743.  Yes, the frontispiece is after Oudry, but the Aesop figure is more misshapen, and the lion has a more human face.  The book is small to start with (4" x 6¾"), and so the illustrations, which come three to a page, are quite small.  The entry notes the lack of background in the outdoor scenes.  The illustrations are described as presenting "Darstellung durch feine, genaue Zeichnungen der Personen und Tiere mit überzeichneter Mimik und Gestik."  Good examples are BC (139); "Le Lion et le Moucheron" and SS (148); "Le Singe et le Dauphin" (213); FWT (237); GGE (258); and DS (286).  This copy is in fair to good condition.

1803 Fables de la Fontaine dédiées a la Jeunesse, Tome II.  Avec Un nouveau Commentaire par Coste.  Ornées de 216 Figures en taille douce.  Hardbound.  Paris: Chez Le Prieur.  $15 from 1220sonk on Ebay, Dec., '17.

Here is a second copy of a Tome II already in the collection dated 1803.  It has one distinctive difference, but I keep it in the collection mostly because it is the partner of a new 1803 Tome I.  We thus keep this set of Tome I and Tome II together.   This copy at $15 cost even less than the other copy, which itself cost about $100 less than the copy printed two years earlier!  It would belong in Bodemann #191 between the second and third entries.  The third entry is a Le Prieur edition of 1807.  Coste's commentary had been used in several editions prior to this one.  See my entries for 1790 and 1793, for example.  Bodemann places the first Coste edition in 1743.  Like the earlier printing, this book is small to start with (4" x 6¾"), and so the illustrations, which come three to a page, are quite small.  The entry notes the lack of background in the outdoor scenes.  The illustrations are described as presenting "Darstellung durch feine, genaue Zeichnungen der Personen und Tiere mit überzeichneter Mimik und Gestik."  Good examples in this second volume are "Le Lion, le Loup et le Renard" (49); "Le Rat et l'Elephant" (71); "Le Mari, la Femme et le Voleur" (130); "Le Loup et le Renard" (189); and "Le Renard, le Loup et le Cheval" (249).  The book seems identical with the earlier printing through 348.  This copy then omits the T of C found in the other copy.  This copy is in fair to good condition.

1803 Fables de la Fontaine dédiées a la Jeunesse, Tome II.  Avec Un nouveau Commentaire par Coste.  Ornées de 216 Figures en taille douce.  Hardbound.  Paris:  Chez Le Prieur.  $17.50 from Alexey P. Peshkov, Amherst, MA, through eBay, Feb., '16.

Here is a copy of a book already in the collection but dated 1803 rather than 1801.  This copy cost about $100 less than the copy printed two years earlier!  It would belong in Bodemann #191 between the second and third entries.  The third entry is a Le Prieur edition of 1807.  Coste's commentary had been used in several editions prior to this one.  See my entries for 1790 and 1793, for example.  Bodemann places the first Coste edition in 1743.  Like the earlier printing, this book is small to start with (4" x 6¾"), and so the illustrations, which come three to a page, are quite small.  The entry notes the lack of background in the outdoor scenes.  The illustrations are described as presenting "Darstellung durch feine, genaue Zeichnungen der Personen und Tiere mit überzeichneter Mimik und Gestik."  Good examples in this second volume are "Le Lion, le Loup et le Renard" (49); "Le Rat et l'Elephant" (71); "Le Mari, la Femme et le Voleur" (130); "Le Loup et le Renard" (189); and "Le Renard, le Loup et le Cheval" (249).  The book seems identical with the earlier printing through 348.  It then adds a T of C on pages that seem to be marked "303" through "306."  This copy is in fair condition.  The front cover is separating from the spine.

1803 Les Fables d'Esope mises en François, Avec le Sens moral, en quatre vers, et les Quatrains de Bensérade.  Hardbound.  Paris: Chez les Libraires Associés.  €80 from Erik Tonen, Antwerp, June, '23.

The title continues "Nouvelle Édition, Ornée de deux cents vingt-six gravures, Dédié à la jeunesse."  This lovely little (4" x 7") book offers 225 numbered fables on 396 pages.  Is that "306" on the last page a typo?  Each fable has a rectangular woodcut, uniform in form and size.  The frontispiece of Aesop thus brings the total of illustrations to 226.  A good sample illustration is FG on 143.  The book is not in Bodemann.  It belongs in a growing family in our collection that includes so far at least these three members, marked by the reference to Benserade and the phrase "Dédié à la jeunesse."  Those other members were published in 1731 (in the family of Bodemann #80); 1764 (in the family of Bodemann #113); and 1798 (no Bodemann reference).  A lovely find in Antwerp!

1804 Fables Amusantes. Avec Une Table Générale et Particulière des Mots et de leur Signification en Anglois. Par M. Perrin. Philadelphia: Thomas and William Bradford. $68 from William Hale, Aug., '91.

140 fables in French in the upper half of each page, with word-by-word English vocabulary in the bottom half. Beginning AI. Good condition. A short introduction expresses homage to LaFontaine and points to the colorful names the texts give to animals. Somehow as the dog approaches the water, the shadow recedes (Fable II) and the dog's instinct tells him that it is only a reflection! The book offers strong evidence for the use made of Aesop in the early USA. See My favorite private collector ("Other," 23) for extensive comment.

1804 Fables de La Fontaine avec un nouveau Commentaire, Tome Second.  (Pierre) Coste.  Nouvelle Édition.  Hardbound.  Lyon: J. Ayné.  $47.95 from Aaron Floyd, Easthampton, MA, through Ebay, Nov., '20.

This volume begins at the beginning of Book VIII after a full-page frontispiece of La Fontaine seated in the midst of animals.  106 illustrations, one at the beginning of each fable.  Bodemann notes that only this Volume II was available to her team.  As their description notes, there are also frequent endpieces, done in different styles from the framed illustrations preceding each fable.  Bodemann's comment is accurate: "Technik und Bildausstattung sehr schlicht, offenbar für einen populären Massendruck (Druckstöcke stark abgenutzt)."  For a dramatic view of "skinning a wolf," see VIII.3 on 10.  And for a failed lion-face, see VIII.14 on 34.  There seem to be two styles of fable illustrations.  Most have an open background within the image.  Some fill in the background and are quite dark in this copy (e.g., VIII.20 on 49 and IX.8 on 85).  One of the best illustrations is "The Cat and the Fox" (IX.14 on 97).  There is a T of C for this volume at the end.  4" x 6¾".

1804 Fables of Aesop and Others. Translated into English with Instructive Applications and a Print Before Each Fable. Samuel Croxall, D.D. Illustrator not acknowledged. A New Edition, carefully revised and improved. Inscribed in 1808. London: H. Mozley. $47.50 at The Classics Bookshop, Oxford, July, '92.

This book seems to be an earlier edition of what Bodemann describes under #107.6. That book has Mozley for a publisher in 1819 in Derby; this book locates him in Gainsborough some fifteen years earlier. The only discrepancy I can find from Bodemann's description lies in the vignette on the title-page, which she describes as DS. I see a water-scene but can find no dog! As she points out, the edition has 329 pages for its 196 fables (as do my 11th and 17th editions). The illustrations here mirror-reverse the subjects in Kirkall's illustrations. Some (e.g., CJ on 1) keep Kirkall's pattern of a landscape oval within a rectangle. Others (e.g., WL on 3) change to a rectangular form with ornamentation around the upper half of its borders. These latter illustrations in particular are much simpler and even cruder than Kirkall's. The book is a handy, calfbound edition with slight damage to the bottom of the spine. The frontispiece is by Burnet and engraved by Scott. This copy has a fancier title ("Aesop's Fables") above CJ on 1 than does the parallel edition I have from the same publisher in 1807. The cuts are also much stronger in this edition. The format is familiar from earlier Croxall editions: dedication, preface (vii-xvii), and AI (xviii-xxiv) at the beginning. Then the fables, each with a cut and a long application. At the rear there is an index of important subjects handled in the applications. Where earlier editions of mine with the Kirkall illustrations numbered their editions, this book proclaims only "A New Edition, Carefully Revised and Improved." Inscribed in 1808.

1804 Fables on Subjects Connected with Literature. Imitated from the Spanish of Don Tomas de Yriarte. By John Belfour. Four full-page engravings by G. Jones and C. Pye. London: Printed by C. Whittingham for W.J. and J. Richardson. Gift of Linda Schlafer from James and Mary Laurie at DePaul Book Fair, March, '93.

One of the nicest books I have: a little treasure. The Laurie description details its handsome cover and excellent binding. I am happy to add this early translation of thirty-four fables to the few things I have by Iriarte. The introductory remarks would make a fascinating study in the history of the definition of fable; they depend heavily on terminology whose meaning has shifted, particularly "apologue" and "allegory." Might the point--that allegory is the foundation of fable--be made today by saying that fable is basically symbol? These remarks have high praise for LaFontaine and Gellert, while LaMotte deserves to be forgotten! The rhyming fables are introduced with a helpful short Spanish moral. Their typical form involves a philosophical statement on some literary subject (like plagiarism, talent, revision, public acceptance, or critics) followed by a fable situation between two animals, an opening remark by one of them, and a winning retort by the other. The best specimens here include "The Ass and the Reed" (41), "The Gardener and the Master" (55), "The Bear, the Ape, and the Hog" (73), "The Horse and the Goat" (99), "The Ape and the Juggler" (118), "The Author and the Rat" (134), and "The Goose and the Serpent" (157). It may help in dating the edition to note the misprint in the title page's Latin motto: vestuto for vetusto. And the line is from the prologue to Book IV, not V, of Phaedrus.

1804 Fabulae Aesopi Selectae, or Select Fables of Aesop With an English Translation as Literal as Possible. James Ross. Hardbound. Lancaster: Burnside and Smith. $60 from Serendipity Books, Berkeley, Dec., '99. Extra copies, one complete but suffering from water damage, for $45 from Bookworm & Silverfish, Wytheville, VA, through Bibliofind, March, '98; the other lacking the errata page for $15.95 from Susan Ackerman, Schuylerville, NY, through Ebay, April, '00.

See my three editions (1784, 1787, 1802) of Clarke's book, on which this book is based. Let me quote the title-page here: "A New Edition wherein the errors in the Latin text of the best and latest European copies of Mr. Clarke's selection are corrected, some antiquated English words and modes of construction are expunged, and their places supplied by those which are more proper. Also the signs of quantity to assist the pronunciation are added." In keeping with this agenda, there is a final page after the last fable on 155; this page lists errata in the ninth London edition of 1784. By the way, my 1784 ninth edition from London calls itself "corrected and amended" and seems to contain none of these errors. Notice that even the pagination follows Clarke's edition, not to speak of the two-column format and the alternation of Roman and italic print. I had no notion that I had found this book three times in various places! Why is there emphasis on European copies in a book published in England? I will keep all three copies in the collection.

1805 Fables Ancient and Modern Adapted for the Use of Children from Three to Eight Years of Age.  Edward Baldwin (William Godwin).  Illustrated by William Mulready (NA).  First edition.  Hardbound.  London: Thomas Hodgkins.  $25.73 from georgemily31nc through Ebay, Oct., '18.

A terrific find.  This is Volume II of the first edition, published as the cover says in 1805.  So far I find few records or images of this first edition on line.  An early edition mentioned online is the 1807 second edition, which already drops the last seven words from the title.  I also find an 1808 4th edition done by the same "Juvenile Library" as the first, apparently the author's publication arm.  I am amazed that I found this book so easily and cheaply on Ebay.  I have ordered a print-on-demand copy of the 1818 edition for comparison.  This collection has three later versions of this author's work: Fables Ancient and Modern Adapted for the Use of Children (11th edition, Thomas Tegg, 1840/1920?); Fables from Aesop and Other Writers of Standard Celebrity Explained and Adapted to Popular Use (Hogan and Thompson, 1851); and The Book of Fables: Selections from Aesop, and other Authors Explained and Adapted to Popular Use (Collins, 1856).  Who is this author?  Edward Baldwin is a nom-de-plume for William Godwin.  He married the feminist Mary Wollstonecraft.  Their daughter was Mary Shelley.  After the death of his first wife, he set up with his second wife a small publishing company for children's books.  Charles Lamb, whose works the two published, said of Godwin, "A middle sized man, both in stature and understanding"!   Godwin is categorized in many ways: utilitarian, anarchist, opponent of the institution of marriage.  It is good to remember that he lived in the time of the French revolution, which his first wife went to France to see for herself.  Godwin's introduction to later editions of the fable book – and no doubt to the first volume of this edition -- gives some surprising tips, which the versions follow: (1) Do not shorten fables; make them visible; (2) do not let fables end unhappily; and (3) introduce nothing new without explanation.  Endings are thus often softened, and we get some surprises.  The cock in CJ was apparently wise in rejecting artificial beauty for natural; besides, just after his encounter with the precious stone, the farmer's wife came out with a handful of barley (19).  Godwin deliberately rationalizes "The Mountain in Labor" (20) and calls it a comical fable.  People did not think it was giving birth.  They thought it was having a disastrous eruption.  The fable ridicules "large promises and small performances."  Godwin follows his rules here, I believe, when he explains and even pictorially describes mountains and oaks to children.  His versions are longish and "visible," as he urged.  The fox who urged getting rid of tails is about to be thrust out by force when a wise old fox urges "Stop!  He will go fast enough of himself" (35).  The wagoner with the stuck cart is encountered by a philosopher who offers his help and urges the wagoner to ask two travelers coming by.  It is therefore not Hercules who needs to chide the carter (41).  In CW (42), an elaborate build-up pictures the young man as the product of a bad upbringing: he is spoiled and "entitled."  The particular cat that the young man dotes on is grass green!  When she bolts out of bed because she hears a rustling behind the drapes, the bridesmaids burst into laughter.  She and her husband agree to ask Venus to make her a cat again, and the man happily marries another.  The cat is convinced that it is best to be content as nature has made her.  Happy endings are everywhere!  In "The Satyr and the Traveller" (97), Baldwin is clear: The satyr was in the wrong.  The same thing is often found to serve two purposes.  The china jar in 2P (112) is not broken, and the author expresses the hope that she will not be.  New to me is The Murderer and the Moon (86); it is not a strong fable.  The illustrations are simple and strong.  They tend to extend through the margins on the left and right sides.  iv + 219 pages.  Not in Bodemann.  Now can I find a copy of Volume I?  Second edition images: https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/77f514e9-dc56-14de-e040-e00a18064e39.  Complete edition online, including images: https://romantic-circles.org/editions/godwin_fables/index.html.

1805 Fables of Aesop and Others. Translated into English. With Instructive Applications and a Print before each Fable. By Samuel Croxall. Illustrations by Elisha Kirkall (NA). 17th edition, carefully revised and improved. Hardbound. London: J. Johnson, R. Baldwin, F.C. and J. Rivington et al. £72 from Abbey Antiquarian, July, '98.

This is a vintage Croxall edition in good form from about the middle of the long period during which this edition dominated the fable market. The frontispiece is now engraved by Nesbit. The title-page keeps the changes I had noted in the 1778 eleventh edition. Though the fables again consume 329 pages, as they did in the eleventh edition, the typesetting seems to be new. Hobbs (84-5) speaks at length of Kirkall's "white-line" technique. She also notes that improved printing techniques after 1800, together with John Lee's retouching of the plates, meant that later impressions were better than any since the mid-eighteenth century. The book was published in as many as two hundred editions and remained in Hobbs' view the most significant children's fable collection for 150 years after its publication--"perhaps because for the first time in England every fable was illustrated, and because it was cheap." There is a wormhole around the page numbers of 1-28. As Abbey mentions, this is a clean, crisp copy with excellent impressions. If the inking of some is faint, the details still come through wonderfully!

1805 Les Fables d'Ésope.  Avec soixante figures d'après Barlow.  Hardbound.  Paris:  Chez Genets jeune.  $160 from Keough's Books, Gloucestershire, August, '16.

As Bodemann points out, this edition adds a life of Aesop to earlier editions, though those seem to have included more fables and illustrations.  This is a landscape-formatted smaller (6½" x 4½") book.  I have seen this book before and have hoped to include it in the collection.  The reason, I suppose, is that I enjoy Barlow illustrations so much!  The paper here is very thin.  Illustration pages are not printed on the verso.  Morals are printed after several spaces in italics.  Illustration pages are not paginated.  One might compare this copy of Barlow with Barlow's own work with an illustration like LM facing 24, FS facing 52, or "The Hunter and the Dog" facing 75..  There is a dynamism in Barlow that even copies express, as in "The Serpent and the Porcupine" (30), "The Horse and the Lion" (38), and "WC" (46).  That "The Farmer and the Snake" has become an "inside the house drama" is clear from the illustration (34).  39-42 have been lost in this copy.  Among helpful illustrations are 2P (50).  There is a tendency, as in "Death and the Old Man," to darken parts of the illustration and not others (60).  GA (91) is one of those confusing illustrations where one has to look for the action proper to the story.  "The Fly and the Ant" (105) seems to be without an illustration.  I do not understand Illustration #54 facing the text of "The Dog Who Carried the Dinner of His Master," which seems unillustrated.  One illustration, numbered #55, is at the end without a text.  It seems to have a wolf confronting a dog.  Someone wrote in this copy that Illustration #55 should be with "The Dog Who Carried the Dinner of His Master."  Metzner's copy (#187.4) is dated 1806.  This copy beats that by a year!

1805 The Only Sure Guide to the English Tongue, or New Pronouncing Spelling Book. To Which is added a large collection of Moral Tales and Fables for the Instruction of Youth. With an appendix. By William Perry. Second Improved Edition. Printed in USA. Worcester, MA: Isaiah Thomas, Jun. $19.99 from Linda DeSimone, Middletown, RI, through Ebay, March, '01.

The title page advertises "Upon the same Plan as Perry's Royal Standard English Dictionary, now made use of in all the celebrated schools of Great Britain and America." The first edition had been, as the advertisement for it just after the title-page indicates, one year earlier, in January, 1804. I am particularly delighted to acquire this little book because I lived in Worcester and came to respect Isaiah Thomas a great deal. The cover and spine are damaged, and the book shows wear. The division in much of the early book is the traditional division by number of syllables. Thus there is a table on 85 of words of five syllables having the accent on the second syllable. A group of moral tales begins on 93, and on 109-30 are the fables. There are twenty-seven fables here. At least several are verbatim from Croxall. Several seem original. I like "The Priest and the Jester" (117). The latter asks the former for successively smaller units of money, down to one farthing. When the priest refuses, the jester asks for a blessing, and the priest agrees. The jester stops him in mid-blessing and says that, on second thought, he will not take a blessing which its dispenser thinks to be worth less than one farthing. The pedagogic character of the fables is clear especially in "The Naughty Girl reformed" (119) and "The Folly of Crying upon trifling Occasions" (122). The printer's set-up of the fables is curious. One can be sure that a new fable with illustration will start on the right-hand page. If it carries over onto the next page, that page will be filled out with one, two, or three short fables, and these will not be illustrated. The simple and sometimes hard-to-read illustrations are oval in form. There is a standard decoration on top of each: an urn at the center with a garland extending out left and right and then down on each side. A delightful little treasure!

To top

1806 - 1810

1806 Die Fabeln des Äsopus/Fables d'Esope/Favole di Esopo/Fabulae Aesopi I.  (Sigmund Ferdinand Ritter von Perger).  Hardbound.  Vienna: (Joseph Frister).  €100 from Liber Antiqua, Krems an der Donau, Austria, through zvab, March, '15. 

Here is a real prize!  Two volumes each contain 45 Aesopic fables presented in the same format: a full-page (about 5" x 7½") illustration on more substantive paper and then a page each for German, French, Italian, and Latin.  The publisher is not acknowledged, but "Vienna" and "1806" are.  Bodemann #233.1 places apparently this same book at Joseph Frister as publisher in Vienna in 1818.  No artist is acknowledged in this book.  Bodemann lists von Perger as the artist for the 1818 edition.  The plates are signed by the engravers, among them Pöltzel, Gerstner, Blaschke, Benedicti, and Belling.  Metzner describes the engravings of the 1818 version this way: "naiv gezeichnete Fabelfiguren (Menschen und Tiere), volkstümliche Trachten und Requisiten sowie alpine Landschaftskulissen passen die Fabelszenen alpenländischer Kultur an."  I find them strong, particularly these: DS (17); WC (25); "Eagle and Crow" (41); "Dog and Ass" (53); "Old Dog" (81); "Ass and Horse" (133); "Stag at the Pool" (137); "Wolf and Hunter" (165); and "Stag and Horse" (177).  The frontispiece features Aesop and the mirror of truth in the midst of many animals.  See 1807 for the second volume. 

1806 Fables d'Ésope, Mises en Français avec le sens moral en quatre vers, Tome Premier. Ornée de 193 Figures en Taille-Douce. Seconde Édition. Hardbound. Paris: Chez Leprieur. $125 from Rita De Maere, Belgium, through abe, April, '05.

This pair of volumes is curiously not in Bodemann, even though #191 is Le Prieur's apparent companion volume Fables de la Fontaine, with a second edition in 1807. Planudes' life of Aesop takes this first volume up to 144. Thenceforth there are three illustrations, each almost 1½" x 2½", to a single page preceding the next three fables--and even interrupting the last of the three. These are delightful, traditional, and in good condition. The illustrations are sometimes out of place by one pair of pages; that marked to occur facing 166, e.g., faces 168. The illustrations to face 256 face 264. The central illustration there, DM, may be a good example of the style in these illustrations. This volume contains seventy-one fables. If you do some mathematics, Someone wrote accurately that there are twenty-two pages of illustrations here; that accounts for sixty-six illustrations. Fables XXVI, XXXI, XL, XLV, and LII are not illustrated. Each fable is introduced and concluded by a rhyming verse quatrain. At the end of this volume is a T of C for both volumes.

1806 Fables d'Ésope, Mises en Français avec le sens moral en quatre vers, Tome Second. Ornée de 193 Figures en Taille-Douce. Seconde Édition. Hardbound. Paris: Chez Leprieur. $125 from Rita De Maere, Belgium, through abe, April, '05. 

This pair of volumes is curiously not in Bodemann, even though #191 is Le Prieur's apparent companion volume Fables de la Fontaine, with a second edition in 1807. There are three illustrations, each almost 1½" x 2½", to a single page for three fables. These are delightful, traditional, and in good condition. This volume contains Fables LXXII through CCXXV. Someone wrote accurately on the endpaper of the first volume that there are forty-one pages of illustrations here; that accounts for one-hundred-and-twenty-three illustrations. Thus a number of the fables here are not illustrated. For example, the first fable here, Fable LXXII, is not illustrated. The very first illustration, which is both frontispiece and the first set of three illustrations, substitutes "Louq" for "Loup." A good sample illustration faces 13: the man with a club has dismembered a statue at the hip. I also enjoy the illustration for "The Mother and Her Thieving Son" facing 27: the hangman has the young man on a leash as he bites off his mother's ear. The illustrations lose contact with their stories in the pagination. Thus the illustrations that should face 76 and 80 face each other after 102. Each fable is introduced and concluded by a rhyming verse quatrain. At the end of the first volume is a T of C for both volumes.

1806 La Fontaine's Fables Now First Translated from the French By Robert Thomson, Vols. III-IV. Hardbound. First edition? Paris: Chenu, Libraire. £7.3 from Abbey Antiquarian, April, '98.

Compare this book with the latter two of the four volumes in my Chenu edition with multiple illustrations. The setup of the title-page has changed in several ways. There is of course no mention here of "Elegant Engraved Figures," since the only illustrations in the book are printer's end-pieces, generally unrelated to the subjects of the fables. Division in the phrase "Now First Translated from the French" is one word later, after "Translated." This title-page has several italicized phrases, while the illustrated edition's title-page has none. The description ("Libraire," not "Libraire-Editeur") and address for Chenu are different. But after that the books appear to be utterly identical! Abbey Antiquarian's slip is helpful. It points out that the book is in its original boards with a pink label, that it is knocked and its corners worn round, and that its hinges are worn. I do not care much about those signs of wear, since I am so delighted to have such an old book and, I believe, a clear first edition!

1806 La Fontaine's Fables Now First Translated from the French By Robert Thomson With Elegant Engraved Figures, Vol. I. Illustrations by Perdoux, Leloir, and Ransonette Fils (duplicate states). Hardbound. First edition? Paris: Chenu, Libraire-Editeur. $112.50 from Michael Hackenburg, Turtle Island, Berkeley, Dec., '98.

One of the stars of my collection, lavishly bound and beautifully illustrated. This octavo boasts full straight-grained red morocco, elegantly tooled, with gilt tops. There is a T of C for this volume at its end. Quinnam has a Chenu 1806, but apparently unillustrated. Hobbs quotes his translation as #30 but says nothing about an illustrated edition. My favorite private collector seems to mention this edition (F-0053) but refers only to sixteen engravings, not to the duplicate sets of proof plates. Against the title-page's claim that Thomson is the first, this same collector has an earlier translation in 1734 by A. Bettsworth and C. Hitch, London. For Joseph Perdoux, see Bodemann #135.12. For Leloir, see 301.1 and 318.1. The paper of the text pages in this first volume is blue. Giving an account of the illustrations is not easy. First, there are the small (slightly larger than 2" x 3") duplicate proof plates (by Ransonette Fils, a bookseller's inserted advertisement claims), printed in black and brown. I count seventeen pairs in this volume: I 2 FC, I 6 Lion in Partnership, I 10 WL, I 13 Two Thieves and the Ass, I 18 FS, I 21 Hornets and the Bees, II 2 BC, II 7 Hound-Bitch and Her Female Companion, II 11 LM, II 16 Crow Who Wished to Imitate the Eagle, II 19 Lion and Ass Hunting, III 3 Wolf Become a Shepherd, III 6 Eagle, the Wild Sow, and the Cat, III 9 WC, III 12 Swan and Cook, III 14 Lion Become Old, and III 17 Weasel Got Into the Pantry. I am astounded at the difference that printing the same plate twice with different colored ink makes; I 13 and III 6 show this difference especially clearly. The other illustrations are not easy to categorize. There is a strong frontispiece (slightly over 3.25" x 4") signed by Perdoux: Aesop and the animals pay homage to a bust of La Fontaine. Two other signed Perdoux illustrations of the same size are inserted along the way: I 13 (a repeat of Two Thieves and the Ass) and III 1 MSA. Of the same size but signed "Olimpe Neveu sculp." is II 14 Hares and Frogs. Finally comes a group of illustrations in various sizes by various artists: first, just after the title-page, there is a full-page illustration (3.5" x 4.75") of La Fontaine and a seated woman; at 55 there is an illustration (3" x 4.75") of I 22 OR facing II 12 and signed "Dauligny" and "Henri Lefort sc."; at II 18, there is an illustration (also 3" x 4.75"), signed "Louis Leloir" and "Laguillermie sculp.," of the cat changed into a woman; there is another MSA (3" x almost 4.75") facing 76, signed "C.H. Courtry." This is the first time I have seen the boy pushing the ass! There is finally a simple, unrelated tail-piece image at the end of many fables. This is a set of jewels!

1806 La Fontaine's Fables Now First Translated from the French By Robert Thomson With Elegant Engraved Figures, Vol. II. Illustrated by Perdoux, Leloir, and Ransonette Fils (duplicate states). Hardbound. First edition? Paris: Chenu, Libraire-Editeur. $112.50 from Michael Hackenburg, Turtle Island, Berkeley, Dec., '98.

See my comments on Volume I. Now only some pages are blue. Frontispiece is an oval portrait of La Fontaine. Books IV to VI, preceded by "A Sketch of Aesop's Life from Croxall" and followed by a T of C. Here there are twelve of the smaller duplicate illustrations: IV 1 Lion in Love; IV 9 BF; IV 12 Tribute to Alexander; IV 14 Wolf, the Goat and the Kid; IV 21 Eye of the Master; V 4 Hare and His Ears; V 8 Horse and Wolf (signed "Ransonette Fils 1823"); V 15 Stag and the Vine; V 19 Lion Going to War; VI 6 Fox, the Monkey, and Other Animals; VI 10 TH; and VI 21 Young Widow. Increasingly, these tend to group a number of static animals. The lack of dynamism in TH (114) for example is disappointing. VI 15, "The Fowler, the Hawk, and the Lark," shows much more dynamism, especially in the black-ink version. Another favorite of mine is V 8, "The Horse and the Wolf." The signed Perdoux series here includes: IV 2 Shepherd and Sea, V 1 Woodman and Mercury, V 11 Fortune and the School-boy, and VI 3 SW. There are two illustrations not included in either of these series: a larger sketch (3" x 4.75") of IV 2 Shepherd and Sea by J.F. Millet (born in 1814) and a more elaborate second illustration (3.4" x 4.75") of VI 21 Young Widow ("Fr. Flameng"). Examination of this volume has helped me to formulate questions about the date and making of this work. Might the text be printed in 1806, an authentic first edition? And might the illustrations have been added later? Note the illustrations dated 1823 by Ransonette (V 8) and by Millet (IV 2), who was born in 1814.

1806 La Fontaine's Fables Now First Translated from the French By Robert Thomson With Elegant Engraved Figures, Vol. III. Illustrated by Perdoux, Leloir, and Ransonette Fils (duplicate states). Hardbound. First edition? Paris: Chenu, Libraire-Editeur. $112.50 from Michael Hackenburg, Turtle Island, Berkeley, Dec., '98.

See my comments on Volume I. Now all pages are white. Frontispiece is a rectangular portrait of La Fontaine. Books VII to IX, followed by a T of C. Here there are fourteen of the smaller duplicate illustrations: VII 1 Plague; VII 7 Lion's Court; VII 8 Vultures and the Pigeons; VII 13 Two Cocks; VII 16 Cat, the Weasel, and the Young Rabbit; VIII 3 Lion, the Wolf, and the Fox; VIII 7 Dog Carrying His Master's Dinner; VIII 12 Hog, the She-Goat, and the Sheep; VIII 15 Rat and the Elephant; VIII 22 Cat and the Rat; VIII 27 Wolf and the Hunter; IX 2 Two Doves; IX 14 Cat and the Fox; and IX 18 Kite and the Nightingale. A favorite of mine here is VII 16, "The Cat, the Weasel, and the Young Rabbit." The signed Perdoux series here includes: VII 1 Plague, VII 13 Two Cocks, VIII 26 Democritus and the Abderites, and IX 13 Jupiter and the Passenger. There are three illustrations not included in either of these series: VII 9 (3.25" x 4.75") Stage-Coach and the Fly ("John Lewis Brown" and "Henry Lefort sc.," dated 1873?); VIII 11 (3" x 4.75") Two Friends ("Henri Levy" (?) and "Laquellermie sculp."); and IX 3 (3.25" x 4.75") Monkey and the Leopard ("Ph. Rousseau" and "Edm. He'cl [?]"). Note the apparent date of 1873 on the first of this last group.

1806 La Fontaine's Fables Now First Translated from the French By Robert Thomson With Elegant Engraved Figures, Vol. IV. Illustrated by Perdoux, Leloir, and Ransonette Fils (duplicate states). Hardbound. First edition? Paris: Chenu, Libraire-Editeur. $112.50 from Michael Hackenburg, Turtle Island, Berkeley, Dec., '98.

See my comments on Volume I. All pages are white. Frontispiece is a portrait of La Fontaine without a geometric frame. Books X to XII, followed by the epilogue which La Fontaine placed at the end of VI, and a T of C for the last three books. Here there are sixteen of the smaller duplicate illustrations: X 1 Two Rats; X 3 TT; X 8 Partridge and the Cocks; X 13 Lioness and the Bear; XI 1 Lion; XI 3 Farmer, His Dog, and the Fox; XI 5 Lion, the Monkey, and the Two Asses; XI 9 Mice and the Owl; XII 4 Two Lady-Goats; XII 6 Dying Stag; XII 9 Wolf and the Fox; XII 11 Eagle and the Mag-Pye; XII 15 Crow, the Hind, the Tortoise, and the Rat; XII 18 Fox and the Turkeys; XII 21 Elephant and Jupiter's Monkey; and, facing the Epilogue on 114, an image of a cat eating one of several mice. A favorite of mine among them is XII 15, "The Crow, the Hind, the Tortoise, and the Rat." The signed Perdoux series here includes: X 10 Shepherd and the King (two illustrations on separate pages); XI 8 Old Man and the Three Youths; and XII 17 Fox, the Wolf, and the Horse. A favorite of mine among them is XI 8, "The Old Man and the Three Youths." There are three illustrations, all 3.25" x 4.75", not included in either of these series: X 5 Miser (Edward Detaille); XI 7 Danube Clown (Flameng); and XII 14 Love and Folly (Emile Lévy, Ch. Courtry sc.). The first of this last series is dated 1878.

1806 La Fontaine's Fables Now First Translated from the French By Robert Thomson With Elegant Engraved Figures. Robert Thomson. Perdoux, Leloir, and Ransonette Fils. First edition? Signed by Chenu. Hardbound. Paris: Chenu, Libraire-Editeur. £19.99 from A. Dyer, Essex, UK, through eBay, Oct., '07.

Here is a compilation of an edition of the four volumes which I had already found from Michael Hackenburg at Turtle Island. This volume not only pulls the four together into one volume. It is generally a simpler version. Perhaps it is only because the book is in rather ragged condition that I got it for a relatively low price. The spine is disconnected but still present. There is a significant tear with loss of some text on 41-42. The book is signed by the publisher on the verso of the pre-title-page. There is a T of C for each of the three-book volumes at its end. At the end of the whole book there is an AI for all twelve books. The biggest difference from the four-volume version has to do with illustrations. Only one of the sets mentioned in that edition is present here. There are no duplicate plates. There is a strong frontispiece (slightly over 3¼" x 4") signed by Perdoux: Aesop and the animals pay homage to a bust of La Fontaine. Two other signed Perdoux illustrations of the same size are inserted along the way: I 13, "Two Thieves and the Ass," and III 1, MSA. Of the same size but signed "Olimpe Neveu sculp." is II 14, Hares and Frogs. The illustrations in the second volume include: IV 2, "Shepherd and Sea"; V 1, "Woodman and Mercury" (frontispiece to the second volume); V 11, "Fortune and the School-boy"; and VI 3, SW. The illustrations in Volume 3 include: VII 1, "Plague"; VII 13, "Two Cocks"; VIII 26, "Democritus and the Abderites"; and IX 13, "Jupiter and the Passenger." In the fourth volume, we find: X 10, "Shepherd and the King" (two illustrations, the first as frontispiece to the fourth volume); XI 8, "The Old Man and the Three Youths"; and XII 17, "Fox, the Wolf, and the Horse." A favorite of mine remains XI 8, "The Old Man and the Three Youths." As in the other series, there is a life of Aesop at the beginning of Volume II, i.e., at the beginning of Book 4. As in the other set, the paper of the text pages in the first volume (Books 1-3) is consistently blue; the pages in the second volume are only sometimes blue. There is a simple, unrelated tail-piece image at the end of many fables.

1806 The Fables of Mr. John Gay, Complete in Two Parts. With Cuts by T. Bewick, of Newcastle. Hardbound. London: T. Wilson and R. Spence. $30 from Ahab Rare Books, Cambridge, MA, March, '05. 

Here is a great find discovered as I was settling up after buying another book. It is lacking the pages before the title-page and also 249-52, but the last of the illustrations is intact on 246. This book seems to be Bodemann #166.2, but it is slightly smaller. Notice that the publisher has changed its name since my 1797 edition--from "Wilson, Spence, and Mawman" to "T. Wilson and R. Spence." Now they are in London rather than in York. And has the spelling of Bewick's name lost an "e"? Let me repeat some of my comments from that 1797 copy. I thought then--and still think now--that I had found an earlier printing of the book that Bodemann's associates found only in this later printing. Bodemann's catalogue description mentions specifically the movement here to make the portion outside Bewick's ovals into fine ornaments that make the ensemble into a rectangle. This method contrasts with the simple lined rectangle that Bewick seems to have used earlier. The best and most typical of the illustrations here might be "The Goat Without a Beard" (73); "The Man, the Cat, the Dog, and the Fly" (197); and "The Ravens, Sexton, and Earthworm" (246). To that earlier list I would now add "The Monkey Who Had Seen the World" (50).

1807 Christian Felix Weisse'ns Lieder und Fabeln für Kinder und junge Leute. Christian Felix Weisse; M. Samuel Gottlob Frisch. Paperbound. Leipzig: Bey Siegfried Lebrecht Crusius. €20 from Antiquariat Müller & Gräff, Stuttgart, August, '09.

The title-page continues "Nach des Verfassers Wunsche gesammelt und herausgegeben von M. Samuel Gottlob Frisch." This fragile work with severed paper cover has five books, only the last of which includes "Fabeln." That sections runs from 173 through 239. Weisse knew Gellert and Lessing as fellow students. According to German Wikopedia, "Weiße zählt zu den bedeutenden Vertretern der Aufklärung und gilt als Begründer der deutschen Kinder- und Jugendliteratur." Among other accomplishments, he founded a magazine for children. He died in 1804. I tried several fables out. "Der Arme Schuster" (189) seems straight out of La Fontaine. "Der Affe und der Stier" (196) follows a familiar pattern: bother the mighty once or twice and you might get away lucky. Try it a third time, and you become the victim of your own stupidity! "Die Katze und die Tauben" (199) is a reworking of a familiar theme: the cat is a good friend to the birds until one day she gets to lick a bit of blood. The one copper engraving promised on the title-page seems to be missing. Most of the pages are uncut. Four pages of the beginning T of C have landed at the end of the book. 

1807 Die Fabeln des Äsopus/Fables d'Esope/Favole di Esopo/Fabulae Aesopi II.  (Sigmund Ferdinand Ritter von Perger). Hardbound.  Vienna: (Joseph Frister).  €100 from Liber Antiqua, Krems an der Donau, Austria, through zvab, March, '15.

Here is a real prize!  Two volumes each contain 45 Aesopic fables presented in the same format: a full-page (about 5" x 7½") illustration on more substantive paper and then a page each for German, French, Italian, and Latin.  The publisher is not acknowledged, but "Vienna" and "1807" are.  Bodemann #233.1 places apparently this same book at Joseph Frister as publisher in Vienna in 1818.  No artist is acknowledged in this book.  Bodemann lists von Perger as the artist for the 1818 edition.  The plates are signed by the engravers, among them Pöltzel, Gerstner, Blaschke, Benedicti, and Belling.  Metzner describes the engravings of the 1818 version this way: "naiv gezeichnete Fabelfiguren (Menschen und Tiere), volkstümliche Trachten und Requisiten sowie alpine Landschaftskulissen passen die Fabelszenen alpenländischer Kultur an."  I find them strong, particularly these: "Sick Ass and Wolves" (9); OR (29); "Eagle and Crow" (53); "Farmer and Stork" (69); "Eagle and Tortoise" (97); "Angler and Little Fish" (125); "The Child and the Thief" (129); "The Satyr and the Farmer" (145); and GGE (153).  That first fable mentioned, "Sick Ass and Wolves," is clever.  Wolves show up to ask young wolf how his sick father is doing.  His answer: "Much better than you wish."  The frontispiece shows a bust of Aesop; below it are a bust of fabula and the mirror of truth with a serpent.  See 1806 for the first volume.

1807 Fables Choisies à l'Usage des Enfants et des Personnes qui Commencent à Apprendre la Langue Françoise. L. Chambaud, A. Scot. Nouvelle Édition, revue et corrigée. Hardbound. Edimbourg: Alex Smellie; Guillaume Creech; Longman Soc.; J. Murray. £7.99 from HN Malam, Cheshire, UK, through eBay, Dec., '03.

I am cataloguing this book some seven and a half years after finding it. It is good to catch up! I think that I had originally set the book aside because I expected Chambaud's fables to be new and challenging, especially in French. What we have here is rather a schoolbook for English-speaking children to learn French using ninety-nine classic fables of Aesop and La Fontaine presented in French prose. That the preface in English does not mention La Fontaine surprises me, since especially some of the last fables are best known from their presentations by La Fontaine. There is a T of C of the fables on xxix-xxxv. Does it help to date this book that it still uses the f-like "long s"? Wikipedia indicates that The Times of London switched in 1803 and the US Congress switched in 1804. It can be hard with the title-page of a book like this to know who did what. As far as I can understand, Scot reviewed and corrected Chambaud's book. Smellie is the printer but perhaps should also be considered the publisher. Creech is probably the financial backer of the book. It was available in London at Longman and at J. Murray. I can find no notes on individual fables, but there is an extensive unpaginated dictionary that starts two pages after the fables finish on 112. A page of abbreviations fills the gap before the dictionary begins. The fables themselves are on 1-112. The front cover has separated from this unillustrated little book. 

1807 Fables de Florian.  Hardbound.  Paris: F. Louis, Libraire.  €12 from Antiquariat Kraemer & Hansen, Osnabruck, August, '18.

Here is a direct descendant of Florian's first edition in 1792.  It has been a delight to compare the two books.  This little book belongs between Bodemann #179.3 and #179.4.  Before I mention the similarities, let me note two differences.  One is that the number of fables here has been increased by ten by adding 1, 3, 2, 2, and 2 fables to the five respective books.  Secondly, after looking closely at the first two illustrations, I decided that they were done "after" the originals.  As I looked at the later illustrations, however, I began to wonder if they were from their original blocks.  There are thus five illustrations after a frontispiece portrait of Florian.  In an illustration under this oval portrait, is that a swan pulling a hare over the surface of water?  The first fable of each book is illustrated here: "La Fable et la Vérité"; "La Mere, l'Enfant et les Sarigues"; "Les Singes et le Léopard"; "Le Savant et le Fermier"; and "Le Berger et le Rossignol."  See my comments on the 1792 edition for an understanding of these five fables.  This edition includes the epilogue but not "Tobie."  There is an AI at the end.

1807 Fables of Aesop and Others. Translated into English with Instructive Applications and a Print Before Each Fable. Samuel Croxall, D.D. Illustrator not acknowledged. A New Edition, carefully revised and improved. London: H. Mozley. $132, March, '92.

See my comments on the 1804 edition by the same publisher. By contrast, this book lacks the frontispiece and any title-page vignette; further its title above CJ on 1 ("Aesop's Fables") is simpler, and the cuts are much stronger there than here. This edition has a magnificent calf cover and the standard features one can recognize from earlier Croxall editions: dedication, preface (vii-xvii), and alphabetical T of C (xviii-xxiv) at the beginning. Then some 329 pages are given to 196 fables, each with a cut and a long application. At the rear there is an index of important subjects handled in the applications. Like the other Mozley edition, this book does not number its edition but proclaims only "A New Edition, Carefully Revised and Improved."

1807? Aesop's Fables Embellished with one Hundred eleven Elegant Engravings.  (Samuel) Croxall.  Illustrations by Thomas Kirk (NA).  Hardbound.  London: C. Whittingham, Dean Street, Fetter Lane.  $23.79 from The Small Library Company, London, through ABE, Jan., '23.

This book is a surprising treasure.  I have come to believe that it is an important early publication in one of the more important branches of Croxall's many editions.  The title and publisher help, I believe, to establish its date and its rarity.  Croxall's first edition in 1722 had the title: "Fables of Aesop and Others.  Newly done into English.  With an Application to each Fable.  Illustrated with Cutts."  Those cuts were by Elisha Kirkall.  By 1778, the title had become "Fables of Aesop and Others.  Translated into English.  With Instructive Applications and a Print before each Fable."  Kirkall's "cuts" were still used but he was not acknowledged.  The two-volume Stockdale edition of 1793 bore the title: "The Fables of Aesop With a Life of the Author and Embellished with one Hundred Twelve Plates."  The artists involved here were "T. Stothard, Grainger &c."  Our title first occurs in T. Heptinstall's first edition of 1797 with illustrations by Thomas Kirk.  The present slightly larger (3¾" x 6⅜") copy has the same title but with a change of publisher to "C. Whittingham, Dean Street, Fetter Lane" and then a long list of subscribers.  Bodemann #186 has the 1797 as the first in that number's thread.  The copy she is working from is actually from 1818 and she notes "Nachdruck der Ausgabe London T. Heptinstall 1797: C. Whittingham."  I wish I were better able to construe this comment!  Still, somewhere in this early printing of the Kirk editions this little book belongs.  The British Museum locates Charles Whittingham on Dean Street from 1803 to 1807.  Many later copies add "Chiswick Press," which he used starting in 1811.  Later Croxall editions take another step: "Aesop's Fables with Upwards of One Hundred and Fifty Engravings on Wood," as in our 1828 edition by Joseph Booker et al.  The front cover of this present fragile copy is separated.

1807? Fables de La Fontaine, Tome Premier.  Avec un nouveau commentaire par Coste.  Paperbound. Paris: Belin-Le-Prieur.  £80 from Steve Entwistle, Antiquarian Books UK, Cheshire, UK, May, '18. 

We have only this first volume, as Bodemann had only the first volume.  The seller hoped for a publishing date of 1743, but that date is taken from the "Avertissement."  That is indeed when Coste published his first commentary on La Fontaine, and so the date is kept here.  This is a fragile not-even-paperbound volume that offers triptychs of illustrations.  Its title-page continues "Dédiées a la Jeunesse.  Nouvelle Édition."  I learned in researching this copy that the "Le Prieur" comes from the fact that a Belin married a Le Prieur and then styled himself with both of their family names.  This is perhaps my twelfth Belin publication.  The size of the illustrations does not allow much room for interpretation, but the artist exploits the possibilities that are there.  And so we see the cheese in mid-flight to the mouth of the fox.  And the ox looks curiously in the direction of the two frogs, one of whom is expanded beyond normal proportions.  The sixth illustration gets it right: the lion is asking the other three animals how the stag should be divided.  He knows how!  This fragile book is another happy find!

1808 Les Fables d'Ésope mises en François, Avec le sens moral en quatre vers, et les Quatrains de Benserade. Nouvelle Édition, ornée de deux cents vingt-six gravures, dédiée a la jeunesse. Aesop. Hardbound. Paris: Chez les Libraires Associés. €40.10 from Claude Mesanes, Anglars St Félix, France, through eBay, Oct., '06.

This sturdy little volume, 3½" x 5¼", has now officially lasted two hundred years. It contains 225 fables. It belongs in the family of volumes that would include Nouveau Recueil des Fables d'Esope, Mises en François from 1731 and Les Fables d'Ésope mises en Français, avec le sens moral en quatre vers, et des figures à chaque fable. Nouvelle édition, revue, corrigée et augmentée de la vie d'Ésope, avec figures, et les quatrains de Benserade, dédiée a la jeunesse (1798). The texts seem identical. Those two editions contain, respectively, 223 and 225 fables. The illustrations are different in the three editions. The leather binding and marbled covers make this an attractive little version. The illustrations, about 2½" x 1½", seem to me very simple. 91-92 are missing. T of C at the end.

1809 Fables Amusantes Avec Une Table Générale et Particulière des Mots et de leur Signification en Anglois. Par M. Perrin. Treizième Édition, Revue et Corrigée par Mr. Gros. Rebound in vellum in 1992. London: Law et Gilbert. £20 from an unknown source in England, June, '98.

This edition follows the tradition of the book published in Dublin in 1801 rather than the tradition followed in a Philadelphia edition of 1804. That is, the vocabulary for the 140 fables here is given in a section (117-219) after all the fables are finished and a short master vocabulary is offered. Pages 217-219 are misnumbered 117-119. This edition is in fact almost the same size as the Dublin edition in physical dimensions and in number of pages, but it is newly typeset. This may be the first copy of this little book that I have found with a frontispiece--or with a frontispiece intact. In it is a mother bringing her children to a teacher? By contrast with the Dublin edition, the preface here starts one paragraph not with "J'ai évité" but with "On évite." The last sentence of the preface follows rather the Philadelphia model, referring to small changes made in the morals of individual fables. There is an additional note here after the preface pointing out that, while previous editions corrected errors in the texts, this one has also cleaned up the AI of the fables, which in apparently many cases no longer corresponded well with the texts. In the story of "The Boy and the Butterfly" he is here an enfant (28). There is one page of advertisements for C. Law at the back. There is here the dedication to the Prince of Wales that is not in the American edition but is in the Dublin edition. See my comments under 1801, 1804, and 1840.

1809 Fables and Satires, With a Preface on the Esopean Fable. By Sir Brooke Boothby, Bart. Volume I. Edinburgh: Archibald Constable and Co. $75 from Jason Smith, Chicago, June, '94.

My first volumes by a baronet! Leather binding and cover-edges. Marbled covers and page edges. Excellent condition. The preface begins with a bold self-advertisement of this "attempt to present [Esopean fable] in a less ungracious form than it has hitherto assumed in English" (v). The preface goes on to cover considerable territory, including a list of the most objectionable of LaFontaine's fables (xv-xvii). What most charms Frenchmen in his work is but little felt by other nations. Gay's are the best esteemed English fables, but they are political satires rather than Esopean fables. Prose versions like those of "Lestrange" and Croxall use the language of a night-cellar! And then they offer endless applications. Dodsley avoids gross faults but is heavy and redundant. All of Boothby's fables are in verse. The preface offers a helpful breakdown of the then state of knowledge of Aesopic fable sources. It also catalogues many elements of a positive, noble life of Aesop, as opposed to Planudes' version. Phaedrus seems complete here, including five extra fables discovered by Gudius at Dijon. Avianus is represented by twenty-nine fables. Then there is a section whose make-up is hard for me to understand: translations of forty-five fables in Greek and Latin attributed to Aesop. "Gabrius" is recognized as a source but not included as a fabulist on his own. The translations of the Latin authors seem brief, sometimes (as on 139) so brief as to make it hard to find the point. Particularly good is "The Cameleon" (160), where a fourth surprise finishes the fable. "The Sick Man and the Physician" (162) becomes clearer to me here than it has ever been before. I think his rendition of "The Horse and the Wolf" (191) does not work: the thorn needs to be alleged rather than real. New to me: "The Frogs and the Tortoise" (163), "The Crow and the Wolf" (164), "The Oak and the Lilac" (169), and "The Fox and the Two Holes" (181). T of C on lvii.

1809 Fables and Satires, With a Preface on the Esopean Fable. By Sir Brooke Boothby, Bart. Volume II. Edinburgh: Archibald Constable and Co. $75 from Jason Smith, Chicago, June, '94.

There are three sections here, before four satires and notes (211) on both volumes. Beware: "Volume the Second" is placed by mistake in the midst of notes on the first volume (233). New to me in the first section, a continuation of sixty-seven Greek and Latin fables (attributed to Aesop?): XIII, XX, XXV, XXXVI, XLVII, LI, and LXI. Here dogs, not apes, have their show disrupted with food (47). Many fables here are most familiar to me from LaFontaine. A second section contains fourteen fables of LaFontaine. The third section includes sixty-one Latin, French, Italian, German, and original Boothby fables. Especially noteworthy among them are V, VI, VIII, X (a la Iriarte), XIII, XX, and XLVI. T of C on v.

1809 Fables de La Fontaine.  Avec un nouveau commentaire par Coste.  Ornée de douze Gravures.  Hardbound.  Paris: Chez Billois.  $37.29 from thatguywiththebooks, Toronto, through Ebay, Sept., '20.

There are so many editions with Coste's commentary!  By my count, this is our twenty-fourth.  This edition features twelve illustrations, one per book except Book VI, whose illustration is made up for by the frontispiece of La Fontaine.  Volume II begins on 195, and the two volumes finish with a T of C whose last page is 440.  Perhaps the best of the twelve illustrations are SS (89) and "The Drunk and His Wife" (112).  About 4" x 7".

1809 Fabulas de Mr. Florian Traducidas Libremente al Castellano por Don Gaspar Zavala y Zamora y Adornadas con 52 Estampas Finas. Hardbound. Madrid: Don Luciano Vallin. In trade with Clare Leeper, who paid $30 for it, July, '96.

The first thing one notices about this charming old book is the heavy presence of wormholes. Pages 21-28 are lost, including the five interpaginated, full-page plates that go with them. Though the fables here are divided into four books, they and their illustrations are still numbered consecutively from 1to 52. Among the best plates are "La Fabula y la Veridad" (11), "El Bailerin de Cuerda" (31), "La Gallina y el Zorro viejo" (41), "El Milano y el Pichon" (52), "El Vestido de Arlequin" (53) "El Perro danés, el Zorro y la Ardilla" (59), "El Gato y el Espejo" (77), and "El Muchacho y el Espejo" (100). There is a T of C at the back. The signature beginning at 37 has separated from the binding. What a beautiful little book! These worms had taste.

1810 Apologen und Paramythien.  F(riedrich) A(dolf) Krummacher.  Hardbound.  Duisburg und Essen: Bädeker und Kürzel, Universitätsbuchhandlung.  €63 from Erlesenes, Vienna, July, '19.

This little (4" x 6½") book was first published a year before, according to Wikipedia.  I would not be surprised if this is in fact a first printing.  A 24-page "Vorbericht" begins by explaining the title.  There follows a T of C and 106 numbered texts on 247 pages.  As far as I could notice, they are all verse texts.  This book is different from Krummacher's three volumes of Parables (1805-1817).  I tried the first four here.  The lark after a horrendous storm answers the complaining mole that song and flight are two of nature's answers to troubles.  "See, a first ray of sun is peeking through."  I suspect these fables (Krummacher seems to identify apologue and fable) are similarly positive and similarly predictable.  The tulip criticizes the lily, who answers that both work together to create pleasures.  The young eagle king declares that all birds should sing the same.  A blackbird explains that he does that mostly because he cannot sing!  The traveler from the desert rejoices to find water but criticizes the spring when the water turns out to come from salt deposits.  The local nymph answers that he should curse his discontent, not the spring.  The book is in good condition.

1810 Fables de Florian: Edition ornée de Figures. Hardbound. Paris: Chez Billois Libraire. £ 28.98 from Wyseby House Books, Berkshire, England, through eBay, Jan., '07.

The eBay description mentions the "rather splendid engraved plates." I find fully accurate that description of the the title-page design and the five full-page plates. The former is "Fable and Truth." The latter include "Les deux Voyageurs" (41); "La Mere, l'Enfant et les Sarigues" (66); "Les Singes et le Léopard" (104); "Le Savant et le Fermier" (140); and "Le Berger et le Rossignol" (175). The images on 41 and 175 are particularly effective. In the former, Thomas the traveller pocketed a found purse and is now apprehended. In the latter, the shepherd pleads with the nightingale to sing on; he pays no attention to the frogs that threaten to drown out the bird's song. Is that fable on 66-69 about a kangaroo mother's pouch for her young? The key word here is "sarigue." The line under the illustration for "Les Singes et le Léopard" makes the point that it is better not to have the noble play with the commoners, since "hid beneath the softest paws are very sharp claws." 3½" x 5¾". 212 pages. AI at the back. Not in Bodemann.

1810 Fables de La Fontaine avec Les Commentaires de Coste, Vol. I. Ornée de 25 figures. Hardbound. Paris: Chez Billois, Libraire, quai des Augustins. $11.65 from Edward Bowditch, Exeter, UK, through EBay, Oct., '03.

This lovely little pair of volumes seems to be a reprinting of Bodemann #135.11, published in 1802. They are small in size, 3½" x 5½". The illustrations seem to be done after Oudry, though, as the Bodemann comment indicates, decorative elements seem to be left out. A good sampling of the illustrations here might include "Le Corbeau voulant imiter l'Aigle" (98); "Le Cheval et le Loup" (175), one of the most vigorous of these cartoons; and "Le Villageois et le Serpent" (202), where the chopped serpent's front half seems to be suspended in mid air! These volumes formerly belonged to the Kensington Public Libraries. The covers are separating, and the spine-covers have all but disappeared.

1810 Fables de La Fontaine avec Les Commentaires de Coste, Vol. II. Ornée de 25 figures. Hardbound. Paris: Chez Billois, Libraire, quai des Augustins. $11.65 from Edward Bowditch, Exeter, UK, through EBay, Oct., '03.

This lovely little pair of volumes seems to be a reprinting of Bodemann #135.11, published in 1802. They are small in size, 3½" x 5½". The illustrations seem to be done after Oudry, though, as the Bodemann comment indicates, decorative elements seem to be left out. A good sampling of the illustrations here might include MM (22) and "L'Ours et l'Amateur des Jardins" (54). Accurate depiction of animals is not one of the strengths of this visual artist! These volumes formerly belonged to the Kensington Public Libraries. The covers are separating, and the spine-covers have all but disappeared.

1810 Fables de La Fontaine avec Les Commentaires de Coste, Tome Second. Pierre Coste. Illustrations by Luis Choquet, François Huot. Hardbound. Paris: Chez Billois. £12.50 from ja123thomas through eBay, March, '12.

Here is a second copy of a book already in the collection which belonged formerly to the Kensington Public Library. This copy has superior leather covers and binding but lacks two of the engravings found in the other copy. The two volume work -- this Volume 2 lacks its Volume 1 mate -- seems to be a reprinting of Bodemann #135.11, published in 1802. The volumes are small in size, 3½" x 5½". The missing illustrations are MM (22) and "The Farmer, the Dog, and the Fox" (156). In fact 155 through 158 are missing. As Bodemann suggests, the illustrations here tend to reduce the detail of Oudry's backgrounds. The engravings are at 31, 54, 68, 94, 108, 125, 146, 203, 214, and 246. "The Bear and the Gardener" at 54 is a delight! Accurate depiction of animals is not one of the strengths of this visual artist! Fair to good condition. Because this book's condition is better than the Kensington copy but has its own deficiencies, I will keep both in the collection. 

1810 Fables de La Fontaine avec Les Commentaires de Coste, Vol. I.  Ornée de 25 figures.  Nouvelle Édition.  Hardbound.  Paris: Chez Billois, Libraire, quai des Augustins.  £15 from S. Entwistle, Whitegate, Cheshire, UK, through eBay, Oct., '14.  

I have a copy of this pair of lovely little volumes and even a second copy of the second volume, but all three are in poor condition.  Now I have been lucky enough to find a pair in good condition and apparently complete, including, for example, the MM frontispiece to the second volume.  The frontispiece here is DW.  As I wrote earlier, this lovely little pair of volumes seems to be a reprinting of Bodemann #135.11, published in 1802.  They are small in size, 3½" x 5½".  The illustrations seem to be done after Oudry, though, as the Bodemann comment indicates, decorative elements seem to be left out.  A good sampling of the illustrations here might include "Le Corbeau voulant imiter l'Aigle" (98); "Le Cheval et le Loup" (175), one of the most vigorous of these cartoons; and "Le Villageois et le Serpent" (202), where the chopped serpent's front half seems to be suspended in mid air!

1810 Fables de La Fontaine avec Les Commentaires de Coste, Tome Second.  Ornée de 25 figures.  Nouvelle Édition.  Hardbound.  Paris: Chez Billois, Libraire, quai des Augustins.  £15 from S. Entwistle, Whitegate, Cheshire, UK, through eBay, Oct., '14.  

I have two copies of this lovely little volume, but they are in poor condition.  Now I have been lucky enough to find this two-volume work in good condition and apparently complete, including, for example, the MM frontispiece to this second volume.  The volumes are small in size, 3½" x 5½".  As Bodemann suggests, the illustrations here tend to reduce the detail of Oudry's backgrounds.  The other engravings are at 31, 54, 68, 94, 108, 125, 146, 156, 203, 214, and 246.  "The Bear and the Gardener" at 54 is a delight!  Accurate depiction of animals is not one of the strengths of this visual artist!  As I wrote earlier, this lovely little pair of volumes seems to be a reprinting of Bodemann #135.11, published in 1802.

1810 Fabulae Aesopi Selectae, or Select Fables of Aesop. By H. Clarke. Hardbound. Philadelphia: Printed (by M. Carey?) for Bennett and Walton, C. and A. Conrad and Co, et al. $25 from Clare Leeper, July, '96.

The sub-title here is worth noticing: "With an English Translation, more Literal than any yet extant, Designed for the Readier Instruction of Beginners in the Latin Tongue." Compare this edition with my 1802 Philadelphia edition. Changes include the printer (now Lydia Bailey); the subscribers (I find only the names Conrad and Carey recurring); and the typesetting of the title-page. In fact, the whole book seems newly typeset, as is suggested by the capital letters no longer used on the first two-column page. We still have 202 fables. The last pages are advertisements for (other?) books published by M. Carey; there had been no such advertisements at the end of the 1802 edition. This book is inscribed in 1818 on the title-page, the outer corner of which is torn away. The binding is deteriorating. See my comments on the 1802 Philadelphia edition and on the 1784 London and 1787 Boston editions before it.

1810 Fabulae Aesopicae quales ante Planudem ferebantur. Francisco de Furia. Leipzig: Jo. Aug. Gottl. Weigel. $67 from William Hale, Aug., '91.

My favorite private collector reports that this edition, more complete than any that had preceded it, was first published in Florence in 1809. 423 fables in Greek. Latin notes. Indices of authors who mention Aesop, of authors who cite fables, of subjects mentioned, and of fables, respectively. Greek dictionary. The frontispiece engraving shows a woman holding a mirror seated on a sphinx, a child holding a mask, and a fox with a mask. Very good condition.

1810 Fabulae Aesopicae quales ante Planudem ferebantur. Cura ac studio Francisci de Furia. Hardbound. Leipzig: J. Aug. Gottl. Weigel. $149.50 from Ideal Book Store, NY, April, '97.

I had thought that this large book was a second copy of another, also listed under "1810," which I had found at William Hale's in 1991. It turns out on closer examination to be indeed a much fuller book. This book brings two things that are not in the other volume. I find only the second signaled on the title-page, when it expands the phrase "Notis Exornatae" to "Latina Versione Notisque Exornatae." The first discrepancy comes after XL when this volume goes on through another 210 pages of Roman numerals before beginning "Aisopou Mythoi" on 1. Included in this intervening material are: "Ioa. Albert Fabricius De Aesopo et aliis Fabularum Scriptoribus" (XLI-CXXXVI); "Rich. Bentleii Dissertatio de Fabulis Aesopi" (CXXXVII-CLII); "Thomae Tyrwhitt Dissertatio de Babrio" (CLIII-CCIII); and "Immanuel. G. Huschkii Dissertatio de Fabulis Archilochi" (CCIV-CCL). After the "Aesopou Mythoi" section of 423 Greek texts, "Fabulae Aesopicae" follows here but not there. This section, with its own pagination from 1 to 180, seems to be a straight Latin translation of the Greek fables in the "Aisopou Mythoi" section above. At that point the volumes join again (both starting with fresh pagination 1-98) for "Notae ad Fabulas Aesopicas," a commentary on the Greek fables. Then, as I note in my comments on the other volume, there are indices of authors who mention Aesop, of authors who cite fables, of subjects mentioned, and of fables, respectively. There is a Greek dictionary. After "Corrigenda et addenda," there are advertisements. The frontispiece engraving shows a woman holding a mirror seated on a sphinx, a child holding a mask, and a fox with a mask. The covers are bowed, but the interior is in good condition.

1810 Le Fablier du Premier Age ou Choix de Fables a la Portée des Enfans. Orné d'une Gravure pour chaque Fable. Troisième édition. Hardbound. Paris: Le Prieur. NLG85 from Straat Antiquaren, Amsterdam, Jan., '98.

Bodemann #202.1, though her date for the third edition is 1807. This book is in fair condition. There are sixty fables on 207 pages in this little (4" x 6½") book. Besides the frontispiece of a mother with a mask in her hand and a child in her lap, there are fifteen plates, each with four illustrations. There is a T of C at the back. The first edition was in 1805. The title-page continues with this description: "Avec des explications morales et des notes tirées de l'Histoire, de la Mythologie et de l'Histoire naturelle." Fables are selected from a variety of writers; the writer's identity is stated after each fable and before the "Explication." The explanation sometimes grows considerably longer than the fable. Even the fables themselves surprise me by their length. This work is the first of a pair. See my comments on Le Fablier du Second Age, destined for older children, from the same year and publisher. Many of the fabulists represented here are writers I do not know well. The preface admits that many of them are unknown and addresses briefly the question why La Fontaine does not appear here. Part at least of the answer is that he seems appropriate for young people (as opposed to children?). The argument is muddled by a first statement that everything is so perfect in La Fontaine that there is no chance to make a choice among the fables. The subject of many fables here is human beings rather than animals. The illustrations thus may fail to engage or charm as much as fable illustrations typically do. There is at least some drama in the illustration for "Les Deux Bateliers" (98): a young boater does not follow the prudent advice of his veteran comrade and capsizes. For me it is fun to see the ass play the flute on 197.

1810 Le Fablier du Second Age ou Choix de Fables a la Portée des Adolescens. Orné d'une Gravure pour chaque Fable. Quatrième édition. Hardbound. Paris: Le Prieur. CHF 71 from Comenius Antiquariat, Bern, Switzerland, March, '98.

Bodemann #202.3. Good condition. There are sixty-two fables on 210 pages in this little (4" x 6½") book. Besides the frontispiece of Fable and Truth, matching the first fable by Florian, there are fifteen plates, each with four illustrations. The third-to-last fable, "The Dervish," has two illustrations, and the last two fables have none. There is a T of C at the back. The first edition was in 1805, and the second in 1809. The title-page continues with this description: "Avec des explications morales et des notes tirées de l'Histoire, de la Mythologie et de l'Histoire naturelle." Fables are selected from a variety of writers; the writer's identity is stated after each fable and before the "Explication." The explanation sometimes grows considerably longer than the fable. The preface says that there is more accent here on literary quality than in the parallel book for younger people, "Le Fablier du Premier Age." As Comenius' note expresses, the little illustrations are lovely. Some of the best for me are, not surprisingly, those I recognize from Florian: "Le Danseur de Corde et le Balancier" (52); "La Carpe et les Carpillons" and "Un vieux Arbre et le Jardinier" (74); and "L'Enfant et les Noisettes" (99). All four images facing 144 are arresting. The visual treatment of some animals like elephants and zebras is wild! Florian seems to have the largest selection here, followed by de la Motte and Blanchard. I am delighted to see Desbillons included in Fable XXI. A young monkey complains that her mother recommended nuts, but this nut surrounded in green is nothing! An older monkey breaks open the rejected nut and eats it. One has to work to get pleasure!

1810? Auswahl von Fabeln für die Jugend. Fables choisies à l'usage des enfans.  Illustratd by Christian Gottfried.Morasch.  Hardbound.  Leipzig: Loo Verlag.  €37 from Antiquariat Nosbuesch und Stucke, Euskirchen, Germany, through ZVAB, Jan., '23.. 

Here is a curious little book.  It contains some 31 short prose chapters, many in the original presentation of German on the left-hand page and French on the right.  For some 15 of these chapters, there is an exquisite hand-worked full-page copperplate illustration.  Perhaps two of the best of these are facing 16 and 88.  The painting work is exquisite!  The seller wondered whether the original total of illustrations was 17.  The fables are not particularly from Aesop or La Fontaine.  The fable at 16 is OR, presented much as a student of Aesop or La Fontaine would present it.  This is one of the books whose art I would love to keep coming back to.  Unfortunately the title-page is missing.  The seller was confident in establishing the author and publisher of the book.  4¼" x 5⅜".

1810? Fables d'Ésope, Représentées en Figures avec les explications et les principaux traits de sa vie. Premiere et Deuxieme Parties. Hardbound. Paris: Chez Tardieu Denesle Libraire. €350 from Ferrando-Tello, Quai de la Mégisserie, Paris, Dec., '04. 

The title-page includes "Collection de 145 gravures piquantes et d'apologues ingénieux. Pour servir a l'Education des Enfans des deux Sexes." Bodemann #187.5. It seems that there are not 145 illustrations but rather 128. There are two frontispieces, one for each part. There are also nineteen illustrations to scenes in the life of Aesop. And there are one-hundred-and-seven fables, each with a single illustration. Perhaps the confusion arose because there are 145 pages here. "Bearbeitungen nach Barlow" is an accurate observation. Barlow's work appeared in 1666. Comparison with Barlow shows the sometimes extensive changes that have been made. Some of this volume's faces take on a simpler present-day look not like that of Barlow's faces. Examples are the face of Aesop himself in Illustrations V and XI for the life of Aesop. Contrast, in Fable XXIV, the face of the father, who closely resembles the dramatic father in Barlow, with the faces of the children, which are slightly comical. (For comparison, see Hodnett's Francis Barlow, p. 193.) For a final example, note the face of the servant not wielding the axe in Fable LV: she looks like someone from a Salvadoran plaque.. Some illustrations, like those for Fables I and XVII, seem to change only details from Barlow; in the former, for example, all people and animals are removed from the windows and doors. My prize among the illustrations goes to Fable VIII, which shows the hanged wolf in a sheepskin. All of Barlow's drama comes along with this illustration! Similarly, the dynamism of Barlow's work is still evident in WC (Fable XXXVII). DS (Fable XLVIII) is also well done, as is Fable LVII, "The Fox and the Eagle." Fable LXIV, "The Stag Pursued by Hunters," also retains a great deal of dynamism. It is easy to see and feel the imprint that the printing press made on each of the pages here. Only the right-hand pages are printed.

1810? The Fables of Aesop With a Life of the Author and Embellished with one Hundred Twelve Plates, Vol. I. Samuel Croxall, not acknowledged. Hardbound. London: John Stockdale. See 1793/1810?.

1810? The Fables of Aesop With a Life of the Author and Embellished with one Hundred Twelve Plates, Vol. II. Samuel Croxall, not acknowledged. Hardbound. London: John Stockdale. See 1793/1810?.

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1811 - 1815

1811 A New Work of Animals Principally Designed from the Fables of Aesop, Gay, and Phaedrus. Containing One Hundred Plates Drawn from the Life and Etched by Samuel Howitt. Hardbound. London: Edward Orme. $350 from Tamerlane Books, Havertown, PA, through Bibliocity, June, '99.

One of the finer books that I have found. There is a curious ambivalence in the titling of this book. It is really a book of fifty-six fables with forty-four supplementary full-page illustrations of animals not engaged in the specific scenes of fables, especially of individual animal heads. There seem to be ninety-nine plates here, even though the title-page claims one hundred. Sorry, but I cannot locate which is the lost sheep in this pictorial flock! Tamerlane's note mentions that this edition often has only ninety-seven illustrations. (My favorite private collector owns a version with fifty-six plates; my presumption is that his lacks the supplementary plates.) The text of the first forty-one fables is very heavily, but apparently not exclusively, from Croxall's 1722 version, though it includes typically only the first paragraph or two of his longer applications. The last fifteen fables are in verse and come, at least some of them, from Gay. The list of plates at the end can be used as a T of C; it indicates first the plates of fables and then the supplementary illustrations. The fable illustrations are good. I have seldom seen an illustration so explicitly showing the beaver ready to bite off his testes--though of course Croxall's text will refer only to "a certain part about him which is good in physic" (59). Other good illustrations include "The Sow and the Wolf" (14) and TB (76). It is a pleasure to see an artist who knows how to picture lions! This book is beautifully bound in half blue morocco with marbled boards.

1811 Fables de Gay, Traduites en Vers Français. Translator: Joly de Sacy. Avec Gravures. Hardbound. Paris: Chez Ancelle, Libraire. $30 from an unknown source, August, '10.

Here is a wonderful little find! Bodemann lists this edition as #11.12. All fifty of Gay's first edition of fables are here, concluding with "Le Lièvre qui a beaucoup d'amis." Seven of the fables have strong landscape oval illustrations by Adam after the illustrations that had appeared in the 1793 Stockdale edition of Gay. Those that appear here are "Le Berger et le Philosophe"; "L'Epagneul et le Caméléon"; "Le Singe qui a vu le monde"; "Le Bouc sans Barbe" (my favorite here!); "Le Renard mourant"; "La Fermiere et la Corneille"; and "Le Conseil des Chevaux." Each is marked with a page number to help the bookbinder. There is also a frontispiece of "Jean Gay." There is a T of C on 183-4. 

1811 Fables de La Fontaine, Vol. I, avec de nouvelles gravures executées en relief. Engravings by Duplat after Oudry. Hardbound. First edition. Paris: Ant. Aug. Renouard. $35.63 from Brattle Book Shop, Boston, Nov., '97.

This pair of volumes represents quite a little find. As I learned from a David O'Neal offering of the books, this edition represented a first in printing history. Duplat's experiment in relief engraving in stone combined "relief etching and engraving with a tool but the actual printing was done from a stereotype made from the stone." The opening avertissement promises other volumes done similarly, but apparently they never appeared. The same statement is firm in saying that the price will not go over 7.5 Francs for the pair of volumes (double that on better paper)! It says that there are 266 engravings. Bodemann (#212.1) finds 269 engravings, eight of them in the "Life of Aesop," and notes that some of the engravings were done by Moreau le jeune. Those for VII 10 and XI 2 are done "after" Moreau's work. Is not the attempt to illustrate "Boys in Baskets" (100) almost unique? I find that the very small format (6x4 cm) of the illustrations restrains their power. It is hard to understand what is going on in TMCM (18) even though the scene tries to depict a good deal. Among the better illustrations may be 2W (33), since it expresses action and emotion and manages to include the major elements of the fable, including a mirror. FM (144) is dramatic, and "The Horse Wanting to Avenge Itself Against the Stag" (150) is highly energetic. Over the sick lion's cave "Passe-port" is written as though on a sign (230). As Bodemann notes, some fables (like FS, 35) get two illustrations. MSA (85) gets five. She also points out that this is the first La Fontaine edition to illustrate the life of Aesop.

1811 Fables de La Fontaine, Vol. II, avec de nouvelles gravures executées en relief. Engravings by Duplat after Oudry. Hardbound. First edition. Paris: Ant. Aug. Renouard. $35.63 from Brattle Book Shop, Boston, Nov., '97.

See my comments on Vol. I. Enjoy the father's frustration in the background as his daughter rejects yet another suitor (14). MM (25) is dramatic; Bodemann notes that it was done after a work by Moreau. "The Oyster and the Litigants" (137) takes a dramatic early moment in the fable usually not pictured. The "lion" on 209 seems nothing other than a giant household cat! "The Old Man and the Three Young Men" is set in a graveyard, not the usual garden (231). There is good action pictured in "The Fox, the Wolf, and the Horse" (286). AI at the back.

1811 Fables de M.A.F. Le Bailly suivies du Choix d'Alcide, Apologue Grec. A(ntoine) F(rançois) Le Bailly. Various artists. Hardbound. Paris: Joseph Chaumerot, Baptiste Chaumerot, Libraires. £22 from Abbey Antiquarian, Blockley, UK, Nov., '06.

Bodemann #213.1 describes the book well. Xiv and 248 pages. Eighty fables divided into four books, with notes at the end of each book. There is an ornate frontispiece as well as an engraving of a pelican feeding her young on the title-page. Of the eight illustrations, three seem to be missing. Those I can find here are on 3, 63, 107, 138, and 158. One is clearly lost facing 88. Shapiro in The Fabulists French mentions Le Bailly as one of the fabulists he chooses not to include (xiv). I tried a couple of short fables. The willow asks the bramble what advantage she believes she will gain from hanging on to people. "None. I just want to tear them" (8). An ass challenges a horse to a race and loses terribly. "A thorn wounded me during the run; that caused my loss." Amour-propre always finds an excuse (77). After a brutal war, the animals have declared peace. The wolf urges the hedgehog to get rid of his quills. "Sure, when you get rid of your teeth" (96). 

1811 Select Fables in Prose and Verse. First edition? Pamphlet. NY: Samuel Wood. $106 from Second Story Books, Georgetown, July, '96.

Someone has written "First edition" on the first page of this small (3½" x 5¼") pamphlet. It contains thirteen fables in its fifty pages. In the title-page's illustration, Aesop holds up a mirror that shines back on human beings. Moore is quoted, including these lines: "With friendly hand I hold the glass,/To all promiscuous as they pass:/If the fantastic form offend,/I made it not but would amend…." Two of the three prose texts ("The Shepherd Turned Merchant" and SW) are from Croxall. Most fables here are well-known in the tradition. Those less known include "The Young Lady and Looking Glass" (15), "The Nightingale and Glow-Worm" (29), "The Boy and Rainbow" (39), and "The Bee, Ant and Sparrow" (43). Every fable is adorned with a small quadrangular illustration. These have now been crudely hand-colored. "45" is misprinted as "54." The spine has been taped over. This is what I think of when I hear of a chapbook. The pamphlet is inscribed in 1811 as well as dated in that year by the publisher on the cover and title-page.

1811 Select Fables of Esop and Other Fabulists. In Three Books. By R. Dodsley. A new edition. Hardbound. Philadelphia: Printed for Mathew Carey. $65 from IIIdk2 through eBay, Sept., '11.

This is a bare-bones American publication of Dodsley's three books of fables. That is, there are no introductory chapters or final tables or appendices. The paper is quite fragile. The illustrations, one to a fable, are uniform in size and all framed by some printer's design. Many of them here are quite indistinct; they may have been that way from the beginning. This edition of Dodsley might best be compared with the American edition of the Crukshanks in 1798. One should also compare with the British editions of "1780?" and 1812, which follow the same pattern of small quadriform single illustrations for each fable. Dodsley's original with its pages of several medallions was in 1761. I also have a Dublin edition of 1763. We may end up with quite an array of Dodsley editions from the British "colonies"! Did Carey's firm go on under partnership with others in the coming generations?

1812 Aesopi Fabulae. Notes. "For the use of youth at the Royal Eton School." No editor acknowledged. Boston: Cummings and Hilliard. Now a second, superior, copy for $20 at Depoe Bay's Channel Book Shop in Aug., '87. Identical with the first except for the color, placement, and printing of the label (Greek Fables) on each.

AI on v. 164 fables in Greek, with Latin notes. No illustrations. Compare how two books have weathered 175 years!

1812 Fables de Florian.  Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian.  Hardbound.  Paris: Antoine Auguste Renouard.  $40 from James Tschaikowsky, North Chittenden, VT, through eBay, Nov., '13.  

Finding another Renouard Florian published in 1812 has helped me to go back and see that this copy actually represents Bodemann #217.1, with its frontispiece of five cameo illustrations and its six illustrations among the fables.  The cameo at the lower left of the frontispiece group is "Truth and Fable."  The full-page lithographs for the fables are unusually precise and detailed.  They include "The Blind and the Lame" (60); "The Child, the Mother, and the Opossums" (65); "The Dervish, the Crow, and the Falcon" (115); "The Owl, the Cat, the Goose, and the Rat" (124, sometimes known apparently as "The Collegians"); "The Trial of the Two Foxes" (171); and "The Guilty Dog" (194).  There is an AI at the rear.

1812 Fables de Florian.  Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian.  Hardbound.  Paris: Antoine Auguste Renouard.  €12 from Antiquariat Kraemer & Hansen, Osnabrück, Germany, April, '19. 

Here is a hardbound copy in better condition than a board-bound book already in the collection.  One has to be careful with this particular book because Renouard published two different editions of Florian in 1812.  This copy, like that board-bound copy, represents Bodemann #217.1, with its frontispiece of five cameo illustrations and its six illustrations among the fables.  Unhappily, this copy lacks the final illustration, "The Guilty Dog" (194).  The cameo at the lower left of the frontispiece group is "Truth and Fable."  The full-page lithographs for the fables are unusually precise and detailed and better preserved here than in that other copy.  They include "The Blind and the Lame" (60); "The Child, the Mother, and the Opossums" (65); "The Dervish, the Crow, and the Falcon" (115); "The Owl, the Cat, the Goose, and the Rat" (124, sometimes known apparently as "The Collegians"); and "The Trial of the Two Foxes" (171).  There is an AI at the rear.

1812 Fables de Florian.  Hardbound.  Paris: Antoine Auguste Renouard.  $14.21 from Richard Sharp Books, Kent, UK, through eBay, April, '18. 

Here is a curiosity.  As Bodemann points out,  Renouard published two distinct editions of Florian in the year 1812.  Five years ago I obtained a book that I incorrectly saw as an exemplar of Bodemann #218.1.  I see now that that copy was Bodemann #217, while this is #218.  As the seller says, it is in "challenged condition."  That is, it is falling apart.  This is the edition with 110 lithographs to match Florian's 110 fables.  It has some 246 pages, whereas the other had 226.  A good contrast of the two books' approaches to illustration comes with II 1, "The Mother, the Child, and the Opossums."  I find these illustrations, uniform in size, strong and dramatic.  They did not suffer, as did those in the other edition, from overprinting!  If there was a frontispiece here, it is long gone.  This book is a bargain!

1812 Fables de Florian.  Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian.  Hardbound.  Paris: Antoine Auguste Renouard.  $54.59 from Resource Books, East Granby, CT, through Biblio, Feb., '19.

Here is the better of two better copies of a book already brought into the collection a year earlier from Richard Sharp Books, Kent, UK, through eBay.  Both of these copies were printed by the printer listed by Bodemann for #218.1, L.E. Herhan, not Mame as was that copy found earlier.  As I noted then, Renouard published two distinct editions of Florian in the year 1812.  This is the edition with 110 lithographs to match Florian's 110 fables.  It has some 246 pages, whereas the other had 226.  A good contrast of the two books' approaches to illustration comes with II 1, "The Mother, the Child, and the Opossums."  I find these illustrations, uniform in size, strong and dramatic.  They did not suffer, as did those in the other edition, from overprinting!  Neither of these copies has a frontispiece.  I wonder if Bodemann #218.1 is accurate in that regard.  This copy was sold by Berard and Mondon in New York.  It has a black leather background behind the title on its spine.  It is unusual to find two almost identical books at the same dealer at the same time.

1812 Fables de Florian.  Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian.  Hardbound.  Paris: Antoine Auguste Renouard.  $33.59 from Resource Books, East Granby, CT, through Biblio, Feb., '19.

Here is the poorer of two better copies of a book already brought into the collection a year earlier from Richard Sharp Books, Kent, UK, through eBay.  Both of these copies were printed by the printer listed by Bodemann for #218.1, L.E. Herhan, not Mame as was that copy found earlier.  As I noted then, Renouard published two distinct editions of Florian in the year 1812.  This is the edition with 110 lithographs to match Florian's 110 fables.  It has some 246 pages, whereas the other had 226.  A good contrast of the two books' approaches to illustration comes with II 1, "The Mother, the Child, and the Opossums."  I find these illustrations, uniform in size, strong and dramatic.  They did not suffer, as did those in the other edition, from overprinting!  Neither of these copies has a frontispiece.  I wonder if Bodemann #218.1 is accurate in that regard.  This copy was sold by Lockwood's School Book Depository in New York.  It has a red leather background behind the title on its spine.  It is unusual to find two almost identical books at the same dealer at the same time.

1812 Select Fables of Esop and Other Fabulists in Three Books. R(obert) Dodsley. J. Gilbert. Hardbound. London: F.C. & J. Rivington; Wilkie & Robinson; et al. £22 from Ian Kraunsoe, Chichester, West Sussex, through eBay, April, '08.

This little book with a deteriorating calf spine and a separated calf front cover fits nicely among the Dodsley editions I already have. It seems that the earliest editions from the first in 1761 up to about 1777 favored small illustrations in groups of twelve medallions on a single page. The edition I have dated to "1780?" seems to have broken this tradition. It presents one hundred-fifty-nine individual woodcuts, about a third of a page in size, each with its own fable. The first of them in that book is signed "J. Gilbert del. et sculp: 1777." Bodemann notes this signature in #190.3, dated to 1805 and published in London by G. & J. Robinson. That seems to be her only mention of J. Gilbert. One may be able to recognize these illustrations by the printer's decorations around the upper half of the rectangular images, which measure just less than 2" x 2½". Those are in fact the same illustrations in this volume. Note that there is a Robinson among the "publishers," i.e., financial backers, here. In the time between the two editions, the "s" has taken on its contemporary shape. I read in Wikipedia that the "long s" died out by the beginning of the nineteenth century. In their turn, these illustrations seem to be the model for the cruder illustrations that appear in the Osborne and Mozely edition for which I have guessed a date of 1790. The text portions seem to be identical with Dodsley's 1761 first edition: the "Life of Aesop," the "Essay on Fable," and then the three books of fables, "Ancient," "Modern," and "Newly Invented." The spine reads "Esop's Fables" and "Dodsley."

1813 Aesop's Fables Embellished with One Hundred and Eleven Emblematical Devices. Text and preface by Samuel Croxall. Hardbound. Printed at the Chiswick Press by C. Whittingham. London: for J. Carpenter, J. Booker, Sharpe and Hailes, and J. Carr. In trade with Clare Leeper, who paid $60 for it, July, '96.

This is a curious find. At first it seems very similar to two smaller books, published in 1839 and 1841, with which it shares the words "emblematical devices" and a title-page illustration of a man seated in the countryside with a scroll in hand and animals nearby. And in fact all three books present Croxall's preface and 110 of his fables. What is different here? This book is slightly larger in format (4" x almost 6½"). Its illustrations are different and are generally mirror-opposites of the illustrations in those editions. It lacks the tail-pieces of the other books, and so has the smaller number of illustrations (111 with the frontispiece rather than the other books' "upward of one hundred and fifty"). It acknowledges Croxall as the author of the preface. It finishes on 266, not 228, and uses larger typeface. As in the other editions, it seems that the first paragraph of Croxall's "Application" is taken in each case. T of C at the front. At the back there are advertisements for (other) books published by J. Carpenter, J. Booker, and J. Carr. It has gilt-stamped leather. Its spine is chipped and cracked. See my comments on the 1839 edition.

1813 Collectanea Graeca Minora. Ad Usum Tironum. Accomodata cum notis philologicis. Accedunt parvum lexicon et index rerum. Andrew Dalzel. Editio tertia Americana. Cambridge, New England: E typis Universitatis. See 1791/1813.

1813 Fables de La Fontaine. Hardbound.  Paris: A. Belin.  €22 from Sender, Pevensey Bay, UK, April, '15.

This book brings several surprises.  First, I had just catalogued, perhaps a week ago, a second half of an 1813 La Fontaine published by Belin, and had wished for a chance to find the first half.  I am making my way through boxes of books set aside months and years ago, with many a surprise as I get back to them.  Here of all things is a full volume of La Fontaine from 1813 published by Belin.  I thought that my ship had come in!  The next surprise was of a more negative sort.  As I looked through the book, I noticed that, though this book has larger margins, the text portion of the pages was indeed identical, but that the illustrations were far from identical.  They are in fact of different subjects and in a different format.  Those illustrations had signatures by Charles Chasselat and Robert DeLauney.  These have no signatures.  To further complicate things, these illustrations have a fable number and title beneath each and the book of La Fontaine's fables in which it occurs at the upper left.  All fit perfectly, but the page number indicated in the upper right does not fit for any.  I noted as I researched that edition that Bodemann describes an edition of 1812 by Corbet and Hadamard.  Their description seems to fit this volume, especially the note that the page number at the top does not fit.  There is confusion, I believe, in that remark, for it seems to say of the 1812 edition that its pagination fits not this but the 1812 edition.  At any rate the frontispiece illustration given there is not here.  The Bodemann description mentions twelve illustrations.  I can find ten here.  There is an AI on 389-402.  I will carry on the hunt for the first volume and the 1812 original edition!

1813 Fables de La Fontaine: Deuxième Partie.  Ch(arles) Chasselat and Robert DeLauney.Hardbound.  Paris: A. Belin.  $40 from Coolbooks, Trenton, Ontario, Canada, through eBay, Dec., '14.

Here is a small (3½" x 5½") presentation of the second half of La Fontaine's fables including a frontispiece of MM and five other full-page illustrations.  Those illustrations include "The Complaining Pig" (200); "The Monkey and the Leopard" (233); "Two Adventurers and the Talisman" (282); "The Farmer, the Dog, and the Fox" (293); and "The Wolf and the Fox" (327).  The illustrations were done by Charles Chasselat and Robert DeLauney.  Their collaboration may provide a clue to the ancestry of this work, which is not in Bodemann.  What is in Bodemann is an edition of 1812 by Corbet and Hadamard.  Their size and description seems to fit perfectly, and there were twelve of them in the full set of La Fontaine's fables.  Here there are six in the second half.  There is an AI on 389-402.  Now to find the first volume and the 1812 original edition!

1813 Fables Par A.V. Arnault. Paperbound. Paris: Alexis Eymery. $12 from Genetparis, Paris, through eBay, Feb., '06.

This is an incomplete reprinting, one year later, of Arnault's four books of fables. From Bodemann's description, it seems identical with the original edition of 1812 done in Paris by Jh. Chaumerot-Chaumerot jeune, Gillé fils. A special feature of this book is the folded frontispiece, unfortunately incomplete here. It shows a number of animals in human clothing in a human room. They play games, woo, play an instrument, and watch others. This time I tried "Le Chien et le Chat" (9). Dog and cat are playing with each other. The dog is good natured and playful. The cat, on the contrary, seems friendly but holds something back. The fable ends with a direct statement to the cat: do not be anything at halves. I prefer a clear enemy to a friend who scratches! This copy is incomplete; it is missing pages 75-76, 81-100, 105-124, and 129-48. Still, it is a lovely old relic of what it once was!

1814 Fables de La Fontaine. Illustrations by J. Wysman. Hardbound. Paris/Amsterdam: Blanchard/Chanal. $16.05 from Kevin Tupitza, Coatesville, PA, through eBay, August, '18.

This fragile little book containing two volumes is Bodemann #223. It has a lovely frontispiece, which Bodemann reprints, of La Fontaine and Aesop writing under trees. The two authors are identified under the illustration. The title-page has a simple rendition of FC. Those two are the only illustrations in the book. The book is cracked between those two lovely illustrations and is otherwise fragile. I had no idea that I had found an item from Bodemann! Metzner's copy also had the two volumes bound in one book. Red paper covers.

1814 Fables De La Fontaine, Tome Premier.  Hardbound.  Parma: L'Imprimerie de la Veuve Bodoni.  $8 from Steve K., St. Louis Park, MN, through eBay, May, '14.

Giambattista Bodoni, creator of the typeface named after him, died in 1813.  According to Wikipedia, the various printing houses he managed produced roughly 1,200 fine editions.  This is a magnificent volume containing the first six books of La Fontaine's fables.  Apparently the full set of volumes included two.  The book is not illustrated.  This is one of the heaviest books and largest books (18½" x 12½") in the whole collection.  I am amazed to have found this book for $8.  The front cover and the first page are separated from the rest of the book.  The embossed golden symbol under a crown on the front and back covers apparently marks this as the Empress Marie Louise's copy!

1814 Fables de La Fontaine, Tome I.  Nouvelle Édition.  Illustrations by Jean-Michel Moreau le Jeune.  Hardbound.  Paris: LeFèvre Libraire.  $81 from La Librairie Antique through Ebay through Ebay, Oct., '20.

This pair of volumes is a great acquisition for the collection, but one that brings with it questions.  The seller's description includes that the frontispiece portrait of La Fontaine was engraved by Ribault after Rigault.  Leather binding.  Gilt edges.  There are six engravings by Moreau le Jeune in each volume.  Those six engravings are the source of the questions.  Bodemann #222.1 offers detailed comments on mostly different illustrations.  A penciled note at the beginning of Volume I has "Suite des Gravures d'apres Moreau – 1e Edition 1813."  I cannot find anything about a first edition in 1813.  And how are we to take "Nouvelle Edition" on the title page of this edition's Volume I?  This edition squares with Bassy #29, which was not reviewed because unavailable.  The illustrations here do square with Bassy #29b and with the 1826 edition of the same book by Nepveu and de Bure in our collection.  For the record, those illustrations in Volume I are OR; "Lion and Mosquito"; BM; "The Miser Who Lost His Treasure"; "Luck and the Child"; and "Villager and Serpent."  The illustrations are beautifully presented!  I think Moreau le Jeune's OR is magnificent!  As I wrote of the 1826 version, this OR illustration suggests two human attitudes, respectively, in its male and female figures enclosed in the angle created by the oak and the reeds.  Another strong presentation is "Villager and Serpent."

1814 Fables de La Fontaine, Tome II.  Nouvelle Édition.  Illustrations by Jean-Michel Moreau le Jeune.  Hardbound.  Paris: LeFèvre Libraire.  $81 from La Librairie Antique through Ebay through Ebay, Oct., '20.

This pair of volumes is a great acquisition for the collection, but one that brings with it questions.  Leather binding.  Gilt edges.  There are six engravings by Moreau le Jeune in each volume.  Those six engravings are the source of the questions.  Bodemann #222.1 offers detailed comments on mostly different illustrations.  A penciled note at the beginning of Volume I has "Suite des Gravures d'apres Moreau – 1e Edition 1813."  I cannot find anything about a first edition in 1813.  And how are we to take "Nouvelle Edition" on the title page of this edition's Volume I?  This edition squares with Bassy #29, which was not reviewed because unavailable.  The illustrations here do square with Bassy #29b and with the 1826 edition of the same book by Nepveu and de Bure in our collection.  For the record, those illustrations in Volume II are MM; "Cobbler and Banker"; "Two Doves"; "Shepherd and King"; "Danube Peasant"; and "Daphnis and Alcimadure."  The illustrations are beautifully presented!  The spine has deteriorated, and this book was left for too long in someone's basement!

1814 Les fables et la vie d'Esope le Phrygien. Avec le sens moral en quatre vers. Traduites du Grec, dédiées à la jeunesse.  Orné de 74 figures.  Paperbound.  Porrentruy, Switzerland: Chez les Frères Deckherr.  €59.50 from Librairie GIL-ARTGIL SARL Rodez, France, Sept.,'19.

Here is a hardy paperbound book of 144 pages, including 74 rectangular illustrations, regularly 2½" x 1½".  There are also occasional printer's designs.  Here is the bookseller's description: "In-12 broché, 144 pages. Orné de 74 figures. Bien complet du portrait imaginaire d'Esope en frontispice. Rare ouvrage imprimé par les Frères Deckherr à Porrentruy de 1812 à 1832, spécialistes de l'édition populaire. Papier un peu bruni et quelques petites rousseurs néanmoins très bon exemplaire."  A rather crude presentation of Aesop is the full-page verso of the title-page.  There is a life of Aesop occupying some 21 pages.  The first fable is CJ, as so often in medieval collections.  Two typical illustrations are DS on 27 and FS on 49.  TMCM has the classic format on 32 of someone coming through the door while the mice are on the table.  The elements of the title struck me and led me to check where else these two elements occur:  " Avec le sens moral en quatre vers" and "dédiées à la jeunesse."  A quick survey turns up a number:  LeClerrc 1731; Dugour 1798; Billois 1801; Leroy 1802; Le Prieur 1806; Libraires Associée 1808; Castiaux 1815; and Belin Le Prieur 1827.  These all seem to derive from Benserade 1678 (Bodemann #80.2): the reference to quatrains and dedication to youth seems unchanging.  Do the quatrains in fact change?  See also Bodemann #113.  A lucky find!

1815 Fables de La Fontaine.  Hardbound.  Paris: Stereotype d'Herhan: Imprimerie d' A. Egron.  €200 from Antiquariat Locker, Vienna, July, '19.

This book represented one of my two big "splurges" on this trip, and both happened in the same shop.  Not only does our collection not have this lovely book; it is llisted in neither Bodemann nor Bassy.  The illustrations include "The Forest and the Woodman" (frontispiece); "The Astrologer Who Falls into the Pit" (26); FG (50); "The Monkey and the Dolphin" (73); "The Little Fish and the Angler" (104); SW (125); MM (153); "The Bear and the Lover of Gardens" (183); "The Oyster and the Litigants" (227); "The Digger and His Partner" (255) "The Farmer, the Dog, and the Fox" (288).  These steel engravings may be the most remarkable feature of this well-preserved old book.  402 pages.  4" x 6¾".

1815 Fables de La Fontaine, Première et Seconde Partie.  Avec un noveau commentaire par M. Coste.  Nouvelle Édition.  Hardbound.  Montbéliard: Chez Deckherr Frères.  €75 from Bailly, St. Ouen, June, '19. 

Here is a curious little volume, outwardly in very poor condition.  It has an illustration, generally 2½" x 1½", for each fable.  These are simple and even primitive in their approach to each fable scene.  Some are quite indistinct.  A full-page frontispiece is perhaps even more primitive.  The very thin paper allows this volume to be quite portable.  There is a T of C at the end of each of the two volumes bound together here.  Not in Bodemann.  This copy as I purchased it had in it a doctor's school excuse from 1943.

1815 Fables Nouvelles,  Tome Premier.  (Louis-François) Jauffret.  Illustrator: Alexandre Desenne.  First Edition.  Hardbound.  Paris: Chez Maradan.  $15.50 from Harry Galanis, Boston, through eBay, March, '18.

In 2006 in Münster I found Jauffret's "Fables Nouvelles: Two Volumes," which includes some 442 fables in fifteen books.  I mentioned there an earlier edition of 1814 or 1815 that was published by Maradan and printed by Didot l'ainé and contained only ten books.  Here it is, in two volumes!  This edition has, as Bodemann points out, six illustrations, three per volume.  Those illustrations appear here at 37 ("The Child and the Ray of Light"); 87 ("The Man and the Apes"); and 172 (""The Moor and His Two Sons").  Jauffret's very first fable presents a crow who would love to turn white and sing like the swan.  He tries plunging into water.  No luck!  Let us yield to who we are.  Art can sometimes correct nature but never change it.  Five books per volume.  The covers are either detached or very loose.  My, what one finds – and for what prices! – on eBay!  4" x 6¾".

1815 Fables Nouvelles,  Tome Second.  (Louis-François) Jauffret.  Illustrator: Alexandre Desenne.  First Edition.  Hardbound.  Paris: Chez Maradan.  $15.50 from Harry Galanis, Boston, through eBay, March, '18.

In 2006 in Münster I found Jauffret's "Fables Nouvelles: Two Volumes," which includes some 442 fables in fifteen books.  I mentioned there an earlier edition of 1814 or 1815 that was published by Maradan and printed by Didot l'ainé and contained only ten books.  Here it is, in two volumes!  This edition has, as Bodemann points out, six illustrations, three per volume.  Those illustrations appear here at 1 ("The Lion and the Man"); 85 ("The Preacher and the Statues"); and 162 ("The Two Cobblers").  This volume does not have a complete title-page, though it does have the pre-title-page, "Fables Nouvelles, Tome Second."  Five books per volume.  The covers are either detached or very loose.  My, what one finds – and for what prices! – on eBay!  4" x 6¾".  Alphabetical index of titles at the back.

1815/24 Liber Primus. Or A First Book of Latin Exercises. Joseph Dana. Boston: Charles Ewer. $11 at Scavengers of Georgetown, Aug., '91.

A real primer. First points of grammar are illustrated through sample sentences. Then come stories from sacred history, epigrams on various topics (especially virtues and vices), and finally thirty-eight fables (99-109). These are brief, but their grammar is not simple! A long dictionary follows. No T of C. Poor condition.

1815? Fables d'Esope Mises en Francais avec le sens moral en quatre vers, ornée de gravures et précédée de la vie d'Esope.  Nouvelle Édition.  Hardbound.  Lille: Chez Castiaux.  $51.75 from Edward Hoffman, Columbus, OH, through eBay, Sept., '13.

Here is a wonderful find!  As Bodemann writes of it, this book is in a tradition that includes Le Prieur's two-volume La Fontaine edition of 1801 and Le Prieur's earlier editions of Aesop.  Bodemann lists an 1812 edition; I seem to have a dated 1806 edition.  Both his 1812 and my 1806 have more illustrations than this 1815 edition by Castiaux in Lille.  The 72 illustrations here come three rectangular framed pictures to a page on some twenty-four pages integrated into the pagination of the texts, with regular text pages printed on the verso of the illustration pages.  The illustration pages are numbered curiously.  Not all have numbers.  Those that do are in order up to 18.  Additional illustration pages occur between 4 and 5, 6 and 7, 9 and 10, 11 and 12, 14 and 15, and 17 and 18.  Might the numbering have more to do with the printer's signatures than with the illustration pages themselves?  The three illustrations on 205 represent well, I believe, the strengths and weaknesses of the illustrations here.  The middle image of the fox and the goat may be most typical of the visual presentation here: simple, strong, and clear.  The lower image of the horse and the stag is more dynamic but darker; the image gets overly busy.  The top image of the lion in love is so darkand busy that it is unclear.  Are we looking at a lion?  There are 225 fables presented in prose with a verse quatrain following each.  AI at the end.

To top

1816 - 1820

1816 Jeu des Fables.  l'Abbé Gaultier.  Hardbound.  Paris: Colas Fils.  $52.49 from Bergoglio Libri d'Epoca, Rivalba, Italy, July, '22

"Faisant Partie du Course Complet d'Études Élementaires."  "Sujets Tirés de la Fontaine par le mème auteur."  I presumed that this little (3¼" x 5¼") book accompanied one of those cards with multiple slots for arranging a fable scene out of little cut-out characters.  To my surprise, it is rather a curricular exercise in raising and answering questions about fables, whose texts are also given here.  After a set of instructions, there are one or more questions about 81 numbered fables.  There are, for example, four such questions for the second fable, "The Ass Carrying Relics" (ix).  After xxviij, pagination switches to Roman numerals as the 81 fables are presented.  On 84 we find a list of maxims, proverbs and thoughts not presented in these 81 fables.  Pages 87-96 present "Mots des Fables à expliquer aux enfants," followed by four pages outlining the whole major and minor curricula by this author.  The last of these pages gives the place of the fable game in both curricula.

1816 Lucian's Dialogues and Other Greek Extracts Literally Translated into English. Hardbound. First edition. Albany: D. & S.A. Abbey. $20 from Strand Rare Books, NY, Jan., '99.

After ten of Lucian's Dialogues, nine fabulous dialogues, twelve of Palaephatus' Explanations, and twenty-one of Herocles' Facetiae, we have in a fifth section thirty-one Aesop's Fables. The brief and sober fable versions seem very close to Handford and Perry; one suspects that they come quite directly from the Greek. Still, the snake in #3 only wounds his benefactor; in the older versions I am aware of, either the snake kills the man or is killed by him. I have not been able to check the versions against L'Estrange, who might be a source. There are no surprises among the thirty-one chosen. There is a T of C at the back of this fragile little book of 69 pages.

1816 Phaedri Augusti Caesaris Liberti Fabularum Aesopiarum Libri Quinque/The Five Books of the Aesopian Fables of Phaedrus, Augustus Caesar's Freedman. By N. Bailey. Nineteenth edition. Paperbound. London: Printed for F.C. & J. Rivington, Gil Wilkie, et al. £4.99 from Books and Maps, Bournemouth, UK, through eBay, Oct., '06.

A special feature of this schoolbook is a "numerical key adjoining to each line, directing to take the words in construing in a proper order." These numerical schemata next to each poem are quite unusual! There are also the notes of Peter Danet, for the use of the Dauphin, translated into English. Finally, there is a rather large "parsing index." After 69 pages of text, the parsing index takes up 152 pages. If this book ever had a cover, it has long since lost it. Besides an AI in Latin at the beginning, there is an index of the theme of each fable in order on xi-xv. This seems very helpful, not least to students preparing for examinations. The book is quite frail.

1817 Fables de la Fontaine.  Paris: Pierre Didot l'Ainé et de Firmin Didot.  £15 from jeff475-uk, Fox Cottage Silver, March, '15.  

Here is a curious find.  It combines a first half of La Fontaine's fables first published in "An VII" but now labelled "1817" with a second half still labelled "An VII."  Not only do I have copies of both halves, but I have just catalogued the second half.  Thus I could easily recognize the family relationship in these volumes.  As I wrote of the first volume, this is a small book (4" x 5¾") first done in "An VII," i.e., the seventh year after the revolution.  The match of the second volume with the first volume is not exact.  This combined volume follows on both title-pages the indication of the publisher in the second volume, that is, "L'Imprimerie et la Fonderie Stéréotypes de Pierre Didot l'Ainé et de Firmin Didot."  The original first volume had as its publisher only "L'Imprimerie de P. Didot l'Ainé."  French Wikipedia seems to indicate that François Didot founded a dynasty of printers.  He died in 1757.  François-Ambroise Didot, "Didot l'ainé," lived from 1730 to 1804.  Firmin Didot, 1764-1836, is the best known member of the family.  He is celebrated with a statue in the façade of the Hotel de Ville.  It is still unclear to me when Firmin Didot moved into the family business and helped change its name.  Both volumes here add to "Édition Stéréeotype" the helpful ""D'après le précedé de Firmin Didot."  This little book's front cover has separated, and the back cover will not be far behind.  There is one illustration at the beginning of Book 1.There is a printer's design at the beginning of Book 7.

1817 Fables par J.-F. Boisard, Peintre.  Jean-François Boisard.  Hardbound.  Paris and Brussels: Germain Mathiot.  $37.50 from Second Story Warehouse, Rockville, MD, Dec., '18.

This book has occasioned some surprises for me.  I may have picked it up as a La Fontaine that I had not seen before.  Now, when at last I have a little time to look into the book, I thought it was by the rather well-known Boisard.  It is not; it is by his less known and published nephew, who rates no more than a footnote in Shapiro's "The Fabulists French."  At any rate, there are here six books of fables in two parts.  The front cover has separated.  My dabblings in the first dozen fables did not strike me as worth digging further.  I have generally hesitated to collect older French fabulists other than La Fontaine and Florian.  I think I just confirmed why I follow that practice!

1817 Fábulas en Verso Castellano para el Uso del Real Seminario Bascongado, Tomo I. y II.  D. Felix María Samaniego.  Hardbound.  Valencia: Manuel Muñoz y Companía.  $18.28 from Mark Anderson, Seattle, WA, through eBay, March, '14. 

Samaniego's "Fábulas" (1781 for the first volume's five books, 1784 for the second volume's four books) contain 157 fables.  As the title here indicates, they were originally written for boys educated in the school founded by the Biscayan Society in Vergara.  Samaniego was a Guipuzcoan who settled in Vergara.  He had prided himself on being the first to create original fables in Castilian, and this claim led to a falling out with his friend Iriarte.  Tome II begins with its own title-page at 141.  The two volumes are continuously paginated.  The T of C for both volumes is at the end.  In a curious move, the four books in Volume II are numbered "first" and "second," rather than "sixth," "seventh," and so on.  Samaniego died in 1801.  This small copy (about 4" x 6") has some markings around pp. 12-13.  At the beginning of the first book of fables here, that seminary has "patriotico" added to its descriptive titles.  I am happy to get such an early edition of Samaniego!

1817 La Fontaine's Fables Now First Translated from the French By Robert Thomson With Elegant Engraved Figures.  Illustrations by Perdoux, Leloir, and Ransonette Fils.  Signed by the publisher.  Hardbound.  Paris: Gaglignani.  $56 from Better World Books through Ebay, Dec., '18.

This book is a curious find representing three-fourths of another edition, sold (and published?) eleven years later by a publishing house and bookstore still thriving in Paris.  Chenu in Paris did a first edition set of four volumes in 1806 that I found from Michael Hackenburg.  Later I found a one volume 1806 compilation of those four, with some changes in the illustrations; that, also done by Chenu, came from A. Dyer, Essex, UK, through eBay.  Now here are the first three volumes of that four-volume set.  It has the same curiosities.  In particular, as in the both of those series, there is a life of Aesop here at the beginning of Volume II, i.e., at the beginning of Book 4.  There is also again a simple, unrelated tail-piece image at the end of many fables.  Again, as in the Dyer copy, this book is signed by the publisher on the verso of the pre-title-page.  There is a T of C for each of the three-book volumes at the end of that volume.  With one exception, the illustrations are identical with those in the Dyer copy.  Thus there is a strong frontispiece (slightly over 3¼" x 4") signed by Perdoux:  Aesop and the animals pay homage to a bust of La Fontaine.  Two other signed Perdoux illustrations of the same size are inserted along the way:  I 13, "Two Thieves and the Ass," and III 1, MSA.  Of the same size but signed "Olimpe Neveu sculp." is II 14, Hares and Frogs.  The illustrations in the second volume include:  IV 2, "Shepherd and Sea"; V 1, "Woodman and Mercury" (frontispiece to the second volume); V 11, "Fortune and the School-boy"; and VI 3, SW.  The illustrations in Volume 3 include: VII 1, "Plague"; VII 13, "Two Cocks"; VIII 26, "Democritus and the Abderites."  This volume lacks the illustration for IX 13, "Jupiter and the Passenger."  Pasted over the name of Chenu and the date of 1806 on all three title-pages is "Sold at Gaglignani's French, English, Italian, German and Spanish Library, Rue Vivienne, No. 18.  1817."  Gaglignani's is still thriving in Paris!  This book has some history.  It was sold at Strand for $2 and somewhere else for $5.  It was inscribed in both 1836 and 1882.  Frontispiece is spelled "Front-ispiece."  Why a division in this word, and why the division there?  On this volume, the spine cover is disconnected but still present.  There is considerable foxing in the book.

1817 Lehren der Weisheit und Tugend in auserlesenen Fabeln, Erzählungen und Liedern: Ein Buch für die Jugend. Herausgegeben von Friedrich Ludwig Wagner. Zehnte verbesserte und vermehrte Ausgabe. Hardbound. Reutlingen: In der J.J. Mäcken'schen Buchhandlung. €10 from Kulbach, Heidelberg, August, '06.

Someone must have found some very useful material in this book, since it went through ten editions! It is organized into three major sections. The first has five subsections: Activity and Industriousness; Moderation and Self-Control; Orderliness; Carefulness; and Wisdom and Innocence. The second major section has seven subsections: Love and Obedience; Brotherly Love; Charity; Justice; Honesty; Envy; and Gentleness. The third major section deals with the love and greatness of God. Some 212 texts are subsumed under these headings. I have sampled some texts. They seem surprisingly simple. A smart young mouse recognizes a trap but wants to smell the bacon. She just touches the bacon and is trapped (Kazner). Play with danger and you may get hurt (39)! A child enjoys the house of cards he built, but it falls down. What he builds next is better. Patience and courage can do great things (Gellert, 83). A good version of "Hercules and the Carter" comes, apparently, from Zacharia: "Prayer helps, but not alone; work, and then prayer will be effective!" (104). A young mouse debates -- and then makes the wrong choice -- as her mother warns and as the cat beckons (124-5). Hagedorn does a good verse presentation of "The Stag and the Vine": "I die because I wounded the one who gave me safety" (144-45). Similarly, Gellert's "The Blind and the Lame" makes its point nicely (175). "Lohn der Luege" (193) is a good presentation of BW. This book is in surprisingly good condition for its age. 

1817/23 The American Spelling Book. Containing the Rudiments of the English Language for the Use of Schools in the United States. By Noah Webster, Esq. The Revised Impression, with the Latest Corrections. Brattleborough, VT: Holbrook and ?. $25 at Constant Reader, June, '93.

Now here is a worn book! It has been well used and well eaten! Amid all its good things are eight fables on 83-98. New to me are "The Boy That Stole Apples" (83) and "The Fox and the Bramble" (92). "The Cat and the Rat" (90) is told in an unusual fashion that puts together hanging and rolling in flour, which are usually alternative ways of telling the story. Further, the cat is hanging to suggest that it has committed some misdemeanor. TB (94) adds an unusual agreement beforehand that the two would help each other if assaulted. Further stories: MM (85), "The Fox and the Swallow" (and flies, 87), "The Two Dogs" (96), and "The Partial Judge" (98). My favorite illustration is that of the apple-stealing boy sitting in the tree and refusing to come down (83). These fables are followed shortly by a history of the creation of the world. The grand total of the U.S. population (114) is given as 9.6 million.

1818 Fables choisies De La Fontaine ornees de figures lithographiques.  Illustrators: Carle Vernet, Horace Vernet, et Hipolyte Lecomte.  First edition.  Hardbound.  Paris: Lithographie D'Engelmann.  £75 from John Creek, Cambridgeshire, UK, through eBay, May, '18.

The eBay seller had written "Large folio book in landscape measuring 41x27.5cm approx., original paper boards with spine missing, book holding together well. Half title present, main title present, full page engravings, each with corresponding text, 24 engravings, 2 of which are hand coloured. old water stain to the edge of 5 pages."  I will add that this is an impressive landscape book 16" x 10⅞" with very heavy paper.  Bodemann describes it as the first lithographed fable book.  Bodemann sees different styles in the two main engravers, Vernet (freer use of the new medium) and LeComte (more traditional copper engraving).  Among my favorites here are LeComte’s OR; WL; and "The Schoomaster and the Child";  Horace Vernet's CW; and Carle Vernet’s "The Two Mules"; CW; "The Horse Wanting to Get Revenge on the Stag"; and "The Coach and the Fly."  Bodemann speaks of a two-volume work with 132 engravings, but I find no indication of that here.  This is a lovely book to show from the collection, exactly 200 years old.

1818 Fables Choisies d'Ésope.  Achille Désiré Lefèvre.  Hardbound.  Paris: Tardieu Denesle.  CHF 210 from Peter Bichsel, Zurich, Sept., '22.

"Avec le sens moral en quatre vers, et les quatrains de Benserade.  Édition ornee de cinquante trois gravures en taille-douce."  This lovely landscape-formatted volume presents a new approach to reworking Barlow after a surprising outpouring of effort recorded by Bodemann #187.  That earlier effort had produced five Aesop volumes in our collection in short succession (Gueffler 1800 and 1801; Debray-LeGrand 1801; Genets Jeune 1805; and Denesle 1810).  Those follow Barlow better and more vivaciously than does Lefevre here, though Lefebre's following of Barlow is clear.  This volume has 53 illustrations for some 67 fables, beginning with a frontispiece of the astrologer about to fall into a pit.  Among the best illustrations is WSC facing 25.  Quite different from Barlow is "The Swallow and the Birds" (16).  There seem to be several fables presented here that are not in Barlow.  Bodemann is correct: this artistry is well typified as "Barlow stretched to meet a different format."  Bodemann #232.  Very good condition.  128 pages.  7½" x 5".

1818 Fables de La Fontaine avec un nouveau commentaire, Tome Premier.  Ch. Nodier.  Pierre-Nolasque Bergeret.  First edition.  Hardbound.  Paris: Alexis Eymery, Imprimerie Didot l'Aîné.  $62.50 from djsattic, Vacaville, CA, through eBay, Feb., '15.  

Here is a lucky find that I stumbled upon on eBay.  The collection already includes two copies of  the 1828 printing by Emler Frères, one of which confuses the order of illustrations and one of which adds an extra illustration for V 6, "The Old Woman and Her Two Servants" (238).  This copy follows Bodemann's account and lacks both of those irregularities.  The first of two special features of these volumes is that they are the first edition of Nodier's commentary, which consists in "Remaques" after each fable.  The second lies in the twelve aqua-fortis gravures designed by Pierre-Nolasque Bergeret.  Bodemann states, incorrectly for this copy, that the images are always at the beginning of their books.  Book and fable number are above each picture, with the date (1818) and fable title beneath.  As Bassy and Bodemann note, each illustration offers a medallion or a quadrangle resting on something in a scene, with one to four fable scenes playing around the medallion or quadrangle. A list of them appears on Bassy 230 and 265.  They include 1) a frontispiece showing a bust of La Fontaine with a halo over a tombstone on which there is an image of a man (La Fontaine?) apparently standing before a shut door.  Others show 2) "L'Enfant et le Maitre d'Ecole" inside a picture of FC and GA (37), 3) MSA within TT and "The Cat Judges Rat and Weasel" (88), 4) "The Miser Who Lost His Treasure" within "The Monkey Throwing Away His Master's Coins" (171), 5) "The Ass Carrying Relics" inside "The Hermit Rat" (205), and 6) "The Driver Bogged Down" inside WL (249).  An analysis of the juxtaposition of fables within these images would be a delight!  Think of the contrast between the distraught miser weeping over his lost treasure and the monkey throwing money away!  Good condition.

1818 Fables de La Fontaine avec un nouveau commentaire, Tome Second.  Ch. Nodier.  Pierre-Nolasque Bergeret.  First edition.  Hardbound.  Paris: Alexis Eymery, Imprimerie Didot l'Aȋné.  $62.50 from djsattic, Vacaville, CA, through eBay, Feb., '15.  

Here is a lucky find that I stumbled upon on eBay.  The collection already includes two copies of  the 1828 printing by Emler Frères, one of which confuses the order of illustrations.  This copy of Volume 2 follows Bodemann's account and lacks this irregularity  The first of two special features of these volumes is that they are the first edition of Nodier's commentary, which consists in "Remaques" after each fable.  The second lies in the twelve aqua-fortis gravures designed by Pierre-Nolasque Bergeret.  Bodemann states, incorrectly for this copy, that the images are always at the beginning of their books.  As Bassy and Bodemann note, each illustration offers a medallion or a quadrangle resting on something in a scene, with one to four fable scenes playing around the medallion or quadrangle. An analysis of the juxtaposition of fables within these images would be a delight!  A list of them appears on Bassy 230 and 265.  They include 1) "Le Curé et le Mort" within TB and MM (35); 2) "Democritus and the Abderites" within "The Two Cocks" and DW (122); 3) "The Oyster and the Litigants" within FC and "The Rat and the Oyster" (152); 4) "The Shepherd and the King" within FK and "The Spider and the Swallow" (204); 5) "The Old Man and the Three Young Men" within "The Lion and the Gnat," "The Bees and the Drones," and "The Eagle and the Magpie" (248); and 6) Philemon and Baucis (332).  T of C and an alphabetical index at the back, followed by a mythological table and a list of celebrated personages.  There is then a fifth table of unusual or original expressions by La Fontaine in the fables.  The sixth table is of proverbs by La Fontaine.  The last appendix contains a list of editions of La Fontaine's fables through 1817.

1818 Fables d'Ésope mises en François, Avec le sens moral en quatre vers, et les Quatrains de Benserade.  Nouvelle Édition, ornée de deux cents vingt-six gravures, dédiée a la jeunesse.  Hardbound.  Avignon: J.-A. Joly.  $68 from Antique Parchments, Kansas City, MO, through Ebay, July, '20.

This little volume, 3½" x 5¾", has at least two strong predecessors in the collection.  One has the same many elements in its title and comes from 1798, illustrated by Godard D'Alencon and published by Dugour.  It has 454 pages before its closing T of C.  Its life of Aesop has 27 chapters, each illustrated.  Its illustrations are about 2" x 3".  Many fables there also have tailpieces.  The second, a shorter smaller book, was published in 1808 by les Libraires Associées and has exactly the same title as this book.  Its illustrations seem to be closer to the size of those here.  This present  1818 version has 324 pages before its T of C and no pictures with its 28 chapters of the life of Aesop.  This copy is missing Chapter 1 of the life and the first seven fables.  This book was used for many penmanship and drawing exercises and suffered other wear too.  Some of the additions to the illustrations are quite funny!  As in those other editions, each fable begins and ends with rhyming quatrains surrounding a prose narration of the story itself.  Pandemic conditions have kept me from comparing this volume's illustrations.

1818 The Fables of Aesop, and Others, with Designs on Wood, by Thomas Bewick. Thomas Bewick. First edition, with bill of sale, signature, and thumbprint. Hardbound. Newcastle: Printed by E. Walter for T. Bewick and Son. £145 from Muttonchop Manuscripts, Horsham, Sussex, UK, August, '00.

What a wonderful find! I am so happy to have this book in my hand! It once belonged to the Battersea Public Libraries, and perhaps that is only fitting for a volume from Bewick's own hand. It shows some wear, and the pages have grown slightly dim, but it is still beautiful in my eyes! Bodemann # 236.1. The bill of sale just after the "Preface Dedicatory" has the type of copy, the price, and the signature filled in with ink of a slightly different color. As Metzner points out in Bodemann, there are 188 prose fables after English authors of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, put together and pedagogically reworked by Bewick. As the bookseller's note points out, the second-to-last fable's illustration has been hand-colored (373).

1818 The Fables of Pilpay. Hardbound. London: Printed for Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy. $80 from Archives Book Shop, East Lansing, MI, through ABE, August, '00.

This little book is an excellent physical specimen, a 12mo with 312 pages in full Morocco leather and a hubbed, embossed spine with label.  It has marbled endpapers and edges.  I have been enjoying attempts to fix the place in the English tradition of this work.  What I have discovered is that it is the same text as the "fifth edition" from 1775 reproduced by Darf in 1987.  It is also the same text used later by Hurd and Houghton in 1872.  Its illustrations also form the basis for the illustrations in the latter edition.  Bodemann lists the 1775 edition as #126.3.  The original in this series goes back to 1747 (Bodemann #126.1); unillustrated, the text seems first to have appeared in 1699.  Unfortunately, Bodemann does not list this 1818 edition.  In keeping with this tradition, there is a double T of C, general and by fable.  The book follows a rhythm of one illustration per fable.  I find the illustrations small but engaging.  One of the liveliest of the small illustrations might be the burning of the witness-tree on 147.  Chapter I is completely about Dabschelim's trip to Bidpai.  Dabschelim is an entirely good king.  Bidpai is a hermit to whom Dabschelim travels, even though the king's advisers counsel against the trip.  I am surprised to see "The Travelling Pigeon" as the first fable (19) and "The Greedy and Ambitious Cat" (31) soon after that.  Chapter II is on avoiding the insinuations and backbiting of flatterers.  It begins at some length with a rich merchant father instructing his dissolute three sons on acquiring wealth, keeping it, and using it well.  The eldest of the three is the merchant, whose ox Cohotorbe is left behind.  Kalila (female) and Damna (male) are foxes married to each other.  The fox substitutes for the jackal throughout.  Damna here starts out at least as an upright though ambitious character.  He handles beginning negotiations for getting the lion and bull to meet without pushing himself forward.  But when Cohotorbe becomes the lion's closest friend, jealousy takes over in Damna (80).  Kalila turns against Damna, after Cohotorbe's death, for having endangered the king (146).  Chapter III follows up: "That the Wicked Come to an Ill End."  The king's malaise, the leopard's overhearing of Damna and Kalila, and the lion-mother's intervention all help to bring Damna to trial.  Damna argues eloquently that he is innocent, using good fables dexterously in his defense.  Finally they get direct testimony from the leopard and the bear to convict Damna, and he is walled up inside four walls to starve as a traitor.  Chapter IV is on friends.  In this version, a goat rather than a fawn joins the group already consisting of tortoise, raven, and rat.  Chapter V is on distrusting enemies; its basic story pits the ravens against the owls.  Carchenas is able to subvert the latter from within and see to their eventual defeat by burning their fortress.  Many fables throughout the work are differently told from what I am used to.  There are also many fables new to me, e.g., II 18: "The Hunter, the Fox, and the Leopard."  The Hurd edition, by the way, drops what is here listed as II 8, "The Dervise that left his Habitation."  That changes the numbering of all the further fables in Chapter II.  Dramatic moments, like the battle of the lion and bull (146), are rendered very quickly--too quickly, I would say.  I took the occasion of cataloguing these books to read through the full version.  I had recently read a number of Panchatantra and Hitopadesa versions and collected Indian stories in a number of formats.  This reading helped me to enjoy those same stories now put into a meaningful sequence. I have under separate number an extra copy with severed covers but otherwise in fair to good condition.

1818 The Fables of Pilpay. Hardbound. London: Printed for Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy. $22 from Chapter One Books, Kansas City, KS, Sept., '97.

I have another copy of this fine little book from Archives Book Shop in East Lansing, MI. The condition of both books and their divergent spine designs and interior marbling have led me to make this copy a separate and independent entry. I have been enjoying attempts to fix the place in the English tradition of this work. What I have discovered is that it is the same text as the "fifth edition" from 1775 reproduced by Darf in 1987. It is also the same text used later by Hurd and Houghton in 1872. Its illustrations also form the basis for the illustrations in the latter edition. Bodemann lists the 1775 edition as #126.3. The original in this series goes back to 1747 (Bodemann #126.1); unillustrated, the text seems first to have appeared in 1699. Unfortunately, Bodemann does not list this 1818 edition. In keeping with this tradition, there is a double T of C, general and by fable. The book follows a rhythm of one illustration per fable. I find the illustrations small but engaging. One of the liveliest of the small illustrations might be the burning of the witness-tree on 147. Chapter I is completely about Dabschelim's trip to Bidpai. Dabschelim is an entirely good king. Bidpai is a hermit to whom Dabschelim travels, even though the king's advisers counsel against the trip. I am surprised to see "The Travelling Pigeon" as the first fable (19) and "The Greedy and Ambitious Cat" (31) soon after that. Chapter II is on avoiding the insinuations and backbiting of flatterers. It begins at some length with a rich merchant father instructing his dissolute three sons on acquiring wealth, keeping it, and using it well. The eldest of the three is the merchant, whose ox Cohotorbe is left behind. Kalila (female) and Damna (male) are foxes married to each other. The fox substitutes for the jackal throughout. Damna here starts out at least as an upright though ambitious character. He handles beginning negotiations for getting the lion and bull to meet without pushing himself forward. But when Cohotorbe becomes the lion's closest friend, jealousy takes over in Damna (80). Kalila turns against Damna, after Cohotorbe's death, for having endangered the king (146). Chapter III follows up: "That the Wicked Come to an Ill End." The king's malaise, the leopard's overhearing of Damna and Kalila, and the lion-mother's intervention all help to bring Damna to trial. Damna argues eloquently that he is innocent, using good fables dexterously in his defense. Finally they get direct testimony from the leopard and the bear to convict Damna, and he is walled up inside four walls to starve as a traitor. Chapter IV is on friends. In this version, a goat rather than a fawn joins the group already consisting of tortoise, raven, and rat. Chapter V is on distrusting enemies; its basic story pits the ravens against the owls. Carchenas is able to subvert the latter from within and see to their eventual defeat by burning their fortress. Many fables throughout the work are differently told from what I am used to. There are also many fables new to me, e.g., II 18: "The Hunter, the Fox, and the Leopard." The Hurd edition, by the way, drops what is here listed as II 8, "The Dervise that left his Habitation." That changes the numbering of all the further fables in Chapter II. Dramatic moments, like the battle of the lion and bull (146), are rendered very quickly--too quickly, I would say. I took the occasion of cataloguing these books to read through the full version. I had recently read a number of Panchatantra and Hitopadesa versions and collected Indian stories in a number of formats. This reading helped me to enjoy those same stories now put into a meaningful sequence.

1818/23 The Fables of Aesop, and Others, with Designs on Wood, by Thomas Bewick. Thomas Bewick. Second edition. Hardbound. Newcastle: Printed by E. Walter for T. Bewick and Son. From Abbey Antiquarian, June, '00.

This is the highly prized second edition of the 1818 Fables of Aesop. Bodemann 236.2. As Metzner there points out, we now have on xvi at the end of the Introduction, not the earlier "Druckfehlerteufel" but rather an old man seated with little children before a memorial with names of poets. If there was either numbering of a limited edition or a bill of sale with Bewick's fingerprint, I find no evidence of them here. This copy's wood engravings are regularly brighter than those in my first edition copy. Another treasure!

1818/85/1966 Two Fables of Aesop With Designs on Wood. By Thomas Bewick. Taken from The Fables of Aesop printed by Ward in London in 1885. Signed; #42 of 75 hand-set books printed and bound at Vagabond Press of Lloyd Whydotski, Menomonie, WI. $15 at Constant Reader, Dec., '88.

Nice cuts of "The Lion, the Tiger, and the Wolf" and "The Envious Man and the Covetous." A curious little book. Notice the spelling of the city in Wisconsin!

1818/1903 The Fables of Aesop and Others with Designs on Wood. By Thomas Bewick. A New Edition. Reproduced in facsimile from the Editions printed at Newcastle by E. Walker for T. Bewick and Son in 1818 and 1823. NY: D. Appleton and Company. $12.95 from Fuller and Saunders, DC, July, '92.

Note that this is a reprint of Bewick's later Aesopic work, not the Select Fables of 1776/1784. Comparison of this work with the 1975 Paddington reprint of the 1818 edition raises questions: this one is smaller and shows slightly different typesetting of the texts, though the pagination seems to come out exactly the same. And how can a book be a facsimile of two editions? The impressions of the wood-engravings are unfortunately poor, and there is some staining. Still, any Bewick book is a treasure.

1818/1903 The Fables of Aesop and Others with Designs on Wood. By Thomas Bewick. A New Edition. Reproduced in facsimile from the Editions printed at Newcastle by E. Walker for T. Bewick and Son in 1818 and 1823. London: Methuen & Co. $28.50 from June Clinton, Feb., '94. Extra copies for $17 from Old New York Book Shop, Atlanta, April, '94, and as a gift from R. Dunaway, St. Louis, March, '95.

Identical in almost all respects with the Appleton edition of the same year. The differences I can find include a slightly different title notation pasted onto the red linen of the spine. And this edition includes a reprint of Bewick's "thumbprint" page between the two title pages. The latter are presumably the title pages respectively of this edition and of the original. See my comments on the Appleton edition.

1818/1975 The Fables of Aesop with Designs on Wood. By Thomas Bewick. Introduction by Michael Marqusee. Paperbound. 1975 reprint of 1818 edition. NY: Paddington Press Ltd: Two Continents Publishing Group. $5.51 at Blake Books, Nov., '95. Extra copies for $4 at About Books, Toronto, Dec., '93, and for $6.95 at Midway, St. Paul.

A fascinating book which deserves a good deal of study. The reproductions seem quite good. The "tail-pieces," little pictures after each fable, are particularly fascinating. Some come back on the fable. A valuable book, first found (a copy now traded away) on a Dinkytown bookstore's floor.

1819 Fabeln: Politisch-moralisches Panorama unserer Zeit.  Hardbound.  Weimar: Gr. H. S. priv. Landes-Industrie-Comptoir.  €23.80 from Antiquariat & Neubuchhandlung Blechtrommel, Jena, Germany, through ZVAB, July, '14.  

What a curious title!  And what a time to look for political-moral wisdom!  Here are 153 fables on 182 pages.  Each new fable begins a new page in this small -- about 4" x 5" -- book.  Its only illustration is the frontispiece of a sphinx looking into a mirror.  Perhaps because that is the only illustration, this book is not in Bodemann.  The introduction closes with this quatrain: "Zu schmeicheln wagt der ärgste Feind, die Wahrheit sagt Euch nur der Freund."  The first regular fable has sheep trying to tell the dog to be a watchdog and leave them alone.  The dog answers "You thankless creatures!  You do not know how to help yourselves, so do not complain when someone else, whom nature calls thereto, thinks for you."  A young mouse asks her mother why she is so negative about cats.  "You know only how cats look, my child, not what they are" (4).  A wolf to a goat on a steep stone wall: "A fall from there could kill you.  I cannot bear to see it; you make me anxious."  The goat answers: "I never tremble over heights; I tremble only over your being near" (38).  The last fable narrates an encounter between a fox and fable.  The fox dismisses fable as inaccurately accusing animals of all sorts of crimes.  Fable's answer is that she only uses the animals.  Her concern is that men, despite their reason, are still sinners.  Would I be wrong to see this fable as the Enlightenment encapsulated in a story?  It is easier for me to see the moral than the political panorama here.

1819 Kalila and Dimna, or The Fables of Bidpai. Translated from the Arabic by the Rev. Wyndham Knatchbull. Oxford: W. Baxter. $75 from Argosy, NY, Feb., '92.

My favorite private collector notes that this is the first edition of this translation. It is based on the Arabic text of Kalila and Dimna published in 1816 by de Sacy (who is noted in Quinnam). Knatchbull is also acknowledged by Ramsay Wood (1982, 261). T of C is on x-xii. The eighteen chapters seem to reach beyond material covered by, say, Ryder's Panchatantra. We are on 82 before we begin "The Lion and the Bull." For what happened to Dimna after Schanzabeh's death, see 160-92. The new material, which seems less good to me, appears from 273 on, except for the last two stories, which are in Panchatantra: "The Traveller and the Goldsmith" and "The King's Son and his Companions." A version like this does not engage the way Wood's does.

1819/26 Phaedri Fabularum Aesopiarum libri quinque, quales omni parte illustratos publicavit Joann. Gottlob. Sam. Schwabe. Accedunt Romuli Fabularum Aesopiarum libri quatuor, quibus novas Phaedri Fabellas cum notulis variorum et suis subjunxit J. B. Gail. Volume 1 of 2 volumes. Bibliotheca Classica, Volumes 52 and 53, N.E. Lamaire, editor. Second edition. Paris: N.E. Lemaire. $62.50 by mail from Turtle Island, Jan., '94.

Apparently Jean Baptiste Gail took the ample 1806 edition of Johann Samuel Schwabe and made it even more ample. The T of C at the end of this volume is itself exhausting as it moves through manuscripts, editions, and disputations in French, German, and Latin. Phaedrus' work actually begins on 327. It is nice to see the Jesuit Desbillons represented. Pack Carnes in Phaedri Fabularum Scriptor calls this 1826 edition the second, though I find no indication of that fact in the book itself. The four plates are described in detail on xiii-xiv. The frontispiece includes "The Fox and the Mask"; 439 puts together Aesop and FS; and the last two (439 and 464) are from II.5, "Caesar and the Flunky."

1819/26 Phaedri Fabularum Aesopiarum libri quinque, quales omni parte illustratos publicavit Joann. Gottlob. Sam. Schwabe. Accedunt Romuli Fabularum Aesopiarum libri quatuor, quibus novas Phaedri Fabellas cum notulis variorum et suis subjunxit J. B. Gail. Volume 2 of 2 volumes. Bibliotheca Classica, Volumes 52 and 53, N.E. Lamaire, editor. Second edition. Paris: N.E. Lemaire. $62.50 by mail from Turtle Island, Jan., '94.

See the comments on the first volume. This second expansive volume includes, as its closing T of C shows, three sets of fables beyond Phaedrus': an independent appendix, Perotti's appendix, and the fables of Romulus. Some pages are uncut. The first two of the four engravings (1, 51) deal with "The Father and the Two Children." The third (176) is mislabelled; it deals with IV.16. The last (264) concerns V.7, "Prince." For comments on the engravings, see xv-xviii of Volume One. Two indices treat earlier and later Phaedrian fables. Pack Carnes in Phaedri Fabularum Scriptor calls this 1826 edition the second, though I find no indication of that fact in the book itself.

1820 Fables de la Fontaine. Hardbound. Paris: Saintin, Libraire de la Cour. $99.99 from Sharon Timmer, Camden, ME, through eBay, Dec., '02. 

This is a small (3" x 4½") but plump book with appropriately small print on its 376 pages. The AI at the back is followed by four pages of advertisements. This book's special feature lies in the ten pages of engravings inserted between text pages, each with its own protective slip-sheet attached to the page of illustrations. The engravings measure about 1¼" x 1¾" each and come two to a page. The first of them, half the frontispiece, shows La Fontaine sitting in front of his home in Chateau-Thierry watching the fox and crow! At 37 we have SS and LM. At 58 we find Aesop watching the scene of "The Cat and the Old Rat." Further images occur at 77, 117, 138, 151, 222, 254, and 272. I find them charming. Not in Bodemann.

1820 Fables de La Fontaine. Avec an Nouveau Commentaire par Coste. Ornèe de douze Gravures. Nouvelle Édition. Hardbound. Paris: Ledentu, Libraire. €55 from Steve Richardson at Richardson Books, Netherlands, Jan., '13.

This book of 390 pages, the last few of them an AI, seems to fit into a tradition. I have La Fontaine volumes with the phrase "Avec an Nouveau Commentaire par Coste" from 1790, 1793, 1801, and 1802. The illustrations come perhaps from an 1804 edition published by Joly with some 239 illustrations. This edition includes two parts, separated only by a sub-title on 143, with pagination from the first part continuing right on into the second part. One might want especially to compare this edition with an 1836 edition by the same publisher but with Walckenaer as editor and Johannot as illustrator. 4" x 6½". A curiosity of this book will help future detectives pin down the source of its illustrations: the twelve illustrations are correctly placed but they refer incorrectly to the pages of their fables. Thus the illustration for WL correctly faces I 10 on page 12 but the illustration refers to "Page 64." SS correctly faces its fable on 37 but refers to "Page 89." One thinks easily that the illustrations were lifted from another edition. Book VI seems to lack an illustration; the frontispiece of La Fontaine working in a study with animals outside seems to make up for that lack, so that there are twelve illustrations for the twelve books. 

1820 Fables de La Fontaine, Vols. I and II.  Hardbound.  Paris: A. Nepveu, Libraire.  $35.10 from World of Books through Ebay, August, '19. 

Bodemann #238, like Bassy #33, speaks of a four-volume work, 13cm x 8 cm, with 36 titled, unpaginated, full-page illustrations.  Here we have Volumes I and II, encompassing Books I-VII of the fables, with the exact same page count in both volumes as in Bodemann's account, but 16cm x 10cm and including only four illustrations, and they are without titles.  These are FC (69); FS (97); "Wolf, Goat, and Kid" (Vol, II, 35); and "The Vultures and Pigeons" (Vol. II, 152).  Can one assume that Nepveu widened margins and reduced illustrations and published this less expensive version in the same year?  There is also a frontispiece portrait of La Fontaine by Lebrun.  There is heavy foxing throughout and pencil notes on 67 and on the blank page after the second closing T of C.

1820 Fables de La Fontaine, Vols. I and II.  Hardbound.  Paris: A. Nepveu, Libraire.  $25.65 from Au Beau Livre, Onex, Switzerland, through Abebooks, Oct., '22.

I bought this pair of volumes because we had separate volumes that did not exactly meet Bodemann's description for #238 or Bassy #33.  The page size of this first of two volumes was too large for 13cm x 8 cm, and the description called for 36 titled full-page illustrations.  I presumed these volumes would fill that gap.  Maybe they do and maybe they do not!  The page size is correct.  However, while our original volume had only four illustrations besides the frontispiece portrait, this volume has only three and the frontispiece!  The fourth from that other comes now as the frontispiece to the second half of the work.  Furthermore, these illustrations are not titled.  As I wrote there, these illustrations are FC (69); FS (97); and "Wolf, Goat, and Kid" (Vol, II, 35).  As there, so here this book includes Volumes I and II, encompassing Books I-VII of the fables, with the exact same page count in both volumes as in Bodemann's account.  Might Nepveu have published several versions of the same book at the same time?

1820 Fables de La Fontaine, Vols. III and IV.  Hardbound.  Paris: A. Nepveu, Libraire.  €13 from La Nouvelle Librairie, Paris, Oct., '22.

This is a fascinating little book for several reasons.  A first reason is that it is interiorly a lovely addition to the collection, with a total of 17 full-page illustrations.  Secondly, it is poorly reconstructed.  Its spine is even upside down!  Thirdly, it fits in a curious way with a book already in the collection.  In 2019 I found a book on World of Books through Ebay that seems to be a derivative of the first two volumes of the set for which this present book contains the last two volumes.  The present book matches Bodemann's description of #238 perfectly.  Her description is accurate: "Feine, nahezu wissenschaftlich exakte Tierzeichnungen, doch mit eher menschlichen Physiognomien; oft ungwöhnliche Konfiguration der kulissenbildenden Tier- und Pflanzenwelt.  Verquickung mit tropischen Arten.  Kontrastreiche Schattierungen ähnlich wie in den Stichen von Simon und Coiny."

1820 Fables de La Fontaine, Vols. III and IV.  Hardbound.  Paris: A. Nepveu, Libraire.  $25.65 from Au Beau Livre, Onex, Switzerland, through Abebooks, Oct., '22.  

I bought this pair of volumes because we had separate volumes, the first of which did not exactly meet Bodemann's description for #238 or Bassy #33.  The page size of this first of two volumes was too large for 13cm x 8 cm, and the description called for 36 titled full-page illustrations.  The second meets her description but has been poorly reconstructed, with its spine upside down.  I presumed the present pair volumes would fill that gap, and that this second volume would more or less reproduce the interior of the second volume I had found earlier.  To my surprise, this volume contains only four illustrations, not the 17 there!  They are a frontispiece to Volume III ("The Vultures and the Pigeons"); TT (III, 129); the frontispiece to Volume IV ("Cat and Mice"); and "Four Friends" (IV, 79).  Maybe I will someday run into a set that corresponds perfectly to Bodemann's description!  Her description still fits the illustrations: "Feine, nahezu wissenschaftlich exakte Tierzeichnungen, doch mit eher menschlichen Physiognomien; oft ungwöhnliche Konfiguration der kulissenbildenden Tier- und Pflanzenwelt.  Verquickung mit tropischen Arten.  Kontrastreiche Schattierungen ähnlich wie in den Stichen von Simon und Coiny."

1820 Fables from La Fontaine in English Verse. No translator acknowledged. Bilingual on facing pages. London: John Murray. $28.50 at Niner and Hill, Oxford, July, '92.

This book is in amazingly good condition for its age. Unfortunately there are no illustrations involved, and I cannot find an indication of author. It is not listed in my favorite private collector. Sixty-four fables in two parts, with a bilingual T of C on ix-xii and French and English indices on 365-7 and 368-70 respectively. Generally the English expands the French noticeably. See the translator's comments on the goal and effect of his translation work on vii and viii. I want to examine this book very carefully when I get to the LaFontaine section of the fable course this semester.

1820 Select Fables. With cuts, designed and engraved by Thomas and John Bewick, and others, previous to the year 1784: together with a Memoir; and a descriptive Catalogue of the works of Messrs. Bewick. Inscribed in 1855. Printed by S. Hodgson for Emerson Charnley et al, London. $120 at Midway in St. Paul, Nov., '92.

One of the stars of my collection. See my comments on the 1975 facsimile. Excellent wood engravings here in a book I am thrilled to have found. After seeing reprints, it is so wonderful to see the original! Some pencil markings, especially in the early historical comments. Otherwise very good condition. Original calf. Someone's advertisement for the book is pasted inside the front cover. Now that I have four copies of Bewick's 1820 edition, I can say that this copy shares many features with the Hughes copy, among them a last page that begins with "consider" and has Hodgson's printer's mark at its bottom, a church-image above the "Advertisement" (i), and a deer at water at its end (iv). It differs from that edition in having smaller and thinner paper. In fact it is the smallest of the four copies, with a page size of 5" x 8".

1820 Select Fables. With cuts, designed and engraved by Thomas and John Bewick, and others, previous to the year 1784: together with a Memoir; and a descriptive Catalogue of the works of Messrs. Bewick. Printed by S. Hodgson for Emerson Charnley et al, London. $152 from Eugene Hughes, St. Louis, March, '95.

If I called the Bewick from Midway one of the stars of my collection, I will have to find some new category for this wonderful volume! Someone's note on the first blank page says that the edition is "limited to only about 25 copies on large thick paper." The size and paper distinguish the book clearly from the Midway edition. This is a beautiful and substantial book! Half calf. There is lovely marbling on the covers, page edges, and flyleaves. Some foxing. A wonderful find! See my comments on the 1975 facsimile. Now that I have, so it seems, four copies of Bewick's Select Fables of 1820, I can say that this is the most impressive. It seems to me to fit the description of Bodemann 240.2, apparently meant as a first volume of a five-volume set "The Works of Thomas Bewick." This copy shares a number of features with the Midway copy, among them a last page that begins with "consider" and has Hodgson's printer's mark at its bottom, a church-image above the "Advertisement" (i), and a deer at water at its end (iv). Its paper size is 5 3/8" x almost 9". Bodemann gives a date of 1820-22 for the #240.2, but I find nothing of that here beyond the title-page's "1820."

1820 Select Fables. With cuts, designed and engraved by Thomas and John Bewick, and others, previous to the year 1784: together with a Memoir; and a descriptive Catalogue of the works of Messrs. Bewick. Printed by S. Hodgson for Emerson Charnley et al, London. £ 80 from Derick Slavin, Leamington Spa, Feb., '02. Extra copy for $260 from Booksource, Swarthmore, PA, May, '00.

These two books seem interiorly identical. Of my four 1820 Bewick Select Fables, these come closest to matching Bodemann 240.1. By contrast with the other two copies, these begin their last page one line earlier, with "nothing of your." They have no printer's mark at the bottom of that page. The image above the "Advertisement" is not that of a church but rather of a fisherman. At the end of the "Advertisement" we find not a deer at water but rather an unusual scene involving an angel-like figure and a donkey-rider, both brandishing long sticks. The Slavin copy has very bright illustrations and is in good condition except for some deterioration around the outer spine. The Booksource copy has darker pages and a separated back cover. I believe that this is the book people talk about when they speak of Bewick's 1820 Select Fables.

1820/1975 Select Fables. With cuts, designed and engraved by Thomas and John Bewick, and others, previous to the year 1784: together with a Memoir; and a descriptive Catalogue of the works of Messrs. Bewick. Facsimile of the 1820 edition printed by S. Hodgson for Emerson Charnley et al, London. Dust jacket. Newcastle: Frank Graham Publishers. $10 at Bookdales, Richfield, MN, March, '90.

In 1776, Bewick did indifferent woodcuts for an edition of Select Fables. In 1784, T. Saint published a new book by the same name with new woodcuts by T. and John Bewick. In 1820 Charnley did a second edition of this book, with alterations and additions. (These are all distinct from Bewick's 1818 Fables of Aesop.) 165 fables, with tailpieces (not all by Bewick). The order and organization are different from those in my versions of Select Fables done in the 1870's; might these represent the 1784 edition? Excellent reproductions here in a book I am delighted to find. AI at front.

1820? A Collection of Fables, For the Instruction and Amusement of Little Misses and Masters, Adorned with Cuts. Pamphlet. York: J. Kendrew, Colliergate. $50 from Tavistock Books, Alameda, CA, Dec., '99.

A very small (4" x 2½") pamphlet with loose "cover" (the paper is the same consistency as that of the pages). Twenty-two fables with small rectangular cuts. I am surprised that my favorite "The Old Ape and her Cubs" is the first fable. Other fables include some surprises: "The Boys and the Frogs," "The Ape and the Cat," The Horse and the Stag," "The Peacock and Jackdaw," "The Fox and the Hen," "The Boy and the Beggar" (new to me), DS, "The Waggoner and Hercules," "The Man and the Forest," "The Fox and the Crab," "The Dog and the Bee" (new to me), "The Ant and the Fly," FC, "Mercury and the Tortoise," "The Cock and the Diamond," "The King-fisher and the Sparrow," "The Dove," "The Sensitive Plant and the Thistle," "The Two Bees," "The Farmer and the Stag" (the "pointing" fable usually done with a woodsman and a smaller animal), and "The Snail and the Statue" (without an illustration, new to me). The texts for the first sixteen are in verse. The print is sometimes hard to read under a fine kind of dust that seems to have gathered on the book. Try brushing its pages!

1820? Fables by John Gay with a Life of  the Author in One Volume Complete.  Embellished with Seventy Elegant Engravings.  Hardbound.  London: C. Whittingham.  $25 from Unknown source, August, '16.

This little book is something of a mystery to me.  C. and G. Robinson, the first subscribers, were doing the same for other books in 1803.  Whittingham seems to have been born in 1795.  If I had not discovered that, I would have dated the book to about 1803.  This is a small book (4" x 6¼") and its illustrations are also small (1½" x slightly more than 2").  I have the sense that I  recognize them from somewhere.  Maybe most remarkable of them is the bull throwing a dog up into the air (26).  Maybe that can provide a clue.  The front cover is separated.

1820?/2022 Grand Jeu des Fables Choisies avec Figures Coloriées.  Hardbound.  Delhi:  Facsimile Publisher: Gyan Books.  $59 from Gyan Books Pvt. Ltd., July, '22.

This is a leather-bound book of 24 colored pages presenting fable stories similar to but never quite identical with standard fables of Aesop or La Fontaine.  The title may be slightly misleading.  At least it was misleading for me.  I can find no record of this book on the web.  An example may be #11.  A widow needs to depart and wonders which of her four animals to leave in charge of the house key.  She decides on the dog: "he alone can merit this position."  I am not sure where the "jeu" fits in here.  "Jeu de fables" tends to indicate a set of cards with variable inserts depicting many fables.

1820? The Fabulator or the Hall of Aesop being a Selection of Fables in Prose and Verse from the most esteemed Authors. William Hodgson, M.D. Sixth edition. Hardbound. London: H.D. Symonds. $75 from Cecilia Skelton, Milwaukee, WI, through eBay, July, '10.

Not in Bodemann. H.D. Symonds of 20 Paternoster Row seems to be a famous publisher of books in the early nineteenth century. This is a handy little volume (3½" x 5½") in surprisingly good shape. I find only two illustrations: a frontispiece, "Fable Decorating Truth," and an illustration of a figure (Aesop?) writing in the midst of nature. I count 103 fables in the beginning AI. There is a surprising array of authors, including Epictetus. No French authors, not even La Fontaine, are represented. Just about everything but the fables by Aesop seems to be in verse. This book may be a helpful piece of evidence for getting a sense of what people thought a fable was in the early nineteenth century. 212 pages. Marbled boards.
 

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1821 - 1825

1821 Fables de Florian.  Hardbound.  Paris: Chez Genets Jeune.  $19.99 from Gabriel Alagna, Barcelona, through eBay, Sept., '13. 

"Nouvelle édition, ornée de figures."  This diminutive but complete edition (3¼" x 5¼") is not in Bodemann.  The British Library seems to have an edition of Florian published by Genets Jeune in 1808.  There are four illustrations here: "The Cat and the Binoculars" (56); "The Children and the Partridges" (122); "The Savant and the Farmer" (138); "The Countryman and the River" (182).  There is an AI at the back.  The first title-page lists 1821 as the publication date, but the second title-page has 1820. Now five years after finding this book, check another copy that has been added to the collection and compare their comments and bindings.

1821 Fables de Florian: Nouvelle Édition.  Hardbound.  Paris: Genets Jeune.  $28 from Kenneth Welch, Lowell, MA, through eBay, March, '18.

Here is a small Florian with six illustrations.  Perhaps its biggest surprise comes when we find a second title-page that includes "Nouvelle Édition" and gives the year of publication as 1820.  Then there is an essay "De la Fable" from 5 through 34 without a signature or other indication who wrote it.  Best of the illustrations shows the cat looking at the hunter through binoculars (56).  Other illustrations are to be found as the frontispiece (mother and opossum and child); on the title-page (fable and truth); and on 122, 138, and 182, easily found by the heavier paper used for illustrations.  There is an AI on 209-13.  Genets Jeune is in Bodemann only for La Fontaine in 1806.  After finishing my cataloguing, I found another copy already catalogued and thoroughly identical.  I will keep both copies in the collection for several reasons, including the contrasting styles of binding the same book and the differing comments on the very same book.  This comment corrects that one since there are six, not four, illustrations in the book.

1821 Fables Nouvelles a l'usage de la Jeunesse. Par A.D.. Hardbound. Grenoble: Chez Durand, père et fils, Libraires. €20 from Antiquariat Schubert, Mannheim, July, '07.

The title-page goes on: "Contenant des principes de Morale propres à diriger son jugement et à régler sa conduite, Précédées des Règles de l'Apologue." There is no help to be found for situating this volume from either Bodemann, since it is not illustrated, nor Shapiro, since its fables are in prose. I have tried the first three and they are clear and clearly moral. In case the lessons might not be clear, there is a moral before the fable. A cat steals from the cook, is barely spared by the merciful master of the house, is put into a cage, gets out again and seems to have learned his lesson. While everyone sings his praises, he steals something else in the kitchen and runs out of the house. A monkey has a nut in one hand and a stone in the other. He asks passers-by whether what he holds is good or bad -- and then confounds the answerer with the hand denying the answer. A fox answers: "You show me what you have, and I will pronounce whether it is good or bad." Beavers are downing a tree, and a parakeet mocks them for doing so with such tiny teeth against a big tree. He comes back three days later, and the tree is down. I did not go further with my reading. There is a T of C at the back. This volume contains four books of fables, with twenty-five fables in each book.

1821 La Fontaine en Estampes, ou Nouvelle Editions des Fables, Plus Complète Que Les Précédentes.  Jean de La Fontaine.  Ornée de cent dix gravures en taille-douce, imprimées sur le text.  Hardbound.  Paris: Nepveu, Libraire.  $49.89 from stilltherllbemore on eBay, Jan., '17.

This lovely book is in wretched condition but is oh so beautiful.  Bodemann has it thirteenth in line in its family, but also notes that the etchings follow Oudry into the details.  These 110 illustrations are a half-page in size and lovely to behold, starting with the frontispiece of Aesop looking up to La Fontaine, not vice versa.  I cannot sense the order of fables here.  An AI at the back of the book's 461 pages lists not only each fable's page number here but its book and number in La Fontaine's original order.  This is one of those cases where the condition of the book and the luck of the draw on eBay allows a searcher like me to get a very lucky find!

1821/23 Aesop in Rhyme, with Some Originals. Jefferys Taylor. With an engraving to each fable. Second edition, corrected. London: Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy. $50 at Goodspeed's, March, '89.

A wonderful little book. The simple engravings are utterly charming. The best of them and of the fables may be "Aesop's Trial" (frontispiece and last fable), at which Aesop explains to the hostile beasts that the fables aim at people. Different: "The Monkey and the Grapes" (20). Cute rhymes.

1821/28 Aesop in Rhyme, with Some Originals With an engraving to each fable. By Jefferys Taylor. Third edition. Hardbound. London: Baldwin and Cradock. £20 from June Clinton, Nov., '97.

Bodemann #241.1 lists the first edition of this work in 1820. The frontispiece in both my 1823 and 1828 editions gives a date of 1821. Whereas the second edition in 1823 lists itself as "The Second Edition, Corrected," this edition says merely "The Third Edition." Notice that "Joy" has dropped from the name of the publishing house. Mention of C. Baldwin as printer has been dropped from the last page, 127. Twelve years ago, I commented on the 1823 edition that the best illustration and fable may be "Aesop's Trial" (frontispiece and last fable), at which Aesop explains to the hostile beasts that the fables aim at people. "The Monkey and the Grapes" (20) remains a favorite of mine; it shows, I believe, a fabulist not paying attention! Now, twelve years after finding this book for the first time, I am taken more than ever by the simple illustrations here, which are grouped two-to-a-page on separate pages. They have a cartoon-like simplicity. I enjoy particularly "The Two Frogs" (35), "The Travellers and the Purse" (38), "The Mouth and the Limbs" (41), and "The Lark & her Young Ones" (57). Two illustrations seem to be missing: "The Cock and the Jewel" facing 32 and TMCM facing 83. Here, as elsewhere, June Clinton has been very good to me!

1821?/2013? Fables for the Nursery: Original and Select.  Catharine Parr Traill.  Illustrated Edition.  Paperbound.  Dodo Press.  $17.84 from UnbeatableSale through eBay, Oct., '13.

This is a curious 72-page paperback book.  Wikipedia tells that Catharine Parr Traill, née Strickland, wrote "Nursery Fables" in 1821.  This semi-facsimile does not offer a facsimile title-page, and so one cannot know what this volume was originally called.  It pairs fables with traditional simple illustrations.  This is apparently a book published upon demand.  The print is apparently contemporary to us, applied to original texts scanned from an old copy.  The fables are not standard Aesopic fables, but they present traditional fable themes.  The first story is like AD: young Carlos saves a lizard, and then the lizard alerts and thus saves Carlos.  This fable supplies the picture from which the cover's illustration of a boy in a large hat is taken.  Typical of earliy nineteenth-century children's stories is, I believe, "The Monkey and the Lapdog" (5).  Both get into a great deal of mischief while they are unattended and are severely punished for it.  "The Grateful Crane" (46) is a bit of a surprise.  A dog frees a crane from a net; later she can remove a bone from his throat.  The battling frog and mouse (48) are each devoured by the second of the adversary, that is, a pike and a hawk.  I wonder if these stories might have been fashioned to fit fable illustrations.  The next illustration is that of a male with a dead fowl in his lap, as the last illustration was of a bird about to descend on a dueling frog and mouse.  Other suspiciously traditional pictures that do not exactly fit their tales picture a lion and a cock, a hunter beating his old dog, a crow perched atop a pitcher.  There is a T of C without page numbers at the front.

1822 Fables Choisies Mises en Vers par J. De la Fontaine.  Illustrations after Oudry.  Hardbound.  Paris: Nepveu, Librairie.  $45 from Hoffman Books, Columbus, OH, through eBay, March, '15.  

"Nouvelle Édition, Ornée de cinquante-six gravures en taille-Douce d'après les dessins d'Oudry."  I am surprised that this book is not in Bodemann.  It is in wretched condition, without either cover or any covering for its spine.  But the fifty-six full-page landscape illustrations after Oudry, including the frontispiece of Aesop and animals honoring La Fontaine, are intact and well done.  One of my favorites is CW (58).  Another is "The Old Woman and the Two Servant-Girls" (101).  An illustration like DS (138) catches Oudry's tapestry-like work well, I think.  This collection is perfect for preserving a book like this from destruction!

1822 Fables de La Fontaine.  Hardbound.  Paris: Boiste Fils Ainé.  €38.50 from Abraxas-Libris, Bécherel, France, July, '18.

"Nouvelle Édition."  A curious feature of the two volumes bound here in one book is that the title-page information for the second volume (175) has a different publisher and an earlier date of publication (1820) than the first volume!  Its publisher is Tarlier in Douai.  Neither publisher has a La Fontaine in Bodemann, although Boiste has a Florian.  The early materials include Coste's 1742 "Avertissement" for his commentary, though the footnotes here are minimal and no other commentary seems to be present.  The title-page of the second volume acknowledges Coste.  There are twelve three-quarter-page black-and-white illustrations.  One is placed at the beginning of every book except the first book, for which apparently the frontispiece serves.  The illustrations include "The Child and the Schoolmaster"; "The Astronomer Who Fell into a Well"; FG; "The Monkey and the Dolphin"; "The Little Fish and the Angler": SW; MM; "The Bear and the Man Who Loved Gardens"; The Oyster and the Litigants"; "The Hole-Digger and His Companion"; "The Farmer, the Fox, and the Dog"; and "The Forest and the Woodman."  They are nicely executed.  AI at the end.  406 pages.  4¼" x 6¾".

1822 Fables de La Fontaine, Tome Premier. Revue et Accompagnée de Notes par C.A. Walckenaer. Nouvelle Edition. Hardbound. Paris:Chez Lefèvre, Libraire. $38.50 from Alibris, May, '05.

Bodemann #222.3. This is a new edition of the work first published in 1814 and again in 1818 by Lefèvre, this time--as in 1814--as part of a six-volume Oeuvres de La Fontaine. This seems to be the first edition including the editing and notes of Walckenaer. (An 1821 children's edition by Nepveu seems to have excerpted some of his "new work.") Walckenaer's introductory material includes 143 pages. The illustrations--a frontispiece of La Fontaine and one illustration per book--seem to be engravings after the originals by Moreau le jeune, apparently in the 1814 edition. My favorites among the illustrations are OR (93) and "Le Villageous et le Serpent" (265). The others are "Le Lion et le Moucheron" (109); "Les Membres et l'Estomac"; "L'Avare qui a perdu son Trésor" (208); and "La Fortune et le jeune Enfant" (219). How nice to happen across this important edition on Alibris! The front cover is detached, and the spine is deteriorating.

1822 Fables de La Fontaine, Tome II. Revue et Accompagnée de Notes par C.A. Walckenaer. Nouvelle Edition. Hardbound. Paris:Chez Lefèvre, Libraire. $38.50 from Alibris, May, '05. 

Bodemann #222.3, Volume Two. This is a new edition of the work first published in 1814 and again in 1818 by Lefèvre, this time--as in 1814--as part of a six-volume Oeuvres de La Fontaine. This seems to be the first edition including the editing and notes of Walckenaer. (An 1821 children's edition by Nepveu seems to have excerpted some of his "new work.") The illustrations--one illustration per book--seem to be engravings after the originals by Moreau le jeune, apparently in the 1814 edition. The illustrations iln this second volume are MM (7); "Le Savetier et le Financier" (54): "Les deux Pigeons" (124); "Le Berger et le Roi" (163); "Le Paysan du Danube" (213); and "Daphnis et Alcimadure" (247). How nice to happen across this important edition on Alibris! The spine is deteriorating, and the front cover is loose.

1822 Phaedri Augusti Liberti Fabulae Aesopiae. Ex Editione J.G.S. Schwabii cum notis et interpretatione in usum Delphini variis lectionibus notis variorum recensu codicum et editionum et indice locupletissimo accurate recensitae. Volume I. London: A.J. Valpy. $125 for the two-volume set from Turtle Island, June, '92.

This work is in amazingly good condition for its age! It was well preserved in the novitiate at Los Gatos and the teachers' library at Santa Clara! Volume I has an unusual T of C at its beginning and then a fairly straightforward presentation of the fables with standard notes. As this presentation ends on 309, one finds Lessing's comparative table identifying subject matters in Phaedrus by poem number with Romulus and Nilanti listings. Then on 311 begins a wonderful compendium of variorum comments on the texts. I am proud to get a Dauphin edition into the collection.

1822 Phaedri Augusti Liberti Fabulae Aesopiae. Ex Editione J.G.S. Schwabii cum notis et interpretatione in usum Delphini variis lectionibus notis variorum recensu codicum et editionum et indice locupletissimo accurate recensitae. Volume II. London: A.J. Valpy. $125 for the two-volume set from Turtle Island, June, '92.

This work is in amazingly good condition for its age! It was well preserved in the novitiate at Los Gatos and the teachers' library at Santa Clara! Volume II picks up with the excellent compendium of variorum comments on the texts. Then, starting on 708, it gives an excellent overview of editions of Phaedrus up to 1822--first by chronology and then by geography. I am proud to get a Dauphin edition into the collection.

1822/2010 Fables in Verse: From Aesop, La Fontaine, and Others. Mary Anne Davis, H(enry) Corbould, and George James Corbould. Paperbound. London/La Vergne, TN: A.K. Newman Co./General Books. AU$36.49 from The Nile, Australia, through eBay, August, '10.

This is another book "printed on demand" that can only outrage a booklover. The typesetting and proofreading render the book all but useless. As for typesetting, poetry is regularly rendered as prose here. The T of C is not set off; it can be hard to find. The omission of the first ten items vitiates even more the sense of a T of C. As for proofreading, Fable XXXV begins "A PKOVEKB of an ancient date. Approved by time, and fixed as fate, Says, 'Evil fellowship will taint The purest morals of a saint. I put a period at the end of the sentence, but the original had none. It had a period between "date" and "Approved," when there surely was a comma there. The quotation marks around the proverb are not closed. And "proverb" is clearly the word meant at the beginning of the sentence. What are we to say of a book that no one has troubled to clean up for the reader? For those who want to take the trouble, this volume seems to contain thirty-five fables and several other materials. I had not before heard, I believe, of this edition. I would have enjoyed reading it under other circumstances. 

1823 A Selection from Fables by John Gay in Two Parts. Selected and Revised by James Plumptre. Second edition. Hardbound. Huntingdon: Thomas Lovell. £14.50 from Knightsbridge Antiquarian, Knightsbridge, through eBay, Sept., '10.

This small (4" x 6¼") book has leather covers, and the front cover is nicely embossed "Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge." I wonder what their relationship is to the book. Plumptre, who also edited One Hundred Fables in Verse by Various Authors in 1825, here selects some thirty-two of Gay's fifty "first volume" fables and then fourteen of the seventeen in his later posthumous collection. I can understand what "selected" means. What might "revised" mean? There is no Fable XXVI here in the first collection but there are two fables marked "XXVII." No illustrations. A tight little book of 157 pages. 

1823 Aesop in Rhyme, with Some Originals. By Jefferys Taylor. With an engraving to each fable. Second edition, corrected. London: Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy. See 1821/23.

1823 Fables Amusantes Avec Une Table Particulière des Mots et de leur Signification en Anglois. Par M. Perrin. Seconde Edition. Full calf. Baltimore: A. Neal, Libraire Rue du Marche. $14.50 from Steve Kirch, Thornville, OH, through Ebay, July, '99.

This edition done in Baltimore drops the general list of vocabulary after the fables and mention of it on the title page. In general, it follows the tradition of the 1804 Philadelphia edition of Thomas and William Bradford. That is, it presents the running vocabulary for each fable right underneath its text. The other options I have noted among editions--see my comments under 1801, 1804, 1809, and 1840--tend to follow the Philadelphia pattern. New here is an English "Publisher's Advertisement" dated in Baltimore on May 3, 1819. It recounts problems with the old editions and claims to have improved "perhaps above two thousand phrases, involving the most important idioms of the two languages…" "What this Vocabulary was before, every well qualified teacher who ever used the work, and to a certain extent, every sensible learner into whose hands it was ever put, must have seen, with the regret which a good plan badly executed never fails to inspire." The boy with the butterfly is an enfant (50). Otherwise the 140 fables seem to be as they are in the other editions.

1823 Fables de La Fontaine, Tome Premier. Engravings by Charles Nicolas Ransonette, Jacques Couché, Lemaître, Ingouf. Hardbound. Paris: Classiques français au bibliothéque de l'amateur: L. De Bure, Libraire. £90 from The Mad Librairian, Bath, UK, through eBay, Sept., '11.

This is a beautifully produced and bound pair of little (3" x 4¾") volumes. Bodemann #238.4 describes them well. This first volume starts with a "Notice" on La Fontaine by Walckenaer, an "Eloge" of La Fontaine by Chamfort, the dedication to the Dauphin, a preface, a life of Aesop, an AI, and the fables of the first six books, finishing on 212. The small but fine engravings here include a frontispiece portrait of La Fontaine; WL (16); "Les Frelons et les Mouches" (33); LM (54); "Le Loup Devenu Berger" (79); "Le Cygne et le Cuisinier" (93); "Le Lion Amoreux" (104); "Le Loup, le Chevre et le Chevreau" (132); "Le Cheval et le Loup" (160); "Le Renard, le Singe et les Animaux" (188); and "La Jeune Veuve" (209). My votes for the best of these go to WL; "Le Loup Devenu Berger"; "Le Cheval et le Loup"; and "La Jeune Veuve." There is a lovely bit of embossing on the front and back covers as well as the spine.

1823 Fables de La Fontaine, Tome Second. Charles Nicolas Ransonette, Jacques Couché, Lemaître, Ingouf. Hardbound. Paris: Classiques français au bibliothéque de l'amateur: L. De Bure, Libraire. £90 from The Mad Librarian, Bath, UK, through eBay, Sept., '11.

This is a beautifully produced and bound pair of little (3" x 4¾") volumes. Bodemann #238.4 describes them well. This second volume begins with an "Avertissement" and a dedication to Madame de Montespan and then dives into the last six books of fables. There are no indices or tables in this volume. The small but fine engravings here include "La Cour du Lion" (22); "Le Chat, la Belette et le Petit Lapin" (43); "Le Cochon, la Chèvre et le Mouton" (76); "Le Loup et le Chasseur" (112); "Le Milan et le Rossignol" (151); "La Perdrix et les Coqs" (180); "Le Fermier, le Chien et le Renard" (206); "Les Deux Chèvres" (241); "L'Aigle et la Pie" (257); and "La Ligue des Rats" (295). My votes for the best of these go to "Le Milan et le Rossignol"; "La Perdrix et les Coqs"; "Les Deux Chèvres"; and "La Ligue des Rats." There is a lovely bit of embossing on the front and back covers as well as the spine.

1823 Phaedri Augusti Caesaris Liberti Fabularum Aesopiarum Libri Quinque/The Five Books of the Aesopian Fables of Phaedrus, Augustus Caesar's Freedman.  By N. Bailey.  Twentieth edition, corrected and improved.  Hardbound.  London: Printed for F.C. & J. Rivington; Longman, Hurst, & Co.; E. Williams; Baldwin & Co.; and G. & W.B. Whittaker.  $10 from metlen through eBay, April, '17.

The collection already had a copy of the nineteenth edition of 1816.  Here is the twentieth edition from seven years later.  And it cost exactly 12 cents more!  As I wrote of that editionk a special feature of this schoolbook is a "numerical key adjoining to each line, directing to take the words in construing in a proper order."  These numerical schemata next to each poem are quite unusual!  There are also the notes of Peter Danet, for the use of the Dauphin, translated into English.  Finally, there is a rather large "parsing index."  As in the earlier edition, after 69 pages of text, the parsing index takes up 152 pages.  That copy had lost its cover.  This copy is losing its cover.  Besides an AI in Latin at the beginning, there is an index of the theme of each fable in order on xi-xv.  This seems very helpful, not least to students preparing for examinations.  The book is, like its relative, quite frail.

1823 Points of Misery; or Fables for Mankind: Prose and Verse, Chiefly Original. By Charles Westmacott. Illustrated with Twenty Designs by Robert Cruikshank. Hardbound. London: Sherwood, Jones, and Company. $52.71 from Abe, Oct., '10.

I keep this book in this collection because of the subtitle and the delightful Cruikshank illustrations. The twenty of them are delightful! There is one full-page illustration on one side of different paper-stock for each of the nine chapters plus a sort of frontispiece (vii) opposite a short statement on "Man and His Miseries." This picture presents the contrast of two mature men, one plagued by demons and grimacing and the other smiling and raising a glass in a toast to the reader. The invitation in this text is, I take it, to find pleasure even in miseries. Westmacott and Cruikshank do that for their readers as they tour through the major miseries of humankind: miseries of authorcraft, mind, travelling by coach, a London lodging-house, love, london, matrimony, borrowing, and living too fast. The texts seem a potpourri of stories, poems, and comments -- all delightfully satirical. Most "points" also include a smaller tailpiece at the end of their text. My prize among the illustrations goes to the full-page illustration (87) for the "Miseries of Borrowing." Everything is going on in that pawn shop at once! The title-page just became separated in my hand. Formerly in the Brooklyn Public Library. 

1823 Rhymes on the Road, Fables, Etc. By Thomas Brown, the Younger. Hardbound. Paris: A. and W. Galignani. Unknown cost, date, and source. 

There are a number of anomalies about this book. The first is that the bookbinder put on the spine "Moore's Works." I take it that this is a simple error. The date and place are correct on the spine: Paris, 1823. The second anomaly has to do with the fact that the last quarter of the pages in this book--after 135--are not printed upon. Six fables are presented on 97-135. They are heavily political, specifically anti-monarchical. Is that perhaps why the book was published in France rather than somewhere in the United Kingdom? I think they are "conceits" or even "allegories" more than fables. The first speaks of kings living in an ice palace on a frozen river; then there is a thaw, and the river melts, and they simply disappear. The second describes a country in which beauty is presumed to be present in gradations from the highest classes--the most beautiful, of course--down to the ugly lowest classes. Then a shipwreck brings this country for the first time a load of mirrors, and the fiction is over. The third expresses outrage that a healthy bullock like the people should be sacrificed to or for a blue-bottle fly like the king. The fourth is on the abominable marriage of church and state. The fable here involves a royal person meeting a monk and borrowing his cape (the monk hopes for a better one!) and running amok with inpunity in the name of religion. The fifth is a hyperbolic presentation of the need to whip the three-year old Lama of Tibet because he had revealed himself to be so outrageously bad a ruler. Kings trust to soldiers, the final fable says, but soldiers are like extinguishers that a lord used to keep down fires. Alas, the extinguishers themselves caught fire! Lively polemical poetry. The covers, endpapers, and page edges have lovely marbling on them. 4¼" x 7". The final anomaly is that this is one of very few books I have acquired for which I can find no information about when or where I found it.

1823 The American Spelling Book. Containing the Rudiments of the English Language for the Use of Schools in the United States. By Noah Webster, Esq. The Revised Impression, with the Latest Corrections. Brattleborough, VT: Holbrook and ?. See 1817/23.

1824 Auswahl anmuthiger Fabeln aus den vorzüglichsten Dichtern. Zur Belehrung und Unterhaltung. Zweiter Theil.  Various German fabulists.  Illustrated by Raphael Winter (Wintter).  First edition.  Paperbound.  Karlsruhe: Verlag Johann Velten.  €60 from Antiquariat Thomas Rezek, Munich, July, '19.

I will quote from the bookseller's online description: "Lith. Titel, 20 Blatt, 18 lith. Tafeln Umschlag d. Zt.  In sich abgeschlossene zweite Folge mit 18 Fabeln von Krummacher, Pfeffel und Gellert mit 18 schönen Lithographien, die verschiedene Tiere zeigen. Eine erste Folge war 1823 erschienen. Der Tiermaler Raphael Wintter war seit 1809 erster Lithograph an der von seinem Schwiegervater Mettenleiter eingerichteten Anstalt in München."  As Herr Rezek noted, the low price of this lovely volume comes from its being an orphan.  A search for Volume I online proved futile.  I will keep watching out for it.  The book has a knack for different spellings, including "Carlsruhe," "Wintter/Winter," and "Tieger,"  Meissner and Gleim are also included.  The illustrations are printed on right-hand pages with blank versos.  Among the most successful of the full-page engravings are "Der Löwe und die Klapperschlange" (#21) and "Der Löwe und die Natter" (#22).  Metzner describes the illustrations this way: "Grossflächige, naturgetreue Tierdarstellungen im Vordergrund; weiter Ausblick in Landschaftshintergrund."  This book was one of the lovelier finds in my six weeks of book hunting in Europe in summer of 2019.

1824 Fables Nouvelles, Tome Second. Auguste Rigaud. Hardbound. Paris: Peytieux Libraire. €35 from La Source du Savoir, Marché Dauphine, Saint-Ouen, July, '09.

This book remains something of an orphan in this collection. I presumed that I could find something on Rigaud in Shapiro's The Fabulists French, but he is alas not there. There is a section on him in Wikipedia. He lived through turbulent political times. It seems that fable was his strong point. This is the second volume of a two-volume work; the first volume had appeared in 1823. I notice that the first fable here is GA, no doubt developed in dependence upon but differently from La Fontaine. Wikipedia has this to say about Rigaud: "c'est pour l'apologue qu'il parait avoir eu une vocation décidéec'est par les fables qu'il s'est assuré un nom durable car il avait la bonhomie, la modestie et presque la simplicité naïve de La Fontaine. On peut cependant lui reprocher des longueurs et des négligences." Sorry that I cannot write more! 

1824 Liber Primus. Or A First Book of Latin Exercises. Joseph Dana. Boston: Charles Ewer. See 1815/24.

1824 Phaedri Fabulae. In usum scholarum expurgatae; quibus accedunt notulae anglicae et quaestiones. C. Bradley. Editio quarta. Londini: In aedibus Valpianis (A.J. Valpy). $10.45 at J. Thornton and Son, Oxford, July, '92.

A handy little calf-covered school volume of Phaedrus, with English notes at page bottom and simplistic discussion questions on 95-104. Opening T of C and twelve pages of advertisements at the end.

1825 Choix de Fables de La Fontaine précédé d'une notice sur sa vie, suivie de petits Dialogues propres à faire sentir aux Enfants les Beautés de l'apologue.  J.-C. Jumel.  3me Edition.  Hardbound.  Paris: Librairie d'Education & de Jurisprudence d'Alexis Eymery.  $52 from elf eldar, Thessalonike, Greece, through Ebay, June, ‘21.  . 

The frontispiece here has La Fontaine contemplating on the grounds of Versailles.  The title-page illustration is of the schoolmaster lecturing the drowning child.  This schoolmaster looks an awful lot like a Jesuit!  He is wearing a soutane!  There are four further intercalated pages, each offering two illustrations: 28, 63, 90, and 118.  Maybe the best of these is 63, featuring MM and “The Cobbler and the Financier.”  There is a lovely confusion: the pre-title-page has this as the third edition in 1825.  The following proper title-page makes it out to be the fourth edition in 1824!  Does Eymery’s calendar go backwards?  Overall, there are 81 fables on 144 pages, followed by, first, “Philemon and Baucis”; secondly, six dialogues on the “beauties” of some of La Fontaine’s fables; thirdly, an essay on how to recite fables; and, fourthly, a comprehensive T of C.  About 3¼” x 5”.  Not in Bodemann.  Our educational system would not be so focused today on reciting fables!

1825 Fables de Florian.  Hardbound.  Paris: Chez Belin - le Prieur.  $9.95 from Fortuna, Scituate, MA, through eBay, Oct., '17. 

This little (3¼" x 5¼") book, which once belonged to M.O. Bailey of the Monitorial School, has a full-page frontispiece of Florian, working apparently at the foot of a statue of the Muse.  It offers, about every twelve pages, a set of five or six small and rather rudimentary illustrations of the fables.  Perhaps most curious among them is the illustration of the crocodile eating a child (169).  I can find no other information on this book.  Illustrations appear facing 33, 47, 61, 78, 92, 102, 120, 124, 129, 143, 154, 163, 169, and 183.  There is a long introduction "De la Fable" (4-32) without attribution.  The front cover is coming loose.

1825 Fables Inédites des XIIe, XIIIe et XIVe Siècles et Fables de la Fontaine. Volume I of II. A.C.M. Robert. Paris: Étienne Cabin. $65 at Inner Circle, NY, May, '91.

A treasurehouse in a volume in surprisingly good condition. Robert's claim is to have collected, with each LaFontaine fable, the Greek, Latin, French, Italian, Spanish, German, English, Dutch, and Oriental treatments of the same matter done before LaFontaine. Volume I offers thirty-two careful engravings from Ysopet I and seven from Ysopet-Avionnet, with four inferior examples from Ysopet II for contrast--all rendered by Paul Legrand from the fourteenth-century manuscripts. The illustrations are indexed on ix. The best of them: Renard and Corbel (Pl. 1), OF (2), TMCM (7), "The Oak and the Reeds" (11), "The Monkey Judge" (14), "The Hares and the Frogs" (18), "The Old Lion" (23), "The Ass and the Lapdog" (25), FM (27), "The Fox and the Painted Head" (29), "The Horse and the Lion (35; do not miss "35 bis" from Ysopet II), and "The Monkey Mother" (38). The volume begins with a long essay on LaFontaine's predecessors (xiii-ccxl). A labor of love!

1825 Fables Inédites des XIIe, XIIIe et XIVe Siècles et Fables de la Fontaine. A.C.M. Robert. Paul Legrand. Hardbound. Paris: Etienne Cabin. $12.50 from Robert Weinstein, Upland, CA, through eBay, Oct., '08.

I already have a copy of this book. This second copy differs in one essential respect: It adds a name under La Fontaine's picture in the frontispiece! How curious! It differs in other respects, too. It has no slipsheet facing that picture. It has smaller margins, more evenly cut pages, poorer paper, and a simpler binding. It once belonged to the Princeton University Library, where it seems to have been taken out once, in 1929. Finally, it cost about one-fifth of the finer version that I found in 1991. I will include some of my remarks on that earlier find. Robert's claim is to have collected, with each LaFontaine fable, the Greek, Latin, French, Italian, Spanish, German, English, Dutch, and Oriental treatments of the same matter done before LaFontaine. Volume I offers thirty-two careful engravings from Ysopet I and seven from Ysopet-Avionnet, with four inferior examples from Ysopet II for contrast--all rendered by Paul Legrand from the fourteenth-century manuscripts. The illustrations are indexed on ix. The best of them: Renard and Corbel (Pl. 1), OF (2), TMCM (7), "The Oak and the Reeds" (11), "The Monkey Judge" (14), "The Hares and the Frogs" (18), "The Old Lion" (23), "The Ass and the Lapdog" (25), FM (27), "The Fox and the Painted Head" (29), "The Horse and the Lion" (35; do not miss "35 bis" from Ysopet II), and "The Monkey Mother" (38). The volume begins with a long essay on LaFontaine's predecessors (xiii-ccxl). A labor of love!

1825 Fables Russes Tirées du recueil de M. Kriloff, et imitées en vers Français et Italiens pars divers auteurs, Tome Second. Publiées par M. le Comte Orloff. (Contributors: Pierre Edouard Lémontey and Francesco Salfi.) Ornées du portrait de M. Kriloff et de cinq gravures. Hardbound. Printed in Paris. Paris: Bossange et Bossange Frères: Firmin Didot. $125 from Found Bound Books, NY, Sept., '98.

Bodemann #255. Now here is an unusual book. Note that it is just the second volume of a two-volume set. Overall the two volumes offer eighty-six of Krylof's fables in Russian in five books with corresponding "imitations" in French and Italian. This volume has Books III-V; they contain, respectively, seventeen, seventeen, and eighteen fables for a total of fifty-two in this volume. Note that the three T of C pages for each book come after the book. The steel engravings come one at the beginning of each book for the first fable in that book: "The Cat and the Cook" (3), "Sharing Up" (127), and "Wayfarers and Hounds" (249). In at least one case, there are two Italian translations given: "Il Ruscello" on 351 and 354. What a lovely old book! Many of the French translations were done by Le Bailly. Were the rest just sitting around waiting to be included in a book like this one?

1825 Oeuvres de A.V. Arnault: Vol. IV: Fables et Poésies Diverses. Hardbound. Paris: Bossange Père et Bossange Frères. $60 from The Book House on Grand, St. Paul, March, '96.

Volume IV of the works of Arnault: the only indication I can find is the line at the bottom of 548: "Fin de la Table du Quatrième Volume." Eight books of fables --142 of them -- cover 1-300, with notes on 301-408. There is an AI at the back, listing each fable's number, book, and page. Shapiro writes of "a body of highly original fables composed over the years as a progressively more cynical descant above the often tempestuous events of his personal and public life" (The Fabulists French 124). Arnault underwent tumultuous events indeed, finding favor first with the aristocracy and then with Napoleon, under whom he held important government posts. Exiled after Napoleon's fall, he later was allowed to return to France. Shapiro presents eleven of Arnault's fables. As he suggests, they represent both his traditional and innovative styles. Shapiro is right: "Often the very subjects would remain obscure if not clarified by their titles" (125). For Shapiro, he stands out for the choice of subjects of his own invention and for the unique satirical and epigrammatic style he introduced into the genre. A startling fable recounts Leda's amours, acknowledges that the same kind of dalliance occurs today, but then notes the difference: the turkey has replaced the swan. A dog prides himself on being grand protector and royal host to many fleas. They go where he goes. One flea corrects him: it is not that they admire him but rather that they feed on him. A despot sees a statue to him down in the muck and mire and bellows "Who dares insult me thus? Off with his head!" "But sire, it was the lightning." 

1825 Oeuvres de J. La Fontaine: Fables: Tome I.  Hardbound.  Paris: Chez Castel de Courval.  $75 from mercatinonoir2000 on eBay, Jan., '15.  

This small pair of volumes (3¼" x 4½") may come from a larger set including other works.  As far as I can establish, there are four illustrations per volume after the frontispiece of La Fontaine and the title-page design of animals lounging near a tree.  The illustrations are full-page and well done: FC (57); FS (81); "The Cat and the Old Rat" (150); and TH (240).  The latter is less distinctive than the other three.  I had to work to decipher the tortoise!  Not in Bodemann, who does have Castel de Courval doing a Florian edition in 1824.

1825 Oeuvres de J. La Fontaine: Fables: Tome II.  Hardbound.  Paris: Chez Castel de Courval.  $75 from mercatinonoir2000 on eBay, Jan., '15.  

This small pair of volumes (3¼" x 4½") may come from a larger set including other works.  As far as I can establish, there are four illustrations per volume.  The illustrations are full-page and well done: the frontispiece here has two large birds apparently fighting in the air while a smaller bird runs on the land.  The same printer's design highlights the title-page as in Volume I.  Further illustrations include TT (159) and "The Raven, the Gazelle, the Tortoise, and the Rat" (163).  I believe that there is a fourth full-page illustration in the book, but I cannot find it!  There is an AI at the back.  Not in Bodemann, who does have Castel de Courval doing a Florian edition in 1824.

1825 One Hundred Fables in Verse by Various Authors. Selected and Revised by James Plumptre. Hardbound. London: C. & J. Rivington. £7,17 from Edward Comerford, County Kilkenny, Ireland, through eBay, May, '03. 

I am amazed that I found this book. I do not think that I have ever seen reference to it. It is not in Bodemann. The beginning T of C lists not only titles by number and the page on which they can be found. For each fable there is also a listing of its author, both in the T of C and and before the respective text of a fable. The hundred fables here include quite a variety of authors. Prominent among them are Smart and Wilkie. "The Belly and Its Members" is here from "Coriolanus." "The Acorn and the Pumpkin" is done here as "The Atheist and the Acorn" (5). Samuel Foote does a fine job of containing MSA (89).

1825 Phaedri Augusti Liberti Fabularum Aesopiarum Libri Quinque. Cum notis et emendationibus Franc. Iosephi Desbillons ex ejus commentario pleniore desumptis; edidit et animadversiones adiecit Fridericus Henricus Bothe. Hardbound. Mannheim: Sumtibus Tobiae Loeffleri (Tobias Loeffler). €22 from Antiquariat Bourcy & Paulusch, Vienna, July, '03.

This seems to be a reworking of the first edition I have from Loeffler in 1786. The type has been newly set. What appear in that earlier edition as "Addenda ad Notas" on xv-lxi seem here to have been integrated into the footnotes on each fable. Note that this, like its 1786 predecessor, is Desbillon's commentary on the five books of Phaedrus, not an edition of his own Aesopic fables in fifteen books. The provincial superior's "Imprimi Potest" of 1760 is still included as the last page of this book. By the time it was printed, the Society of Jesus was of course back in existence, as it had not been at the time of the earlier book's printing. Let me repeat--and at one or two points edit--some of my comments made on that earlier edition. Of course, I have long felt a particular tie to Desbillons and his work, since he was a Jesuit working on fables. For me the most touching two parts of this book are therefore the opening "Praefatio," in which he speaks of having received permission in 1760 to publish his work on Phaedrus from the erudite men of the Society of Jesus. Parisian printers had then undertaken to publish the book when, Desbillons writes, an unawaited calamity took him from his studies and forced him to seek lodging "among people outside." He is speaking of course of the suppression of the Society of Jesus. The "S.J." does not appear here after Desbillons' name, as it did not in 1786. In a footnote to the section of the preface to which I have referred he says that he has taken care to have this 1760 permission included in the book "as a certain memorial to my one-time condition," namely his condition as a Jesuit. There are no illustrations. The book begins with three disputations on the life of Phaedrus, his fables, and their editions.

1825? Le Jeu des Fables ou Fables de Lafontaine mises en action, Ier Cahier.  Hardbound.  Vienna: Henri Frederic Müller.  $47.60 from Antiquariat Wortschatz, Markt Hartmannsdorf, Austria, Oct., '21.

Here is a fascinating volume.  The title-page adds this: "Avec un tableau colorié et avec beaucoup de figures coloriés et decoupees."  I first wrote "Unfortunately, whatever these were, they are no longer present."  A little research revealed what they are.  This book included a heavy card with slots for various fable figures.  The card and the figures have been removed from this copy.  Even the second title-page in German and its verso, the beginning of the French preface, have been removed.  What is left is a dual presentation of La Fontaine's French verse on the left side and corresponding rhyming German couplets in Gothic script on right-hand pages.  The difference of this copy by contrast with other "Jeu des Fables" booklets available on the web is that this copy offers bilingual fables.  Most publishers are French, and their texts are just La Fontaine's French.  There are here fifteen such fables on 67 pages.  Check our listing of one such French edition under "Games" in the "Toys" section of our web.  5" x 7".

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1826 - 1830

1826 Fabelkunde voor Jonge Lieden, Tweede Deel. Door A.B. Van Meerten Geb. Schilperoort. Sculptor P. Velyn. Engraver J. Smies. Hardbound. Breda, Holland: F.B. Hollingerus Pijpers. $18.50 from Beatrice M. Young Collectibles, Kalamazoo, MI, through eBay, Sept., '08.

Purchasing this book was a mistake. It is not a fable book at all, but rather the second part of a two-part compendium of mythology. It comprises the seventh through twelfth "conversations" giving the stories behind major mythological figures of the ancient western world. Pages 1-11 are a T of C in narrative form, giving an overview of the six chapters. There are five illustrations. The sculptor for all five is P. Velyn, while the ingraver is J. Smies. The title-page presents two figures pictured before the temple of truth. In a fable book, those would have been "Truth" and "Fable." Might that be the identification here too? Facing 21 is an illustration of Flora, Pomona and Vertumnus. Facing 154 is the most accessible illustration for us, the judgment of Paris. Facing 173 is "De Dood Zoo als de Ouden die Voorstelden." Facing 215 is an illustration of Penelope that involves a chariot. I do not recognize the scene, and the title is little help: "Penelope Haren Vader Verlatende om Haren Man te Volgen." Having this book in the collection will keep me from buying it again! There is an AI of mythological personages at the back.

1826 Fables de La Fontaine. Nouvelle Édition revue et accompagnée de notes par C.A. Walckenaer. Plates by Jean-Michel Moreau le Jeune. Two volumes in one. Paris: Nepveu, Libraire, & L. de Bure, Libraire. $113.41 from Tomasz Wysocki, Annandale, VA, through Ebay, Sept., '00.

Two volumes, separately paginated, in one. This copy either is Bassy 29b or is a two-volume printing of the same edition in the same year. Bassy's copy seems to have continuous page numbers. The discrepancy is apparent because Bassy lists the plates with page numbers. After a frontispiece portrait of La Fontaine by Rigaut, there are twelve very nice plates by Jean-Michel Moreau le Jeune, apportioned one to a book. Among the best are OR (84), which suggests two human attitudes, respectively, in its male and female figures enclosed in the angle created by the oak and the reeds. Another strong presentation is "Le Villageois et le Serpent" (249). Bassy says that this plate is dated, but I cannot find the date. The illustration for MM (292) seems to me to be a classic presentation that I have seen before in some form. Not in Bodemann. Some foxing. Otherwise very good condition.

1826 Fables Nouvelles, Two Volumes. (Louis-François) Jauffret. Engravings by Alexandre Desenne. Deuxième Edition revue et augmentée. Hardbound. Paris: Béchet Ainé et Cie. €30 from Antiquariat Delibrium, Munster, August, '06.

This expanded second edition of Jauffret's fables includes some 442 fables in fifteen books. An earlier edition of 1814 or 1815 was published by Maradan: Didot l'ainé and contained only ten books. Curiously, this edition seems to take over the six illustrations and portrait frontispiece from that edition, with no new illustrations added for the added five books of fables. Those illustrations appear here at 39, 89, 178, 219, and, in Volume 2, as frontispiece and at 87. Shapiro presents six of these fables in The Fabulists French. For example, Jauffret's very first fable cites La Fontaine but tracks another crow who waits to let a farmer thresh the grain. When he has done so, the crow can seize nothing of it. Wait for something better and you may get nothing! Sometimes Jauffret offers an extension of a La Fontaine fable. The wolf of WL meets a lion and offers all sorts of excuses but suffers the very kind of "justice" that he had inflicted. The sister of the exploded frog in OF decides to go on a diet to avoid her sister's fate, but may well kill herself with the diet. She needs the golden mean. An oak thinks itself generous in offering its acorns to the animals. A pig responds: "You only give what you are too weak to keep." A cat is ready to seize a mouse but is reminded that this mouse's father once saved the cat and got a promise from the cat of perpetual protection of all the father mouse's family. The cat recalls, agrees, and asks to meet the whole family of twelve. Of course she devours them all! The closing AI is cut off in the midst of "B." This book was once owned in a Jesuit library. It is not the first that I have had to buy back! 

1826 Gay's Fables and Other Poems, Cotton's Visions in Verse, Moore's Fables for the Female Sex. With sketches of the authors' lives. Frontispiece and title page engravings by H. Corbould. Not quite 5 " by 3 ". Dove's English Classics. London: J.F. Dove. $9.95 at Chandler's, Evanston, Sept., '93.

A lovely little book containing, apparently, all sixty-seven of Gay's fables and the sixteen of Moore's fables that I find in my own 1744/83? edition. A surprising find in a mess of books from a local estate. It was worth asking "This price of $24.50 is not yours, is it?"

1826 Il Favoleggiatore Italiano, ossia Raccolta di Favole Scelte in Prosa. L. Fabre. Hardbound. London: Dulau and Company. Australian $25 from Ulverston Books, Queenscliff, Australia, April, '99.

This is a rarity: a collection of Italian fables published in England. It is intended, as the very wordy title-page points out, for the use of students. It contains sixty-two fables on 95 pages. Many vocabulary words are explained just after each fable. The book starts with a bilingual prologue on facing left and right pages. Except perhaps for the unusual "preliminary" fable, set between the prolog and the work, the fables are the standard Aesopic fables in the tradition. This is a wonderful little find, surprisingly well preserved over 180 years!

1826 Old Friends in a New Dress or Select Fables of Aesop in Verse. Third Edition, to which is now added a second part. Frontispiece engraved by J.F. Sharpe showing ten overlapping images of fables. Cover stamped: "Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge." London: Smith, Elder, and Co. Glasgow: Chalmers and Collins. $45.60 from McNaughton's, Edinburgh, July, '92.

126 fables on 235 pages, followed by more than twenty pages of advertisements. In fact, the text itself is preceded and followed by commendations of an earlier edition of the book. I have tried the first three fables. I find them good, "simple and unadorned" in the words of the introduction. The introduction points to one of the special features of this work much commended by its praisers: the moral is included in the fable, lest little people obtain the story without the benefit arising from it. Newly and beautifully bound.

1826 Phaedri Fabularum Aesopiarum libri quinque, quales omni parte illustratos publicavit Joann. Gottlob. Sam. Schwabe. Accedunt Romuli Fabularum Aesopiarum libri quatuor, quibus novas Phaedri Fabellas cum notulis variorum et suis subjunxit J. B. Gail. Volume 1 of 2 volumes. Bibliotheca Classica, Volumes 52 and 53, N.E. Lamaire, editor. Second edition. Paris: N.E. Lemaire. See 1819/26.

1826 Phaedri Fabularum Aesopiarum libri quinque, quales omni parte illustratos publicavit Joann. Gottlob. Sam. Schwabe. Accedunt Romuli Fabularum Aesopiarum libri quatuor, quibus novas Phaedri Fabellas cum notulis variorum et suis subjunxit J. B. Gail. Volume 2 of 2 volumes. Bibliotheca Classica, Volumes 52 and 53, N.E. Lamaire, editor. Second edition. Paris: N.E. Lemaire. See 1819/26.

1827 Die Fabeln des Aesop in deutscher, lateinischer, französischer und italienischer Sprache, Heft 17. Paperbound. Vienna: Heft #17 of 23: Kunsthandlung des H.F. Müller. DM 38 from an unknown source, August, '01.

This is a very curious little pamphlet. It is Volume 17 of a series that began appearing in January of 1827 and kept appearing every Saturday. Each little installment contains four fables in four languages on green-tinted paper, with four full-page illustrations on white paper. This looks as though it is a descendant of Joseph Frister's work in 1818 (Bodemann #233). Curiously this Heft #17 contains Fables XX through XXIII (pages 77 through 92). The four fables are "Die Ameise und die Taube," "Die Fliege," "Der Bauer und seine Kinder," and "Die Wolf und der Bauerin." The names connecting this pamphlet with Bodemann #233 are Perger, Gerstner, and Belling. In the first illustration, I think we find "Berger" rather than "Perger." Does that fact suggest that we are dealing with an engraving done after Perger rather than by him?

1827 Fables de La Fontaine.  Hardbound.  Paris: Librairie Ancienne et Moderne.  $16.25 from Cory Brassard, Old Lyme, CT, Feb., '20.

This thick little volume (4" x 2½" x 1½" thick) has to be one of the most compact volumes in the collection.  To my surprise, it is really an "Oeuvres de La Fontaine," and I wonder if a title-page to that effect might have been lost at the book's beginning.  It is there before the other three volumes bound together here.  The book thus contains not only all twelve books of fables in two stated volumes separately paginated (181 and 222 pages, respectively) but also two volumes of the Contes (152 and 184 pages, respectively).  There is a T of C at the beginning of each of the four volumes.  No illustrations.

1827 Fábulas de Fedro Liberto de Augusto en Latin y Castellano. D. Francisco de Cepeda. Hardbound. Madrid: D. Julian Viana. $23.50 from Marilú Cerpa Moral, Miraflores, Lima, Peru, through eBay, August, '06.

The subtitle continues: "Ilustradas con algunas notas mas de las que tenian, para la facil inteligencia y uso de los principiantes en los estudios de gramática." Cepeda is described as "Maestro de Latinidad en los Reales Estudios de San Isidro, é Individuo de la Real Academia Latina Matritense." The book is about 4¼" x 6¼" with 298 pages and a final T of C. A certain Clemente Cornejo signed the book in several places, in particular at the beginning and end of the "Prólogo." Phaedrus' Latin verse is on the left, followed by a set of notes for an individual fable. These may well spill over onto the right-hand page, which is otherwise reserved for the Spanish prose translation. Marbled endpapers and leather covers. The book is in surprisingly good condition for a schoolbook of some 180 years!

1827 Les Fables d'Ésope, mises en Français, avec le sens moral, en quatre vers, à chaque Fables. Ornée de 15 Planches. Nouvelle edition. Hardbound. Paris: Belin Le Prieur; Le Prieur. $76 AUD from V. Wood, Corrimal, Australia, through eBay, August, '05. 

This seems to be a later printing of the book which Bodemann lists under #215.1, down to the page count (302) and the number of plates (15). The "Life of Aesop" lasts some 67 pages. The book measures about 3½" x 5½". Except for the frontispiece, each page of illustrations has three horizontal "panels," each presenting two fables without a dividing border between the two scenes. Besides the frontispiece of Aesop with the animals, illustrations occur at 69, 79, 92, 100, 111, 119, 132, 149, 167, 188, 234, 244, 257, and 275. The illustrations are well preserved. The animal figures are sometimes poorly formed. I think the artist has better luck with the human form. Among the more successful illustrations, I believe, are the woodsman asking for an axe-handle from the trees (100), the fisherman and the little fish (167), and the travelers and the plane-tree (188). Monkeys tend to exhibit human form, as in the image of the mother-monkey and her child (188).

1827 Phaedri Fabulae Expurgatae, Accedunt tractatus de versu iambico, notulae anglicae et quaestiones, in usum Scholae Bostoniensis. Hardbound. Printed in Boston: Hilliard, Gray, Little, et Wilkins. $40 from The Archives Book Shop, East Lansing, MI, Oct., '99.

Lamb #560 and Carnes #507. The phrasing of the title and the structure of the book are remarkably similar to what one finds in the 1824 London Valpy edition. Might much of this book, which of course has no author noted, have been pirated from the English book? Forty-one pages of notes and eight pages of discussion questions at the end.

1828 Aesop in Rhyme, with Some Originals With an engraving to each fable. By Jefferys Taylor. Third edition. Hardbound. London: Baldwin and Cradock. See 1821/28.

1828 Aesop's Fables as Romanized by Phaedrus, with a Literal Interlinear Translation, Accompanied by Illustrative Notes on the Plan Recommended by Mr. Locke. Apparent first edition. Hardbound. London: Latin Series, Introductory Part: Printed for John Taylor. $39.13 from The Booksmiths, Stogursey, Bridgwater, UK, through abe, Sept., '06.

See my later printing of this book--the eleventh edition--from 1845. The publisher will change then to Taylor and Walton. For comments see Carnes. "The introduction to this literal translation of Phaedrus explains the usefulness of such a translation, provides an introduction to Phaedrus and defends the choice of fables presented. The choice of Phaedrus as the elementary text in a series of such texts is discussed. The editors/translators provide promythia to each of the fables. The fifty fables presented are followed by a short section on Phaedrus' meter followed by a reprint of the fifty fables without the interlinear translation." I underscore what Carnes says about the elementary character of this book. It is a student's absolute introduction into study of Latin. The method seems to be to create a good English translation of the particular poem selected from among Phaedrus' fables. Then the Latin is arranged to follow the English word order, with each word directly above the corresponding English word. Thus the Latin is in English word order. xxiv + 98 pages. This is one of those books whose cover looks like a title-page. The only problem is that the full title is different on cover and title-page! The cover starts with "A Popular System of Classical Instruction Combining the Methods of Locke, Ascham, Milton, &c." The title on the title-page rearranges the elements and adds "In Latin and English." There are some crayon drawings on early pages and especially on xxii-xxiii. As in the later edition, there are scattered notes at the bottom of the page. Carnes confirms that this is indeed a first edition.

1828 Aesop's Fables as Romanized by Phaedrus, with a Literal Interlinear Translation, Accompanied by Illustrative Notes on the Plan Recommended by Mr. Locke.  Apparent first edition.  Hardbound.  London: Latin Series, Introductory Part: Printed for John Taylor.  £3.98 from Hazel Waiwright, Wigton, UK, through Ebay, Sept., '20.

Here is a second copy of this textbook.  I keep it in the collection because it is a cleaner copy of the identical book already in the collection.  I would guess that one reason I bid on it has to do with confusion of titles.  As my description of the first copy points out, the cover and title-page have different titles.  And the seller's "title" in this auction was neither of those.  As I wrote there, we have a later printing of this book--the eleventh edition--from 1845.  The publisher will change then to Taylor and Walton.  For comments see Carnes.  "The introduction to this literal translation of Phaedrus explains the usefulness of such a translation, provides an introduction to Phaedrus and defends the choice of fables presented. The choice of Phaedrus as the elementary text in a series of such texts is discussed. The editors/translators provide promythia to each of the fables. The fifty fables presented are followed by a short section on Phaedrus’ meter followed by a reprint of the fifty fables without the interlinear translation." I underscore what Carnes says about the elementary character of this book.  It is a student's absolute introduction into study of Latin.  The method seems to be to create a good English translation of the particular poem selected from among Phaedrus' fables.  Then the Latin is arranged to follow the English word order, with each word directly above the corresponding English word.  Thus the Latin is in English word order.  xxiv + 98 pages.  This is one of those books whose cover looks like a title-page.  The only problem is that the full title is different on cover and title-page!  The cover starts with "A Popular System of Classical Instruction Combining the Methods of Locke, Ascham, Milton, &c."  The title on the title-page rearranges the elements and adds "In Latin and English."  Carnes confirms that this is indeed a first edition.

1828 Aesop's Fables with Upwards of One Hundred and Fifty Engravings on Wood. Samuel Croxall. Hardbound. Chiswick: Joseph Booker, Whittaker, Duncan et al. $50 from Hardings Books, Wells, Maine, through eBay, Nov., '08.

This book is identical with versions I have from 1839, 1841, and 1849. With all of these it shares the small size, here about 3¼" x 5". This version turns out to be the earliest I have of this version. Other versions' titles will speak of "Emblematical Devices" rather than "Engravings on Wood." As is typical of Croxall versions, there are 110 fables, each with the first part of Croxall's long application. There is a Croxall preface at the beginning, but there is no T of C. Thomas Beckman wrote me earlier that the illustrations are probably by James Poupard, and they were initially used in a Philadelphia edition of 1802 by R. Aitkin. 228 pages. The front cover is separated. 

1828 Fabler af Gyllenborg, ur dess Sednare Vitterhets Arbeten aftryckte.  With four lithographs by Lundquist and Gjöthstrom (?).  Hardbound.  Stockholm: Johan Hörberg.  450 Kroner from Alfa Antiquariat, Stockholm, July, '14.  

Here is one of the nicest books I found in Sweden.  Count Gustaf Fredrik Gyllenborg (1731-1808) was one of the original members of the Swedish Academy.  This seems to be the important publication of fables by Gyllenborg.  Does the title suggest that it was put together posthumously from the papers he left behind twenty years earlier?  There are four books, introduced by an opening T of C.  They seem typically Aesopic.  Would one be correct to suspect a typical Enlightenment agenda in the fables?  There is a strong lithographed frontispiece: "Aesopus och Djuren."  Aesop here is a balding senior among animals.  The other three lithographed illustrations are LM (57); "Tuppen City Tornet" (109); and "The Man with an Enlivened Snake" (161).  They are very well executed!  Each lithograph is signed "Lundquist" and "Gjöthstrom (?)."  The book's paper is unusually thin.  This work has been put onto the web by Projekt Runeberg.  Not in Bodemann.

1828 Fables Choisies de M. Jauffret, Tradutes en Vers Latins (Spine: Selectae Fabulae), Vol. I.  Lois-François Jauffret; Translated by Adolphe Jaufret.  Lithographs by Beisson.  Hardbound.  Paris: Chez A. Delalain.  €35 from Librairie Picard, Paris, August, '14. 

The title-page continues: "Avec le Texte en Regard; Suivies de Diverses Poésies Latines."  This pair of volumes is a genuine curiosity.  Louis-François Jauffret was editor of a volume of Florian's fables in 1801 and in 1815 he published his own volume of ten books of French fables.  Bodemann (#225) speaks of these fables in the 1815 volume as "Insgesamt 200 gereimte Versfabeln, Neuerfindungen mit Stoffanleihen bei verschiedenen Fabeldichtern."  In this present pair of volumes, thirteen years later, his son, apparently a professor of law, publishes five books of his father's fables with Latin translations on facing pages.  Picard had this unusual find to start a great Parisian weekend for me.  As Picard notes, there are four full-page lithographs by Beisson in the two volumes, two of them as frontispieces.  Here "L'Ane paré de Fleurs" serves as frontispiece, and "Le Malheureux et la Fortune" appears with its fable facing 118.  I read this three-page fable as a sample.  An unhappy man accuses Fortune of never giving him a break.  She appears and leads him to a cave of riches.  He can have all that he can carry back to the world.  He loads himself so heavily that he breaks down on the road back to the normal world, and thus loses everything.  In his dying breath he acknowledges that he killed himself by aspiring to riches of which he was not worthy.  This volume offers three of the five books.  There is a T of C for this volume on 264-9. Only after finishing this comment did I realize that the collection has an expanded second edition of the senior Jauffret's fables published in 1826.

1828 Fables Choisies de M. Jauffret, Tradutes en Vers Latins (Spine: Selectae Fabulae), Vol. II.  Louis-François Jauffret; Translated by Adolphe Jaufret.  Lithographs by Beisson.  Hardbound.  Paris: Chez A. Delalain.  €35 from Librairie Picard, Paris, August, '14.  

The title-page continues: "Avec le Texte en Regard; Suivies de Diverses Poésies Latines."  The pair of volumes, of which this is Volume II, are a genuine curiosity.  Louis-François Jauffret was editor of a volume of Florian's fables in 1801 and in 1815 he published his own volume of ten books of French fables.  Bodemann (#225) speaks of these fables in the 1815 volume as "Insgesamt 200 gereimte Versfabeln, Neuerfindungen mit Stoffanleihen bei verschiedenen Fabeldichtern."  This collection has the second edition of that book, published in 1826.  In this present pair of volumes, thirteen years after the first edition and two years after the second, his son, apparently a professor of law, publishes five books of his father's fables with Latin translations on facing pages.  Picard had this unusual find to start a great Parisian weekend for me.  As Picard notes, there are four full-page lithographs by Beisson in the two volumes, two of them as frontispieces.  Here "L'Ours et l'Ane" serves as frontispiece, and "Venus et la Colombe" appears with its fable facing 54.  As a sample, I read "L'Ours et l'Ane."  A bear facing death after years of reigning honorably is confronted by an ass, who recalls a tawdry chapter in the bear's history.  The ass alleges that the bear was once a street entertainer.  The bear denies it, imprisons him, and threatens death.  "What did I do?" asks the ass.  Courtiers tell him that powerful people do not like to have their unseemly past deeds recalled.  The "Varia Carmina" section taking up 92 pages at the end of this volume consists of a mixture, as the closing T of C for this volume indicates, of six French poems presented bilingually and a number of Latin poems.  Should one presume that the latter are by Jauffret fils?

1828 Fables de La Fontaine. Hardbound. Paris: Hector Bossange. $15 from an unknown source, August, '10.

"Édition Stéréotype, d'après le procédé de Firmin Didot." Book I is headed by a pleasant illustration of a plowman with bees in the background. Book VII is headed by a printer's design. Otherwise this little (3½" x 5¼") volume of the complete fables of La Fontaine has little to distinguish it. Only the dedication to the Dauphin precedes that first fable. There is an AI following 203. It uses Roman-numeral pagination, starting -- curiously -- at "c." Leather covers. Canvas binding with a red title-strip that has lost its print.

1828 Fables de La Fontaine avec un nouveau commentaire, Tome Premier. Ch. Nodier. Illustrated by Pierre-Nolasque Bergeret.  Hardbound. Third edition. Paris: Emler Frères, Libraires. $15.50 from Deborah Schwabach, Gilbertsville, NY, through Ebay, March, '99.

The value of these two volumes lies chiefly, I believe, in the twelve aqua-fortis gravures designed by Pierre-Nolasque Bergeret. They often have a medallion inserted within a picture. A list of them, as apparently first published by Bergeret in 1818, appears on Bassy 230; there is also a shorter list in the description of the 1818 edition on Bassy 265. They include 1) a frontispiece showing a bust of La Fontaine with a halo over a tombstone on which there is an image of a man (La Fontaine?) apparently standing before a shut door. Others show 2) "L'Enfant et le Maitre d'Ecole" inside a picture of FC and GA (79), 3) MSA within TT and "The Cat Judges Rat and Weasel" (132), 4) "The Miser Who Lost His Treasure" within "The Monkey Throwing Away His Master's Coins" (216), 5) "The Ass Carrying Relics" inside "The Hermit Rat" (250), and 6) "The Driver Bogged Down" inside WL (294). Outside this series (and not mentioned by Bassy) is "The Two Servants," a medallion without a surrounding scene but with a slipsheet (238). I am certainly glad to find the edition, though a third, at this remarkable price!

1828 Fables de La Fontaine avec un nouveau commentaire, Tome Premier.  Ch. Nodier.  Pierre-Nolasque Bergeret.  Third edition.  Hardbound.  Paris: Emler Frères, Libraires.  $60 from Wessel and Lieberman Seattle, July, '13.

I made a mistake when I bought this pair of volumes, since I already had copies but thought that I did not.  My error, however, turns out to be a lucky one.  This two-volume set involves surprising placement of the same twelve illustrations reported on in the first copy I have.  If we count each frontispiece as the beginning of the volume's first book, we find this surprising order of the twelve illustrations numbered by their order in my first copy:  1, 4, 7, 11, 9, 8, 5, 12, 6, 2, 3, 10.    What a change!  I had heard that bookbinders exercised the right to place illustration pages where they thought best, but this is quite a switch!  The extra illustration in that earlier copy, "The Two Servants," seems not to be here at all.  Following the order of appearance here, the scenes in this Volume I include first a frontispiece showing a bust of La Fontaine with a halo over a tombstone on which there is an image of a man (La Fontaine?) apparently standing before a shut door.  Book II is introduced by "The Miser Who Lost His Treasure" within "The Monkey Throwing Away His Master's Coins" (89),   Book III gets the illustration that had been a frontispiece in the earlier copy, "Le Curé et le Mort" within TB and MM (132).  Book IV has "The Old Man and the Three Young Men" within "The Lion and the Gnat," "The Bees and the Drones," and "The Eagle and the Magpie" (173).  "The Oyster and the Litigants" within FC and "The Rat and the Oyster" (227) opens Book V, and "Democritus and the Abderites" within "The Two Cocks" and DW (265) Book VI.  As Bassy and Bodemann note, each illustration offers a medallion or a quadrangle resting on something in a scene, with one to four fable scenes playing around the medallion or quadrangle.  I had to pay much more for this copy than the first, but I am glad to have this pair of volumes in the collection.

1828 Fables de La Fontaine avec un nouveau commentaire, Tome Second. Ch. Nodier. Illustrated by Pierre-Nolasque Bergeret.  Hardbound. Third edition. Paris: Emler Frères, Libraires. $15.50 from Deborah Schwabach, Gilbertsville, NY, through Ebay, March, '99.

The value of these two volumes lies chiefly, I believe, in the twelve aqua-fortis gravures designed by Pierre-Nolasque Bergeret. They often have a medallion inserted within a picture. A list of them, as apparently first published by Bergeret in 1818, appears on Bassy 230; there is also a shorter list in the description of the 1818 edition on Bassy 265. They include 1) a frontispiece of "Le Curé et le Mort" within TB and MM; 2) "Democritus and the Abderites" within "The Two Cocks" and DW (133); 3) "The Oyster and the Litigants" within FC and "The Rat and the Oyster" (165); 4) "The Shepherd and the King" within FK and "The Spider and the Swallow" (218); 5) "The Old Man and the Three Young Men" within "The Lion and the Gnat," "The Bees and the Drones," and "The Eagle and the Magpie" (264); and 6) Philemon and Baucis (353). Bassy reproduces the illustrations from the frontispiece (86) and 165 (129). T of C and an alphabetical index at the back, followed by a mythological table and a list of celebrated personages. There is then a fifth table of unusual or original expressions by La Fontaine in the fables. The sixth table is of proverbs by La Fontaine. The last appendix contains a list of editions of La Fontaine's fables through 1825. Curiously it does not mention this book's first printing in 1818, but then I guess the presumption is that this book continues or is that edition. Here I do not find a separate illustrated page like that used for the two servants in Volume One. I am certainly glad to find this edition, though a third edition, at this remarkable price!

1828 Fables de La Fontaine avec un nouveau commentaire, Tome Second.  Ch. Nodier.  Pierre-Nolasque Bergeret.  Third edition.  Hardbound.  Paris: Emler Frères, Libraires.  $60 from Wessel and Lieberman, Seattle, July, '13.

I made a mistake when I bought this pair of volumes, since I already had copies but thought that I did not.  My error, however, turns out to be a lucky one.  This two-volume set involves surprising placement of the same twelve illustrations reported on in the first copy I have.  If we count each frontispiece as the beginning of the volume's first book, we find this surprising order of the twelve illustrations numbered by their order in my first copy:  1, 4, 7, 11, 9, 8, 5, 12, 6, 2, 3, 10.    What a change!  I had heard that bookbinders exercised the right to place illustration pages where they thought best, but this is quite a switch!  The extra illustration in that earlier copy, "The Two Servants," seems not to be here at all.  Following the order of appearance here, the scenes in this Volume II include as frontispiece "The Ass Carrying Relics" inside "The Hermit Rat" (250); Philemon and Baucis (70) for Book VIII; and "The Driver Bogged Down" inside WL (140) for Book IX.  Book X begins with "L'Enfant et le Maitre d'Ecole" inside a picture of FC and GA (188); Book XI with MSA inside of TT and "The Cat Judges Rat and Weasel" (239); and Book XII with "The Shepherd and the King" within FK and "The Spider and the Swallow" (273).  As Bassy and Bodemann note, each illustration offers a medallion or a quadrangle resting on something in a scene, with one to four fable scenes playing around the medallion or quadrangle.  I had to pay much more for this copy than the first, but I am glad to have this pair of volumes in the collection.

1828 M. Disteli's Umrisse zu A.E. Fröhlichs Fabeln.  Martin Disteli.  Apparently first printing.  Paperbound.  Aarau: H(einr).R(emig). Sauerländer & Co.  €152.70 from Wissenschaftl. Antiquariat Th. Haker e.K through Abebooks, Sept., '21.

Earlier I had found "Romantische Tierbilder zu Fabeln und Versen" from 1940 with a broad array of Disteli's work, including, on 30-45, these 9 plates and Fröhlich's text with each.  As when I worked through that book, I found the poems there helpful in giving focus to these satiric pieces.  They cover a wide array according to a helpful description found online: "Theater, Erziehung, Mönchtum und Kirche, Justiz, Parlamentarismus, Militär, Musik und bildende Kunst. Dazu jeweils witzig-lebendige, karikierende Darstellungen von Tiergruppen in menschlichen Kostümen bzw. Uniformen und politisch - gesellschaftlich akzentuierten Situationen." - Erschien als Beilage zu den Fabeln von Abraham Emanuel Fröhlich. - "Großen Erfolg hatte Disteli mit seinen Illustrationen zu den 1829 erschienenen Fabeln A. E. Fröhlichs. Die Radierungen sind inspiriert von Grandvilles "Metamorphoses du Jour", gehen jedoch über dessen Gesellschaftskritik hinaus. Die Fabel gibt Disteli den Vorwand für beißende politische Satire." (M. Claussen in LdKJL IV, S. 152).  Agreed!  I am unsure only of that 1829 date.  Perhaps it refers to Fröhlich's publication.  Bibliographical information in our copy has 1828 for the publication of these sketches.

1828 One Hundred Fables, Original and Selected. James Northcote. Embellished with Two Hundred and Eighty Engravings on Wood (by James Northcote and William Harvey). First edition. Hardbound. London: George Lawford. £70 from The Mad Librarian, London, Nov., '12.

At last I have found my way back to a first edition of Northcote's first volume. The second volume was published posthumously in 1833. Northcote himself died in 1831. Compare this book with the second edition of 1829. The illustrations are again here remarkably sharp. Leather binding, with the spine beginning to separate at the top. The frontispiece is lacking. For a sample from this work, try Fable XLVIII on 125. Death summons an old man and upbraids him for not heeding his earlier warnings. The man cannot comprehend "earlier warnings." Death mentions the deaths of the man's contemporaries and even of his children and repeats his demand that the man follow now. The tailpiece shows two men looking far out to sea with a telescope. Both illustrations are well executed, though in different styles. 

1828 One Hundred Fables, Original and Selected.  James Northcote.  Embellished with Two Hundred and Eighty Engravings on Wood (by James Northcote and William Harvey).  First edition.  Hardbound.  London: George Lawford.  $50 from D'Anna Antiques through eBay, Feb., '14.  

Here is a second copy of the first edition of the first volume of Northcote's fables.  The binding and cover are apparently contemporary and surely simpler than the leather cover of the first copy.  Remarkably, this copy has the same lack of the frontispiece portrait of Northcote.  The book is inscribed in 1831.  An alert reader has corrected the very last page of the book itself (272).  Those corrections make note of the incorrect order on 272 of fables 89, 90, and 91.  In this copy, several pages of advertisements follow that last page.  In keeping with a standard practice in this collection, I will keep this copy of the first edition in the collection as well as the earlier copy.  Remarks made on that copy follow.  At last I have found my way back to a first edition of Northcote's first volume.  The second volume was published posthumously in 1833.  Northcote himself died in 1831.  Compare this book with the second edition of 1829.  The illustrations are again here remarkably sharp.  For a sample from this work, try Fable XLVIII on 125.  Death summons an old man and upbraids him for not heeding his earlier warnings.  The man cannot comprehend "earlier warnings."  Death mentions the deaths of the man's contemporaries and even of his children and repeats his demand that the man follow now.  The tailpiece shows two men looking far out to sea with a telescope.  Both illustrations are well executed, though in different styles.

1828 One Hundred Fables, Original and Selected.  James Northcote.  Embellished with Two Hundred and Eighty Engravings on Wood (by James Northcote and William Harvey).  First edition.  Hardbound.  London: George Lawford.  $12 from Vladimir Harman, Copenhagen, through Ebay, May, '19.

Here is a third copy of the first edition of the first volume of Northcote's fables.  The binding and cover are again apparently contemporary.  This copy has the same lack of the frontispiece portrait of Northcote.  Again, the order on 272 of fables 89, 90, and 91 is incorrect.  In this copy, no advertisements follow that last page.  In keeping with a standard practice in this collection, I will keep this copy of the first edition in the collection as well as the earlier two copies.  Remarks made on the copy follow.  At last I have found my way back to a first edition of Northcote's first volume.  The second volume was published posthumously in 1833.  Northcote himself died in 1831.  The illustrations are again here remarkably sharp.  For a sample from this work, try Fable XLVIII on 125.  Death summons an old man and upbraids him for not heeding his earlier warnings.  The man cannot comprehend "earlier warnings."  Death mentions the deaths of the man's contemporaries and even of his children and repeats his demand that the man follow now.  The tailpiece shows two men looking far out to sea with a telescope.  Both of these illustrations are well executed, though in different styles.  It has been remarkable to find this book at such a low price!

1828 Select Fables: New Translations from Aesop. Uncovered pages. Printed in London. Sunday School Tracts No. 41. London: Frederick Westley and A.H. Davis. £22 from Marchpane, Cecil Court, London, May, '96.

This twelve-page chapbook cost more than I would like to pay, but it seems to be the real thing. In fact it seems to come from the very end of the chapbook-era. It is larger than I have conceived of chapbooks, since it is about 4¼" x 7¼". There are twenty-one numbered fables, all from the traditional corpus. The Sunday School Society makes sure that there are clear lessons to be learned here! Sometimes they occur as an unlabeled promythium or epimythium, and sometimes the narrative text seems to move into them without apparent change of gears. The antagonist to the bleacher here is the "founder" (8). The only illustration is on the cover: a seated gentleman speaks with two children. These pages are very fragile!

1829 Aesop's Fables Translated into English with a Print Before Each Fable, Abridged for the Amusement & Instruction of Youth.  Paperbound.  Cooperstown: Stereotyped, Printed and Sold by H. E. Phinney.  Gift of Dan Hatch, Bloomfield, NY, Sept., '20.

Here is a copy published seven years earlier than two copies already in the collection.  This little (3½"x5¼") pamphlet of 30 pages is a favorite of mine for its excellent illustrations.  Oval in form, they are 2¾" x 2".  Several -- like DM (5), FG (25), and DS (28) -- are as detailed as a fine Bewick illustration.  Others are less detailed.  Croxall is the source of some of the texts, like "The Wolf and the Kid" (26), though the application is considerably shortened here.  Pages 9-10 are missing.  The cover of this copy has the number "1231" where the other two copies have "1386."  This pamphlet is a gracious gift of Dan Hatch.  The pamphlet had belonged to his grandmother, born in 1869, given to her on her 12th birthday.  How nice to be thought of as a place to keep this book for other generations to come!

1829 C. F. Gellert's sämtliche Fabeln und Erzählungen in drey Büchern.  Mit einem Kupfer nach Heinr. Ramberg.  Hardbound.  Leipzig: Hahn'sche Buchhandlung.  €20 from Antiquariat Müller, Munich, July, '19.

This book ranks as our second-to-oldest Gellert edition, but it turns out that there were many illustrated editions of his work before this book was published.  This edition has only a single frontispiece.  It is labeled "Neueste Original-Ausgabe."  The "Hahn'sche Buchhandlung" will be publisher of slightly later illustrated editions of Gellert in 1844 and 1861; we have copies of those editions.  The frontispiece here shows a cameo of Gellert's head surrounded by sporting children with flowers, a lamb drinking from a pool, and a cherub and heart.  The setting is distinctly floral.  Pages 3 through 21 present a "Nachricht und Exempel" dated 1746.  There is a beginning T of C.  I decided while cataloguing an earlier Gellert edition to examine several fables in Gellert's first book, and I will repeat here what I found.  "Der Tanzbär" (3) presents a bear who has had to dance for his living; now he breaks away and rejoins the bears.  He shows them his new skills.  They try to do the same and fail.  Soon they ask him to leave.  Show skill and people will talk about you, and soon envy will follow, and your talent will become a crime.  "Das Gespenst" (16) shows that you can use poetry, even or especially bad poetry, to drive away ghosts!  "Der Hund" (21) tells of a miserly dog that, even in death, will not give up his treasured bones.  "Der Bettler" (26) gives us a beggar; with a sword in his hand and a plea for compassion, he is like the writer who pays compliments and says that he trusts our sense of justice--but also uses threats.  "Die zärtliche Frau" (37) is about a woman who at her husband's deathbed cries out "Death, come and take me!"  When death shows up and asks if someone called, she points to her husband and says that he called.  "Damokles" (49) is straightforward and true to the ancient anecdote.  "Der grüne Esel" (57) is the story of instant notoriety and fast movement into being passé.  "Die kranke Frau" (66) presents a woman who cannot be healed by doctors but only by a tailor's new dress!

1829 Fables Amusantes Avec Une Table Particulière des Mots et de leur Signification en Anglois. Par M. Perrin. Édition revue et corrigée par un Maitre de langue Française. Hardbound. NY: E. Duyckinck. $30 from a Boston flea market, June, '16.

This is my sixth different copy of this little book. Chronologically, it fits fifth of the six. It seems most similar to the Baltimore edition of 1823. It follows the general pattern of American editions set by the Philadelphia edition of 1804, as opposed to the editions done in Dublin and London. Thus it presents the running vocabulary for each fable right underneath its text. This edition does not, however have the "Publisher's Advertisement" of the Baltimore edition recounting problems with the old editions and claiming to have improved "perhaps above two thousand phrases, involving the most important idioms of the two languages." As in the Baltimore edition, the boy with the butterfly is an "enfant" (50). 

1829 Fables de Fénelon: Nouvelle Édition.  François Fénelon.  Hardbound.  Paris: Belin LePrieur.  $28 from Antiqueparchments through Ebay, Dec., '19.

Here is a small (3¼" x 5½") volume containing some 37 of Fénelon's fables, with a T of C at the end of his 199 pages.  These are prose fables.  I tried two of them that are pictured here.  The frontispiece offers an illustration for "Histoire de roi Alfaroute et de Clariphile."  The fable itself is on 155-62.  Alfaroute is given a magic ring by a fairy and it gives him invisibility and wings to fly anywhere quickly.  Clariphile is his lovely and virtuous wife.  One day Alfaroute finds her embracing as friend the disguised fairy, and he kills Clariphile, who dies faithful to him in his arms.  Alfaroute spends the rest of his days in mourning.  Another fable illustrated is "The Dove Punished for Restlessness" (25).  This story concerns a dove leading a happy and peaceful life with a companion.  He feels the lure of ambition, travels the world, and ends up as a fashionable courier.  Suspected of carrying surreptitious messages, he is mortally wounded and wishes he could be back at peace with his friend.  Other illustrations occur on the title page and 111.  Accounts of some other of Fénelon's fables are found in my comments on two books in the collection that offer English texts.  Because he writes prose fables, he receives only a footnote in "The Fabulists French."

1829 Fables of Aesop and Others. Translated into English. With Instructive Applications and a Print before each Fable. By Samuel Croxall. Hardbound. Philadelphia: Simon Probasco. $40 from Avocado Pit, Charlottesville, VA, April, '98.

For a start on this little book, consult my comments on the 1804 and 1807 Mozley editions, from which this book seems to have been carefully copied. Like those two and my eleventh and seventeenth editions of Croxall's original work, this book has 329 pages for 196 fables. The usual Croxall elements are there--frontispiece of the writer with Aesop over his shoulder, preface, and AI before the fables and an index of themes after them. Missing, as generally in the USA, are the dedication to Halifax and the references in the preface to Britain. These are replaced here with references to America, and as in other American editions, "British youth" becomes "charming youth." The illustrations here are all done in the "oval within a rectangle" format that Kirkall established for Croxall's work. Here they are of quite varied strength and quality. The front cover is separated.

1829 Fabulae Aesopicae ad Optimorum Librorum Fidem Accurate Editae. Editio stereotypa novis curis emendata. Plain boards. Printed in Leipzig: Sumtibus et typis Caroli Tauchnitii. In trade with Clare Leeper, who paid $25 for it, July, '96.

This is a classic text as many classicists would like it most: nothing but the Greek text of 423 Greek-titled fables on 190 small pages (4" x 5½"). Since this edition occurs after Schneider's publication of the Augustana in 1812, I presume that it contains the fables contained in Perry's Aesopica under Pars Quinta, Chapters 1 through 10. This book earlier belonged to the Capuchin Convent in New York City. Someone practiced his or her Hebrew writing on the plain board covers.

1829 One Hundred Fables, Original and Selected. James Northcote. Embellished with Two Hundred and Eighty Engravings on Wood (by James Northcote and William Harvey). Second edition. Hardbound. London: George Lawford. £20 from Kemp Booksellers, Howden, Goole, East Yorkshire, UK, through eBay, Feb., '06.

Here is an unlikely find which it has taken me five years to catalogue. From what I can understand, Northcote's original publication is viewed as a two volume work, issued respectively in 1828 and 1833. I seem to have a copy of that second volume, since I have an 1833 published by Murray. Northcote himself died in 1831. Northcote was himself one of the creators of the illustrations, along with William Harvey. This 1829 edition by the original publisher is clearly marked "1828" and "Second edition" on its title-page. The illustrations are remarkably sharp, though the book itself is fragile. One hesitates even to open it! The front cover is separated but present. The frontispiece is, as in the first edition, Worthington's portrait of Northcote after Harlow. For a sample from this work, try Fable XLVIII on 125. Death summons an old man and upbraids him for not heeding his earlier warnings. The man cannot comprehend "earlier warnings." Death mentions the deaths of the man's contemporaries and even of his children and repeats his demand that the man follow now. The tailpiece shows two men looking far out to sea with a telescope. Both illustrations are well executed, though in different styles. I had lost sight of having found this wonderful edition!

1830 Collectanea Graeca Minora. With Notes. Andrew Dalzel. Second New York Edition. Inscribed 1835. Collins and Hannay, Collins and Co., White, Gallaher, and White, and O.A. Roorbach. Gift of Kathryn Thomas, June, '91. Fourth NY edition (1836) for $10 at Logic and Literature, Aug., '91.

Compare with the earlier "American Edition" (1791/1813) of the same book. This edition offers the same thirty-one fables on 3-14, complete with extensive notes (131) and vocabulary (253), now in English since "more enlightened ideas on teaching have dissipated those absurd plans of learning one foreign language through the intervention of another." It drops the index rerum, uses a new T of C setup and Greek typeface, and adds accents. The covers are loose. In the fourth edition, the publishers' names have changed somewhat.

1830 Fables de La Fontaine.  Ornées de Figures.  Hardbound.  Paris: Chez Corbet Ainé, Libraire.  $120 from Marco Panella, Brattleboro, VT, through eBay, Oct., '14.  

This is a lovely compact volume of lvj + 494 pages.  Though it seems exactly the book that Bodemann #214 has in mind, down to Hadamard in Metz as its printer, there are some curious discrepancies and issues.  The biggest is that Bodemann claims that there are thirteen plates.  I agree with the seller that there are rather 48 engravings on 24 plates.  Secondly, Bodemann shows a frontispiece involving a monument to La Fontaine.  There is no frontispiece here.  A third discrepancy is that Bodemann claims that the numbers given with each illustration fit not this volume but the 1812 original edition.  The numbers in this copy fit perfectly with the illustrations in this copy.  She also refers to fable verses given with the images; there are none of these here.  A further issue is that Bodemann lists the book, not under the date indicated on the title-page here, 1830, but rather under 1812 and says simply that this is a new edition with illustrations done after illustrations that appeared first in 1812.  She makes, however, no reference to what that edition might have been, and nothing listed in Bodemann under 1812 fits this book.  The rectangular illustrations, two to a page, are remarkably clearly rendered here.  TMCM (frontispiece) has the rats scampering along the top shelf of a pantry as a maid reaches up near them.  FS (24) follows a classic pattern for this fable, with a bulging transparent globe in the illustration's center.  "The Horse and the Ass" (396) is both strong and typical of these fine illustrations.  This book is a lucky find!

1830 Fables de La Fontaine.  Commentary by Coste.  Hardbound.  Tarascon:  Elisée Aubanel.  $80 from Thomas Catterson, Clinton, NY, through eBay, Oct., '07.

Here is an edition of La Fontaine new to me.  The clues are that it claims that one can find the moral immediately, that it has Coste's commentary, and that it is enriched by 245 "jolies gravures en relief."  This is a small book, 3½" x almost 6".  The "gravures" are not, in my opinion, of high quality.  A large number of books already in the collection have the same reference to the commentary of Coste.  I cannot find others promising the 245 engravings.  The closest parallel is a book published by Ledentu in 1820.  The two illustrations on 22 and 23 are good examples.  One can "read" each but they are simply rudimentary.  I am happy to fill this hole in the collection.  Aubanel is not listed in Bodemann.  364 pages, with an AI included at the end.  By the way, unless I am missing something, the "Commentary of M. Coste" consists of occasional one-line footnotes along the way.  Curious!

1830 Fables de La Fontaine Avec Notes et Soixante-Quinze Figures Gravées en Bois. Volume I. Hardbound. Paris: Chez Crapelet. $41.39 from Linda Davidson, Kingston, RI, through eBay, May, '05.

Bodemann 268.1. This is a small book, about 3" x 4½". As the comment there points out, this is the first edition with Crapelet's notes. The remark there that all the poems are divided up into five-line sections seems exaggerated. Bodemann gives the illustrator as Constant Viguier and the etcher as Pierre-François Godard. I do not understand her comment about a second title-page illustration, which I cannot find here. For a sample illustration, one might want to look at MSA at the beginning of Book III (143). Another strong illustration shows the angler with the small fish (249). There is a T of C for this volume, containing the first six of La Fontaine's books, at the back. This was a very lucky find on eBay!

1830 Fables de La Fontaine Avec Notes et Soixante-Quinze Figures Gravées en Bois. Volume II. Hardbound. Paris: Chez Crapelet. $41.39 from Linda Davidson, Kingston, RI, through eBay, May, '05. 

Volume II of Bodemann 268.1. This is a small book, about 3" x 4½". As the comment there points out, this is the first edition with Crapelet's notes. The remark there that all the poems are divided up into five-line sections seems exaggerated; perhaps the meaning is only that line numbers are noted only every five lines. Bodemann gives the illustrator as Constant Viguier and the etcher as Pierre-François Godard. The comment about a second title-page illustration now comes clear: it refers to the title-page illustration for the second volume, namely La Fontaine's grave monument. For a sample illustration, one might want to look at "Le Curé et le Mort" (39. The illustration for "Le Trésor et les deux Hommes" (188) seems to have been hand-painted brown. Did another hand add green to "Les Lapins" on 247? There is a T of C for this volume, containing the last six of La Fontaine's books, at the back. Then there is an extensive AI covering both volumes. This was a very lucky find on eBay.

1830 Fables de La Fontaine. Hardbound. Paris: J. Langlumé et Peltier. $20 from an unknown source, August, '10.

This may be my smallest complete La Fontaine edition. It measures about 2½" x 4". It includes some twenty fascinating small illustrations, paired up two to a page. The upper frontispiece presents La Fontaine in the foreground viewing a scene of FC; in the background is his birthplace in Chateau-Thierry. The inspiration behind at least some of these lovely little illustrations is Oudry, for example with SS facing 37. Aesop is brought into the picture of "The Cat and the Rats" facing 58. Facing 77, the depiction of a high-masted ship is as good as the depiction of the dolphin under the monkey is poor! Look for further pictures facing 117, 138, 151, 223, 254, and 272. The illustrations are marked with the page they are intended to face. AI on 365-76. Marbled fore-edges. Leather covers. The leather facing of the spine is lost.

1830/32 (Fables Choisies de Florian.  Édition  a l'Usage de la Jeunesse, Augmentee des Poems de Tobie et fde Ruth).  Hardbound.  Lyon-Paris: Périsse frères.  €10 from Librairie Fauguet, Marseilles, July, '23.

Here is an unexpected lucky find.  A small (3½" x 6") Florian lacking its title-page turns out to be very similar to Bodemann #273.  Bodemann's copy is, like ours, dated 1832, though their listing is for the first printing in 1830.  Perhaps our copy lacks a title-page, and so Bodemann's information is particularly helpful.  Our pictorial title-page has simply "Fables de Florian."  After a portrait frontispiece -- with attributions exactly the same as ours -- the title-page that still exists offers "Truth and Fable" as an illustration.  Later in the work we find "Les Deux Voyageurs" (24); "The Blind and the Lame" (42); "The Monkey and the Magic Lantern" (56); "Two Bachelors" (88); "Don Quixote" (133); and "The Culpable Dog" (163).  As Bodemann comments, the illustrations tend to present conflict.  Her copy has xxiv + 153 + 1 pages.  Our copies numbers its pages straight from the beginning to the end and has 196 pages.  She speaks of eight separate picture-pages.  I find in ours a frontispiece, title-page, and six others.  Cataloguing this book was a chance to go back and enjoy some of these Florian fables that I had not read for a long time.  Good stuff!

1830? Fables de La Fontaine.  Jean de La Fontaine.  Ornées de Figures.  Hardbound.  Paris: Chez Saintin.  £29.99 from Toby English, Oxfordshire, GB, through eBay, March, '14.  

Here is a small (3¼" x 5¼") book of 402 pages.  "Ornées de Figures" is true but the claim usually means more.  There are three plates of three panels each, done in their own style.  The fables illustrated are DW, LM, "The Wolf Turned Shepherd," "The Donkey and the Lapdog," "The Stag and the Vine," The Lion and the Hunter," "The Lion's Court," "The Rat and the Elephant," and "The Cat and the Fox."  The illustrations face 4, 80, and 163.  There is a fine illustration also on the title-page: La Fontaine writing looks to Aesop, who points to a fox.  AI at the end.  The leather covers and spine are well worn.  Not in Bodemann.

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1831 - 1835

1831 Erzählungen und Fabeln für die Jugend.  J.L.G. Walther.  Hardbound.  Augsburg:  Jenisch und Stageschen Buchhandlung.  €32 from Bücher Ernst, Vienna, July, '19.

Two longer narratives are followed here by 48 fables and an anecdote, as the opening T of C shows.  The fables here are original poetic creations.  I enjoyed #6, "The Cat and the Fox" (95).  It is not Aesop's fable.  It is rather a story of an agreement to hunt together in the chicken coop.  The fox betrays the agreement and is led the next day into a trap by the vindictive cat.  The author was encouraged by his success with a book of narratives and fairytales, as the "Vorwort" reveals.

1832 A Selection of One Hundred of Perrin's Fables Accompanied with a Key. A. Bolmar. Philadelphia: Carey and Lea. $6 at Book Cellar, Bethesda, Sept., '91.

A real find picked from the middle of an antiquarian shelf! The first part selects one hundred fables with slight verbal modifications from my 1804 text (note baton for beche in Fable 1 [#9 in 1804]). The second part ("Key") offers an interlinear pronunciation above and a translation below this same text. No T of C. The front cover is severed, and the last two fables and a part of the third are missing in the key. The inner title is "Bolmar's Perrin's Fables."

1832 Fables de Florian.  Hardbound.  Paris: Ledentu Libraire.  $4.99 from joehek, Trabuco Canyon, CA, through Ebay, Feb., '19.

This small book (3½" x 5¼") is a curious publication by Ledentu 1832.  It is one of a number of Florian editions to appear about this time: Comynet (1830, 1832);  Victor Adam (1838); Langlumé et Peltier (1840); Tastu (1841); Mame (1841); and Grandville (1842).  The book is similar to the Mame edition from 1841 in having two illustrations per page.  There are six pages with two illustrations each: the frontispiece, 38, 50, 65, 105, and 129.  The illustrations are not elaborate.  "Truth and Fable" seems to be a regular for the first illustration, often on the title-page itself.  Here it is half of the frontispiece.  This book was an amazing catch at $4.99!  I have 5 other books by Ledentu from between 1800 and 1836; all five present La Fontaine's fables.

1832 Fables de La Fontaine Suivies d'Adonis, Poeme, Tome Premier.  Hardbound.  Paris: Nouvelle Bibliothèque des Classiques Français: Librairie de Lecointe.  £15 from old-interesting-books-and-things through Ebay, Sept., '22.

Here is a small pair of volumes, 3½" x 5½".  This first volume has five pages of illustrations, each with six small squares with a fable title beneath each.  The illustrations are actually quite strong for the very limited space.  The correspondence between illustrations and texts is a bit strained.  The frontispiece is actually a long way from the first book of fables but offers six fables from Book I.  The set at the beginning of Book II dips back into Book I (FS) and ahead into Book III (BM).  The pages of illustrations before Books III and IV are both concentrated on their respective books.  The last set of illustrations, at the beginning of Book V, dips back into Book IV for "The Lark and Her Young."  There is no set of illustrations at the beginning of Book VI.  This first volume has over 100 pages of preliminary material, including 13 pages of an AI.  Green leather cover with an embossed geometric design.  Printed by Firmin Didot Freres.

1832 Fables de La Fontaine Suivies d'Adonis, Poeme, Tome Deuxieme.  Hardbound.  Paris: Nouvelle Bibliothèque des Classiques Français: Librairie de Lecointe.  £15 from old-interesting-books-and-things through Ebay, Sept., '22.

Here is the second of two small volumes, 3½" x 5½".  This volume has three pages of illustrations, each with six small squares with a fable title beneath each.  The illustrations are again actually quite strong for the very limited space.  The illustrations occur opposite the title-page and at the beginning of Book IX and of Book XI.  The first set of illustrations includes MM, in which the milkmaid has fallen to the ground.  The second has a bear who is wonderfully poised to deliver a real whack to the impertinent fly!  The third set shows this artist, like so many others, struggling to present a realistic lion's face.  From the looks of 250, this volume may be missing a final page or two.  Green leather cover with an embossed geometric design.  Printed by Firmin Didot Freres.

1832 The Moral Fables of Robert Henryson. Reprinted from the edition of Andrew Hart. Edinburgh: The Maitland Club. See 1570/1621/1832.

1832/40 A Selection of One Hundred of Perrin's Fables Accompanied with a Key. A. Bolmar. A new edition. Inscribed July 21, 1841. Philadelphia: Lea and Blanchard. $35 from Colebrook Book Barn at Rosslyn Book Fair, March, '92.

This "new edition" really seems to be identical with the 1832 edition except for a change of publisher. Did a Carey marry a Blanchard? Excellent condition for a book a century and a half old! This edition is much easier to handle than my 1832 copy, which is in wretched condition. The title page lists the date as 1840, but the cover, printed with perhaps the same plate, shows 1841: I guess it took them over New Year's to bring the book out! See my comments on the 1832 edition.

1832/42 A Selection of One Hundred of Perrin's Fables Accompanied with a Key. A. Bolmar. A new edition. Philadelphia: Lea and Blanchard. $22.50, Reader's Heaven, Independence, May, '93. Also a copy of the 1843 printing for $12 from Second Story's Rockville Warehouse, April, '97.

This copy differs from the copy I have marked 1832/40 in very few ways: by the year on the title page, by a slightly different format on the bottom of the title page, and by the listing of a printer on the back of the title page. They both have 1841 on the cover! Otherwise, this "new edition," like that one, seems to be identical with the 1832 edition except for a change of publisher. Did a Carey marry a Blanchard? See my comments under 1832 and 1832/40. The 1843 printing differs only in the year on the cover and title-page and in the changed printer on the back of the title-page. It is in better condition.

1832? Hoch-Deutsches Lutherisches ABC und Namen-Büchlein. Für Kinder welche anfangen zu lernen. Neue u. verbesserte Auflage. Philadelphia: Schaefer and Koradi. $15 from Second Story at Dupont Circle, Washington, D.C. Jan., '96.

This little book almost duplicates the adjoining entry. The differences are small. First, notice the different title-terms for the same book: I wish I knew what doctrinal or sectarian questions lay behind the two names. Note the covers next. The cover here shows Luther writing, there David playing the lyre. Finally, the plates seem less used in the "Reformirtes" than here in the "Lutherisches" edition. See my comments there.

1832? Hoch-Deutsches Reformirtes ABC und Namen-Büchlein. Für Kinder welche anfangen zu lernen. Neue u. verbesserte Auflage. Philadelphia: Schaefer and Koradi. $20 at Kelmscott, Baltimore, Nov., '91.

A lovely little book of letters and words and commandments. Among the "Lese-Uebungen" at the back are four fables: MM; "The Farmer and His Lawyer-Neighbor"; TB; and "The Apple-Thief Up a Tree." The second has a nice turn: the farmer first tells that his ox gored his neighbor's; after getting a judgment, he admits that it was vice versa. Might this fable be the source of the proverb "Whose ox is getting gored?" Rocks bring down the young thief in the fourth fable.

1833 Fables, Original and Selected, Second Series. By the late James Northcote, R.A. Illustrated by 280 Engravings on Wood. London: John Murray. $36 for excellent binding from Joyce Klein, Oak Park, Dec., '92.

A big question is "How does this book relate to the 1857 edition I have?" Is the 1857 edition perhaps a reprint of the first series? Compare the story here of "The Dog and the Crane" with "The Dog and the Stork" there. Aesopic fables I notice here include "Stone Broth" and "The Mouse and the Oyster." There is an alphabetical table of contents with engravers' names. Excellent engravings.

1833 Fables, Original and Selected, Second Series.  James Northcote, R.A.  Hardbound.  London: John Murray.  $35 from D'Anna Antiques through eBay, Feb., '14.  

Here is a second copy of this first edition of the "Second Series" of Northcote's fables, published two years after his 1831 death.  The first series of one hundred fables had appeared in 1828.  This copy has a simpler -- but apparently contemporary -- cloth binding.  There is again an index of engravings and engravers at the back.  I was surprised on this reading to find Fable XC about a drunk and his confessor.  The good Dominican confessor wonders at the man's repeated confession of drunkenness and so gets drunk once himself.  The next day he experiences terrible sickness and headache.  At the drunk's next confession, the confessor tells him that he cannot think of a worse penance than the one Nature already prescribes for this sin.  A fine endpiece of a drunken Bacchus follows this fable.  These engravings come off the page very nicely!  When I read the first copy twenty-two years ago, I noted Aesopic fables here including "Stone Broth" and "The Mouse and the Oyster."  There is an alphabetical T of C at the beginning.

1833 Fábulas Literarias de D. Tomas de Iriarte. Published with El Sí de las Niñas by Leandro Fernandez de Moratin. Second edition, improved. Inscribed in 1877. Boston: S. Burdett & Co. $15 at Fuller and Saunders, May, '92.

This is a strange mixtum-gatherum of a book, right from the bilingual title pages facing each other. It includes a strange amalgam besides all the fables in Spanish in the Madrid edition of 1830. There are explanations in English (111) of all the words not found in a standard dictionary. A table (5) shows the differences between ancient and modern orthography. There is an index (128) of the fables and their morals. Many pencilled-in translations. There are here sixty-seven fables and then nine added fables; on these see the note on 96. Meters are presented (138). Three fables of Samaniego (141). T of C (96). The covers are separated from the book.

1833 Fifty-One Original Fables with Morals and Ethical Index. Also a Translation of Plutarch's Banquet of the Seven Sages. Written by (Monogram=) Job Crithannah (Jonathan Birch). Embellished with Eighty-Five Original Designs by R. Cruickshank. First edition. Hardbound. London: Hamilton, Adams, and Co. $65 from Adams Avenue Book Store, San Diego, CA, Jan., '01. Extra copy for £10 from June Clinton, Aug., '95.

Bodemann #278.1. After an introduction, the book begins with an "Ethical Index," listing titles and morals. A new fable comes every four pages. First there is an illustration about 2½" x 3½" in size centered on the left-hand page. Then come, on the next two pages, number, title, narrative, moral (usually longer than the narrative), and perhaps a vignette. A blank right-hand page follows. The Cruickshank illustrations are often very nice. An example is the illustration for Fable VI, "The Bee, the Spider, and the Tomtit" (42). In the fable, the Tomtit overhears the other two arguing about their building skills, especially relative to their mathematical skills in constructing hive and web, respectively. The Tomtit intrudes himself to praise his nests, and the others burst into laughter. The illustration is wonderfully precise. Many of the vignettes are delightful; a good example is that for "Aesop and the Libertine" (48). Another vignette has a man reeling from a woman who has removed her make-up mask (68). One might take this book as a sample of the taste of the Eighteenth Century. The long morals regularly take up social, political, and religious questions. We read, e.g., a tribute on 52 to public schools over private tuition, for in the former "the boy, surrounded by his equals, soon finds out the necessity of curbing passion and suppressing sauciness." "The Hog and the Goat" (59) focuses on misplaced admiration of either obesity or starvation. For yet another example of the taste of the time, try "The Traveller and the Gnat" (119). One of these new fables that I find particularly engaging is "The Yard-Dog and the Fox" (99). The fox lures the over-zealous watchdog into the woods and then doubles back to plunder the farm. The fable has a good illustration and a good vignette. Many of the fables suffer, I believe, from a sort of prethought didacticism. This R. Cruickshank apparently has nothing to do with the famous George Cruickshank, who lived from 1792 to 1878 and illustrated "The Toothache." There is an AI at the back, which also lists the engraver for each illustration. It is followed by a translation of Plutarch's "The Banquet of the Seven Sages." Because they are differently bound, I will keep both copies in the collection.

1833 Fifty-One Original Fables with Morals and Ethical Index. Also a Translation of Plutarch's Banquet of the Seven Sages. (Spine: "Original Fables"). (Monogram=) Job Crithannah (Jonathan Birch). Embellished with Eighty-Five Original Designs by R. Cruickshank. First edition. Hardbound. London: Hamilton, Adams, and Co.. $108.37 from Better World Books, Nov., '11.

I already have two copies of this fine book: from Adams Avenue Book Store in San Diego and from June Clinton. Here is a third copy. I will keep all three in the collection because they are differently bound and have different qualities. I am trying now to make a separate entry for every book in the collection; thus this book has its own new ID number. This copy may be the cleanest and best preserved of the three. It has the stamp of the Due of Orleans on its title-page. Leather corners and spine. Ornamentally painted endpapers and foredges. As I have written of the other two copies, after an introduction, the book begins with an "Ethical Index," listing titles and morals. A new fable comes every four pages. First there is an illustration about 2½" x 3½" in size centered on the left-hand page. Then come, on the next two pages, number, title, narrative, moral (usually longer than the narrative), and perhaps a vignette. A blank right-hand page follows. The Cruickshank illustrations are often very nice. An example is the illustration for Fable VI, "The Bee, the Spider, and the Tomtit" (42). In the fable, the Tomtit overhears the other two arguing about their building skills, especially relative to their mathematical skills in constructing hive and web, respectively. The Tomtit intrudes himself to praise his nests, and the other bursts into laughter. The illustration is wonderfully precise. Many of the vignettes are delightful; a good example is that for "Aesop and the Libertine" (48). Another vignette has a man reeling from a woman who has removed her make-up mask (68). One might take this book as a sample of the taste of the Eighteenth Century. The long morals regularly take up social, political, and religious questions. We read, e.g., a tribute on 52 to public schools over private tuition, for in the former "the boy, surrounded by his equals, soon finds out the necessity of curbing passion and suppressing sauciness." "The Hog and the Goat" (59) focuses on misplaced admiration of either obesity or starvation. For yet another example of the taste of the time, try "The Traveller and the Gnat" (119). One of these new fables that I find particularly engaging is "The Yard-Dog and the Fox" (99). The fox lures the over-zealous watchdog into the woods and then doubles back to plunder the farm. The fable has a good illustration and a good vignette. Many of the fables suffer, I believe, from a sort of prethought didacticism. This R. Cruickshank apparently has nothing to do with the famous George Cruickshank, who lived from 1792 to 1878 and illustrated "The Toothache." There is an AI at the back, which also lists the engraver for each illustration. It is followed by a translation of Plutarch's "The Banquet of the Seven Sages."

1833 Le Fabuliste des Enfans et des Adolescens ou Fables Nouvelles. Avec huit figures. Hardbound. Lyon: Chez Perisse Frères, Libraires/A la Librairie Ecclésiastique. $30 from an unknown source, August, '10.

"Pour servir a l'instruction et a l'amusement de la jeunesse" the title-page continues. Here are seven books worth of fables with eight full-page illustrations inserted. The frontispiece, for example, has Fable showing animals to children: they have their language and we can learn from them. Other illustrations belong one to a book. They present, respectively, the two boatmen; reason, religion, and philosophy; the juggler and two monkeys; the shepherds, peasants, and wolves; the cypress tree; the treasure found; the young man and the chicken. The book is not in Bodemann. But Joseph Reyre is: he is one of the authors of the "Fablier du premier Age" and the "Fablier du second Age." He also cooperated in 1844 on a Florian edition. He seems to take up the Desbillons mantle of the Jesuit involved in instructive fables. Here he can be announced as a Jesuit in 1833; Desbillons' last books did not allow him to be titled as from the Society of Jesus. I tried the first fable. A child meets the fabulist and is glad to see him because he enjoys his work and is not offended by it. The fabulist is happy because that is exactly what he is after. My sense is that these are all new fables. Both covers are lacking, and the book is well worn. It is nonetheless a nice little treasure. I look forward to learning more especially about Father Reyre's work. 

1833 Persian Fables for Young and Old. By the Rev. H.G. Keene. NA. Hardbound. London: John W. Parker. $44.10 from Forgotten Words, Leicester, UK, through abe, August, '03.

This is an earlier (first?) version of a book I have in its 1838 printing by the same publisher, apparently unchanged from its form here. Let me offer some of my comments from that printing. "Published under the Direction of the Committee of General Literature and Education, Appointed by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge." There are thirty-two fables, with nineteen illustrations, in this small (3¾" x 5½") and rather fragile book of 88 pages. Several are new to me: "The Wolf and the Fox Who Went to Rob the Garden" (27), "The Shepherd's Dog" (63), and "The Fox and the Hyena" (74). "The Fox and the Ass" (39) takes a very surprising turn. Usually the stupid ass lets himself be led a second time by the clever fox back into the trap where the lion lurks. Here he refuses the fox and rather goes back to working for the washerman. Perhaps the best of the illustrations is for "The Fox and the Drum" (23). "The Heron and the Crab" is told well and at considerable length (53-62). "The Rose and the Clay" ends with a curious statement: "Let the Christian learn humility and gratitude from this lesson of the Mohammedan" (79). "The Dervise and the Raven" (80) is a good fable I have encountered before. The dervish sees a raven feed a little hawk and takes the event as a pattern for his life. He will let himself be fed by life. After he and his family go hungry, he realizes that he is called to be not the little hawk but the adult raven, "laborious and benevolent." The last paragraph expresses the author's hope. A drop in the ocean might become a pearl (88).

1833/1912/19 Fünfzig Fabeln für Kinder. In Bildern gezeichnet von Otto Speckter. Nach der ersten Ausgabe. Braunschweig: Verlag von Georg Westermann. DM 3 from Revers, Berlin, Nov., '95.

A special claim of this edition is that it presents Speckter's lithographs as they appeared in the original edition of 1833. Alfred Janssen claims in the foreword (dated 1912) that even the second edition changed the illustrations--and not by Speckter's hand. Then, apparently, woodcuts began replacing the lithographs as early as 1845, and these woodcuts have found the broadest dissemination. I checked the first three illustrations here against the comparative material I have, and I come away confused. The 1978 edition of 100 Hey/Speckter fables from Opera Verlag claims to be an "originalgetreuer Nachdruck der beiden Erstausgaben," which for the first fifty fables it places in 1836, not 1833. The illustrations in that Opera edition are different from those in this Westermann edition. For what it is worth, those in One Hundred Picture Fables, With Rhymes (1879?) are different from both of the above! I may be prejudiced now, but I prefer the Westermann illustrations. The snowman on 7 is a good example of why. Going further with an informed comparative study would be delightful. This (second?) printing represents copies between ten and fifteen thousand.

1834 Aesop Junior in America.  Hardbound.  NY: Mahlon Day.  $160 from Second Story Books, Dupont Circle, DC, Nov., '19.

We have three copies of this book already, but they are in relatively poor condition.  Here is a near-perfect copy, right from the glorious frontispiece of George Washington and the engraved title-page that places an American Aesop among the animals.  Its one flaw is that it is missing the very last page of text, front and back.  I have copied those texts from the web and put a printout with the book.  An improvement of this copy over our best other copy is that it contains the full T of C.  Metzner's note in Bodemann comments that two pages of the "Table" are missing also in his copy.  One of the surprises in this book is that the final fable, "The Horse Resolved to be Free," is thirty-three pages long, twenty-four of them given to the moral!  Generally the book seems to be sustainedly preachy.  Even the short fables I tried present almost no action.  For example, the crocodile's tears in XIV are called hypocritical by the vulture about to eat the crocodile's eggs (22-23).  So?  I have not seen this book elsewhere except in the Library of Congress, where I was able to ascertain quickly that it does not contain traditional Aesopic material.

1834 Aesop Junior in America. Hardbound. NY: Mahlon Day. $85 from International Booksales, Dover, NH, through eBay, June, '10.

I have two copies of this book already, but both are in relatively poor condition. Here is a better copy, right from the glorious frontispiece of George Washington and the engraved title-page that places an American Aesop among the animals. See my comments on the first two copies, listed under the same year. Here is something perplexing. As in the better of the other copies, the T of C here stops after Fable LI. The last twenty-six fables are not listed. Might it be that the publisher overlooked that T of C page? Metzner's note in Bodemann comments that two pages of the "Table" are missing in his copy. In my less good other copy, the T of C is missing entirely. My, what mysteries books reveal -- and hide!

1834 Aesop Junior in America. Being a series of fables written especially for the people of the United States of North America. NY: Mahlon Day.  $93.75 from Alibris, Nov., '02.  Extra copy lacking pages 1-12 (Fables I-X) for $20 through Bibliofind from Earl Manz, Yesterday's Gallery, East Woodstock, CT, Sept., '97.

I have seen this book described and even illustrated somewhere, and now I cannot find it. I have looked in Schiller, Quinnam, Ashby, Hobbs, Fabula Docet, and McKendrick. I do find it in my favorite private collector, who notes the frontispiece etching of George Washington and the etched title page. He also mentions briefly the second thing that struck me about the book-after the title-page engraving of an American Aesop among the animals-and that is the length of the last fable. "The Horse Resolved to be Free" is thirty-three pages long, twenty-four of them given to the moral! Generally the book seems to be sustainedly preachy. Even the short fables I tried present almost no action. For example, the crocodile's tears in XIV are called hypocritical by the vulture about to eat the crocodile's eggs (22-23). So? The spine of both copies is weak. The good copy has just the first page of the T of C (covering the first fifty-one of the seventy-seven fables). The second copy lacks both the T of C and the first twelve pages. I will keep both copies in the collection. I have not seen this book except in the Library of Congress, where I was able to ascertain quickly that it does not contain traditional Aesopic material.

1834 Aesop's Fables: For the Instruction and Improvement of Youth, Volume 2.  Hardbound.  London: J. Clements.  £13.50 from Norman Macdonald's Collection, Cadole, UK, Nov., '18.

I consider this small-format (4¼" x 5¼") book quite a bargain!  It presents Fables #111 through #260 on 311 pages.  The fables are numbered with Roman numerals at the top of each page.  Each of the 49 full-page unpaginated black-and-white illustrations is marked with its fable's Roman numeral.  Though perhaps uninspired, these illustrations are clear, pointed, and well preserved.  Good examples may be Aesop criticizing the practice of giving a dog a sop of the blood from the wound he has created (49) and the monkey who put on fashionable clothing (255).  Each fable has a rather lengthy "application."  Though these do not stretch to Croxall's length, I suspect him as a source.  Later fables get, I believe, into more and more non-Aesopic matter.  Not in Bodemann.

1834 Aisopou Mythoi Eklektoi/Fables Choisies d'Ésope; texte Grec, suivi des racines. Par M. Boulenger. Hardbound. Paris: Imprimerie d'Auguste Delalain. $45 from Carl Berkowitz, Dec., '03.

Nouvelle Edition avec Notes par A.M. The fable book takes up 66 pages. There are forty fables. Almost every commentary begins by identifying a parallel or source in Phaedrus, La Fontaine, Faerno, or Desbillons. The commentary reaches to Latin as well as to French for clarification. There is a Tof C on 34, just before the list of roots. This "racines" portion consists in a list of 874 numbered vocabulary roots. The vocables are presented in the order in which they occur in the fables. Then there is an alphabetical list of these roots with a line number among the 874. The fables book is bound here with Lucian's Dialogoi Nekron published in the same year and also featuring a commentary by A.M. This seems to be a school text following a very particular learning method. Auguste Delalain claims, on the last unnumbered page, that that method is peculiar to him and incontestably superior! It is good to live with confidence!

1834 Fables by the Late Mr. Gay in One Volume Complete. Hardbound. Printed in London. London: Printed for Longman, Rees, Orme et al. Sfr. 39 from Buchantiquariat Am Rhein, Basel, June, '03.

This is a small (3¾" x 5½") book with surprisingly clean and sharp illustrations. These landscape-formatted ovals are about 2" x 2¾" each, and there is an illustration for each fable except the very last, "Aye and No." They strike me as very much after the style of Bewick. Typical illustrations seem to me to be those for "The Miser and Plutus" (18) and "The Ravens, the Sexton, and the Earthworm" (214). It also strikes me that Gay's fables in his second book are typically longer than those in the first. I had written to Georg Beran at this bookstore to voice my presumption that the book was not illustrated, and I was happy to hear that it was. This Gay edition fits between those that I have from 1826 and 1866. Bodemann lists Bewick's edition of Gay (1799 and 1806) as #166, and that may be the closest item she has to this little book. Her next edition given exclusively to Gay's fables seems to be #328, the Owen-Harvey edition done, apparently, first by Saville & Edwards in 1856 and then by Frederick Warne in 1866. The back cover has almost separated from the book.

1834 Fables de Florian, Nouvelle Edition.  Hardbound.  Paris/Avallon: Comynet.  $34.99 from epsilon394 through Ebay, July, '23.

Here is a small edition, 3¼" x 5¼," of 162 pages.  It seems to be identical to Bodemann #274, published by the same people two years earlier.  As Bodemann notes in a very short description, the illustrations come as three panels per page.  One panel often represents two fables.  My favorites among these very small illustrations are "The Blind and the Lame" (18); "Two Bachelors" (48); "Owl and Pigeon" (83); and "Ass and Flute" (111).  Do not miss the gigantic crocodile on 120!  Illustrations occur facing these pages: 1, 12, 18, 29, 38, 48, 66, 83, 111, and 120.  There is an AI at the back.

1834 Fables de La Fontaine: Edition Taille-Douce, Tome 1. Gouget. Hardbound. Paris: LeCointe et Pougin; Gouget. $1000 from Johanson Rare Books, Baltimore, Nov., '08.

Bodemann's descriptions, done by Metzner, are helpful. The 245 half-page illustrations of fables in the two volumes are in part after Oudry, but with different interpretations of the figures. "Menschen grob in zeitgenössisch bürgerlicher Kleidung." Notice the unusual women's hairdos! "Tiere oft maniriert; meist vor romantischen Naturlandschaften oder schlichtem Interieur im Stil der Zeit." It first appeared in 63 separate installments; the resulting "unsystematische Folierung" means that page numbers are deceiving. The 246th illustration is the opening half-page illustration of La Fontaine in a cameo between a mother teaching her child and a rustic scene of a dog and three sheep. The copper plate engravings seem monumental, to be sure, but, after Oudry and Bewick, they seem a bit off, a strange combination of high detail and cartoon. Notice the clear quartering of the stag in LS (I 6). Is it one of the capacities of taille-douce to show something like the flow of water, as is clear in WL (I 10)? Among Gouget's best efforts here might be "The Child and the Schoolmaster" (I 19); "La Lice et sa Compagne" (II 7); CW (II 18); "The Ass and the Little Dog" (IV 5); 2P (V 2); "The Old Woman and the Two Serving Girls" (V 6); "The Eagle and the Owl" (V 18); and "The Young Widow" (VI 21). Poorly conceived is, I believe, "The Wolf, the Mother, and the Child" (IV 16). Numeration of V 17 has been corrected in pencil. There is a T of C at the end.

1834 Fables de La Fontaine: Edition Taille-Douce, Tome 2. Jean de La Fontaine. Gouget. Hardbound. Paris: LeCointe et Pougin; Gouget. $1000 from Johanson Rare Books, Baltimore, Nov., '08.

Bodemann's descriptions, done by Metzner, are helpful. The 245 half-page illustrations of fables in the two volumes are in part after Oudry, but with different interpretations of the figures. "Menschen grob in zeitgenössisch bürgerlicher Kleidung." Notice the unusual women's hairdos! "Tiere oft maniriert; meist vor romantischen Naturlandschaften oder schlichtem Interieur im Stil der Zeit." It first appeared in 63 separate installments; the resulting "unsystematische Folierung" means that page numbers are deceiving. The copper plate engravings seem monumental, to be sure, but, after Oudry and Bewick, they seem a bit off, a strange combination of high detail and cartoon. Among Gouget's best efforts in this second volume might be "The Priest and the Dead Man" (VII 11); "The Bear and the Lover of Gardens" (VIII 10); "The Ass and the Dog" (VIII 17); "The Two Dogs and the Dead Ass" (VIII 25); "The Wolf and the Fox" (XI 6); and "The Fox, the Wolf, and the Horse" (XII 17). There is a T of C for the last six books at the end.

1834 Fables de La Fontaine Edition Taille-Douce, Tomes 1er/2eme. Illustrations by Verner (?). Hardbound. Paris: Lecointe et Pougin, Libraires. €140 from Alain Bannier, Quai des Grands Augustins, Paris, Dec., '04. 

Partial copy of Bodemann #279.1. This large-format book first appeared in sixty-three separate parts. There should be 246 half-page illustrations. The first of them is a bust of La Fontaine set into a pastoral scene including mother and child as well as a dog and some sheep. Apparently the notice on the life of La Fontaine below this illustration stems from Walckenaer. That page is present, as are the two title-pages and the two table-of-contents pages. When one opens this book, one experiences some confusion. The first confusion comes from the nature of the table of contents for each of the volumes. The T of C in each case arranges the fables by La Fontaine's books, but the order it uses within the book is alphabetical. The order in which the fables actually should occur is, I gather, La Fontaine's order. I write "I gather" because of the second confusion. Much of this book is missing, and what is here is not well ordered. One opens the first volume to page 64 and MSA! Its two pages are followed by 43 (BC) and 46 (SW). Succeeding pages in the (mostly lacking) first volume are 49, 56, 3 (4 pages), 53, 28 (bis), 37 (bis), 39 (bis), 45, 43, and 41. I do not know whether to be angry or to be delighted that I found a weird copy of the book! The illustration styles are quite varied. I am taken with the dog's inactivity while the wolf kills the ass on 56. "The Wolf and the Fox" (41) makes a good presentation of a traditional visual theme. Of the human scenes, "The Fool Who Sells Wisdom" may be the most active (53). The second half seems more complete but is still disorganized. There is a wondrously vigorous bear about to smash the fly above his friend on one of the several page 44's. "The Animal in the Moon" (53) is well presented here. It seems that most pages from 37 through 64 are here with the exception of 39, 42, and 49. In many cases, different pages--up to four of them--have the same number. The organizing motif intended by the publisher may have been the indications at the end of each fable showing its book and number. As Bodemann notes, the illustrations often follow Oudry. There is a good deal of repair evident in the book. Its spine is weak.

1834 Fables de La Fontaine, Précédées de la vie d'Ésope, suivies de Philémon et Baucis, et des filles de Minée; Nouvelle Édition, dans laquelle on aperçoit d'un coup d'oeil la moralité de la fable. Hardbound. Tours: Chez Mame et Cie, Imprimeurs-Libraires. $23.10 from Monica Lucas, Washington, CA, through Ebay, Jan., '04.

Here is a small (3½" x 5½"), typical French edition of La Fontaine from the 1830's. Perhaps the only remarkable thing about the edition, shared with many later editions from Mame, is that it italicizes the "morality" portion before or after a fable, at least those in which a moral is announced. This copy lacks its front cover. The Mame tradition of presenting La Fontaine's fables is heavy! I count these Mame editions: 1852 Coste; 1870 and 1877 Grandville; 1870 and 1890 Girardet; 1910 Vimar; 1926 Nézière; 1946 Mirabelle; and 1950 Ferrand.

1834 Fables de La Fontaine Précédées de la vie de l'auteur. Nouvelle édition, dans laquelle on aperçoit d'un coup d'oeil la moralité de la Fable. Hardbound. Paris: Avallon. Comynet, Imprimeur-Librairie. $8.50 from Paul Regan, Westminster, MA, through Ebay, Jan., '02.

This book is in many respects similar to one I had found in 1993 at the Strand, dated 1835 from the same publisher with the same title. In fact, the title-page may be the same except for the year. That little book of the same size (3½" x 5¼") also presents four pages with six illustrations each. I was surprised, then, to note that, though the text pages are identical, the illustrations are quite different. They are much better defined here, they lack frames and offer cursive titles, and they treat different subjects. Thus the set facing the frontispiece includes two repeaters (FC and "Les Voleurs et l'Ane") but has four new subjects. As in the other book, the four pages of illustrations are not spread evenly over the volume. They occur here as the frontispiece and at 27 and 98 of the first volume and at 6 of the second volume. The fables in Books IV-VI have been heavily annotated in pencil. The covers are loose, and the spine is gone on this lovely, fragile little book. I still have my question about how we perceive the moral more easily in this text. Some texts that make that promise fulfill it by italicizing particular passages, but I do not find that practice here.

1834 French Fables with a Key and a Treatise on Pronunciation. François M.J. Surault. Hardbound. Cambridge, MA: Surault's Complete Course of French Instruction #4: James Munroe and Co. $9.99 from Christopher Candelora, Lovell, Maine, through eBay, Dec., '05. 

The title continues "For Those Who Begin to Read the French Language; Being the Fourth Elementary Work in the Complete Course of French Instruction." Surault here has selected one hundred of La Fontaine's best fables and rendered them into prose. A T of C at the beginning lists and numbers the hundred fables. Before the fables start, there is a rather lengthy treatise on pronunciation (xiii-xxxii). The fables themselves are presented simply in French prose on 1-78. Then follows the key, which presents each fable with an interlinear English translation below and a phonetic spelling for pronuncation above. The back cover lists all six books in the complete course. First there is a grammar, then exercises, then a key to the exercises. Our fables follow, and after them "French Questions on Sir Walter Scott's Tales of a Grandfather." Last in the series is a set of French conversations.

1834 Original Fables with Morals and Ethical Index. Also a Translation of Plutarch's Banquet of the Seven Sages. (Spine: "Original Fables"). (Monogram=) Job Crithannah (Jonathan Birch). Embellished with Eighty-Five Original Designs by R. Cruickshank. Second edition. Hardbound. London: Effingham Wilson, Cornhill. $101.05 from Rooke Books, Bath, UK, Dec., '17.

We have three copies of the 1833 first edition in our collection, published by Hamilton, Adams, and Co.  Here is the 1834 edition, published by Effingham Wilson, Cornhill.  The printer is the same for both volumes.  This edition does add at the very beginning a short advertisement and four pages of (positive) "criticism."  From there on the books are internally identical.  After an introduction, the book begins with an "Ethical Index," listing titles and morals.  A new fable comes every four pages.  First there is an illustration about 2½" x 3½" in size centered on the left-hand page.  Then come, on the next two pages, number, title, narrative, moral (usually longer than the narrative), and perhaps a vignette.  A blank right-hand page follows.  The Cruickshank illustrations are often very nice.  An example is the illustration for Fable VI, "The Bee, the Spider, and the Tomtit" (42).  In the fable, the Tomtit overhears the other two arguing about their building skills, especially relative to their mathematical skills in constructing hive and web, respectively.  The Tomtit intrudes himself to praise his nests, and the other bursts into laughter.  The illustration is wonderfully precise.  Many of the vignettes are delightful; a good example is that for "Aesop and the Libertine" (48).  Another vignette has a man reeling from a woman who has removed her make-up mask (68).  One might take this book as a sample of the taste of the Eighteenth Century.  The long morals regularly take up social, political, and religious questions.  We read, e.g., a tribute on 52 to public schools over private tuition, for in the former "the boy, surrounded by his equals, soon finds out the necessity of curbing passion and suppressing sauciness."  "The Hog and the Goat" (59) focuses on misplaced admiration of either obesity or starvation.  For yet another example of the taste of the time, try "The Traveller and the Gnat" (119).  One of these new fables that I find particularly engaging is "The Yard-Dog and the Fox" (99).  The fox lures the over-zealous watchdog into the woods and then doubles back to plunder the farm.  The fable has a good illustration and a good vignette.  Many of the fables suffer, I believe, from a sort of prethought didacticism.  This R. Cruickshank apparently has nothing to do with the famous George Cruickshank, who lived from 1792 to 1878 and illustrated "The Toothache."  There is an AI at the back, which also lists the engraver for each illustration.  It is followed by a translation of Plutarch's "The Banquet of the Seven Sages."

1834 Phaedri Fabulae Expurgatae, Accedunt tractatus de versu iambico, notulae anglicae et quaestiones, in usum Scholae Bostoniensis. Hardbound. Boston: Hilliard, Gray, Little, et Wilkins. $35 from Zubal.com, Cleveland, Feb., '02.

This book seems to reproduce the 1927 edition almost verbatim. The only changes I can note are on the title-page. The colophon on the verso of the title-page still presents the license of 1827. See my comments there for references to Lamb, Carnes, and the 1824 Valpy edition. As noted there, the texts are followed by forty-one pages of notes and eight pages of discussion questions.

1834 Raccolta di Favole Scelte fra Quelle di Pignotti, Clasio, Bertola, Roberti, Grillo, Crudeli, Passeroni, Perego, Bondi, Polidori. Hardbound. London: P. Rolandi/Bossange, Barthe e Lowell. $28 from Sat'n Rose Books, Silver Spring, MD, through Ebay, May, '99.

Wow! Here is a sturdy little book of Italian fables published in London and sold in New York! After a short preface, there are 205 numbered verse fables on 410 pages. At the back there is a T of C, organized, like the book, according to the eleven authors represented. I had not even heard of many of these! What a great little find! Now I need to learn Italian…. For some reason, the title-page misses Rossi, who has fifteen fables here. Sold by Bernard & Monson, NY.

1835 Fables and Moral Maxims in Verse and Prose. Selected by Anne Parker. Hardbound. Printed in London. London: John W. Parker. $20 from Joann V. White, Swedesboro, NJ, June, '94.

There are 272 pages here with plenty of small print on them. The moral intent of the book is clear from the first paragraph, which closes with the comment that some school editions of Aesop's and Gay's fables "abound in subjects and expressions, not merely repulsive from their coarseness, but more gravely objectionable, from their anti-social, and, frequently immoral, tendency" (iv). It is good to know that someone was at least alert to what fables were offering! The collection of perhaps two hundred stories here includes fables in verse and in prose, some taken from Krumacher's Parables and some from Dodsley's Economy of Human Life. The "moral maxims" advertised in the title are not a separate section. There is an AI at the beginning. There are good little illustrations before every fourth or fifth fable, and some illustrations after fables too. One can count the ribs on the dog in DS on 265. New to me and good is "The Monkey and the Nuts" (24): the monkey pelts would-be attackers with the very nuts that they seek. Victory for him is ultimately as good as a defeat! The upper half of the spine has chipped off but is present; it reads "Parker's Fables."

1835 Fables de Florian. Mit grammatischen, historisch-geographischen und mythologischen Bemerkungen und einem Wörterbuche neu herausgegeben von Ed. Hoche. Dritte Ausgabe. Hardbound. Leipzig: Ernst Fleischer. $27 from Antiquariat G. Braun, Ludwigsburg, through abe, Feb., '03. 

Perhaps the best feature of this book is the extensive French-German dictionary, including both difficult words and idioms. It is on 137-194. Otherwise it is a straightforward presentation of six books of fables, with extensive comments at the bottom of the page. There is an AI on 134-36. There is also a helpful list of abbreviations just before Page 1.

1835 Fables de La Fontaine. Précédées de la vie de l'auteur. Nouvelle édition, dans laquelle on aperçoit d'un coup d'oeil la moralité de la Fable. Paris: Avallon. Comynet, Imprimeur-Librairie. $30 at Strand, March, '93.

A small book of the complete fables in contemporary marbled boards. Its special feature is four pages of six square wood engravings each (frontispiece and facing 40, 90, 114). It would be a delight to track down the tradition of these illustrations. Facing 114, is the illustration really "Conseil tenu par les Rats" or rather "le Rat qui s'est retiré du monde"? I do not see how we perceive the moral more easily in this text: is there a vestigial appendix on this title page?

1835 Fables de La Fontaine.  Jean de La Fontaine.  (François Louis) Couché.  Hardbound.  Avallon/Paris: Comynet.  $100 from Philadelphia Rare Books & Manuscripts Company, August, ‘21.  

I will include this second copy of this little book for two reasons.  The first has little validity: I learned of our earlier copy only after I had sedulously studied and catalogued this second copy and was ready to list it in our online chronological catalogue.  Sure enough, “1835” popped up with a description very similar to the one I had just created.  The second reason has, I hope, more validity.  Due to the diligence of PRBM and Bodemann, this second record has more complete information than we had earlier.  I am amazed that the illustrations are bound at exactly the same places in both copies!   Here begins, then, what I have written this time.  It is always a pleasure to add to this collection one of Bodemann's numbers.  Bodemann lists an 1834 edition but seems to date it to 1832.  In any case, there is one copy of the 1834 known in this country and no copies of this 1835 edition.  Its key feature lies in the four pages of illustrations signed by Couché fils, each containing six engraved vignettes (frontispiece, 40, 90, 114).  Apparently a thinner, different sort of paper was used for these illustrations, not printed on the verso, since they now are now browning more than the other pages.  The choices for these 24 vignettes could be taken as a standard for what fables of La Fontaine are best known and loved.  People's favorites are all here, even if they are very small!  Curiously,, none of the illustrations is placed in Volume II, which begins pagination anew.  3½" x 5½.

1835 Fables de la Fontaine. Enrichie des Notes de Coste. Avec les Vignettes de Carez, de Toul. Nouvelle Edition. Hardbound. Paris: Lebigre Frères. $25 from Logos Books & Records, Santa Cruz, CA, through abe, August, '06.

Here is a little (3½" x 5½") book beautifully bound in leather with a gold title on the cover and spine. Its title-page contains the claim: "Dans laquelle on aperçoit d'un coup-d'oeil la moralité de la fable." Here this highlighting of the passage supposedly most revelatory of the moral is done by means of italics. This book has seen some things in its 180 years! It features some generous worm-holes; one good set of them runs from 10 through 60. There are also occasional doodlers' images: Is that a woman on 53? There are also some ink-stains and some foxing along the way. The small illustrations are frequent and simple. They look like a standard set used for La Fontaine's fables. Several of them strike me as more interesting: "Le Mort et le Malheureux," for example, on 27. The frustrated young man about to strike the wall-painting of the lion on 220 is well presented. Some of the images come out extremely dark. For typically dark images, notice TH on 154 and "L'Ane et ses Maitres" on 155. The binder apparently created some serious mistakes in putting together this book. Pages containing Fables 10 through 14 of Book I are out of order, as is 25, which now comes just before 35. The book contains 354 pages. It is not in Bodemann, and its artists Carez and Toul do not appear there either.

1835 Little Fables for Little Folks. Hardbound. Printed in London. London: John Van Voorst. £8.50 from Abbey Antiquarian, August, '00.

This is one of those little books with a long sub-title: "Selected for their moral tendency and re-written in familiar words, not one of which exceeds two syllables; designed as reading lessons to amuse and instruct." There are fifty fables on 89 pages. About a quarter to a third are nicely illustrated with small engravings. The first three have been painted. Several stories are new to me: the lion speaks against his cub when the latter brays proudly; he has loved the company of asses (8). The turkey who loves to eat ants but complains of men who kill turkeys is admonished to think of her own sins (41). The first story of a wolf and lamb (12) involves the silly lamb jumping over the fence to eat grass with the grass-eating wolf. The more usual version of WL occurs on 63. Inscribed in 1836 and 1840. The bottom of the cover over the spine is torn.

1835 Phaedri Augusti Liberti Fabulae Aesopiae ad Lusitanae Iuventutis Commodum et Institutionem de Integro Recensitae et Illustratae. Leonardus Targionius. Hardbound. Lisbon: Ex Typographia Nationali. $9.95 from Andreas Schiff, Los Angeles, through eBay, May, '11.

"Editio priori castigatior et emendatior." The Latin place name of Lisbon, I learned here, is "Olisipo," and it occurs here in a nice locative ablative. I am not sure in what the "illustratae" consists, since there are no images here except those created by bored students. The front cover is hanging on literally by one thread. A "Leonardus Targionius" writes an introductory comment to students. There are copious notes at the bottom of each page. On 229-259 there is an extensive index of words and phrases. T of C at the back. Leather-bound. The spine has deteriorated, and its label is illegible. There are scribblings along the way and copious scribbles on the endpapers. This little book has a history!

1835 The Ladder to Learning: A Collection of Fables Arranged Progressively in Words of One, Two, and Three Syllables, with Original Morals. Edited and Improved by Mrs. Trimmer. With Seventy-Nine Engravings. Fourteenth Edition. Hardbound. Printed in London. London: John Harris. $45 from Alibris, March, '00.

Mrs. Trimmer's work is mentioned by Hobbs (22), with a first edition in 1789, as an example of the inventing of original fables for children based only loosely on folklore. This little booklet (with a page size of about 4" x 5") of viii + 222 pages takes its name of ladder because it offers three steps, divided according to the number of syllables it allows in the words. Ladders surround the title on the first title-page. Step the First groups twenty-four fables on 63 pages by animals (wolf, fox, horse, and "detached"). As I read, I find Hobbs' remark surprising, since I find only traditional stories here. The first three are "The Wolf and the Lamb," "The Wolf and the Crane," and "The Wolf and the Kid." "The Fox and the Wolf" (34) has the usual story of betrayal of the wolf by the fox and inhabitation of the wolf's cave by the fox, but this version then introduces a bear who admonishes the fox. The illustration for "The Cock and the Fox" (37) pictures the hunters and dogs who are, in perhaps the best telling of the story, only a clever fiction created by the cock. The next fable continues with the same cock and the same fox. The latter, caught in a trap, asks the former for help. The cock runs to inform the master, who comes to club the fox. The scene is well illustrated on 39. On the same page, the other illustration features the horse, with an alleged thorn in his hoof, kicking not a wolf but a bear. Step the Second (65-155) features thirty-five fables using two-syllable words. Step the Third (157-221) offers twenty-nine fables with three-syllable words. The interpaginated cuts occur throughout two to a page, one over the other. Unsigned, they are always titled and include a page reference to the appropriate fable. They surprise me with their detail and quality. Some of the best are: WSC and FC (17); "The Case Altered" with a great finger pointing at the lawyer (132); and BF (159). A special prize goes to the pair of illustrations facing 65, including a good reflection of the stag in the water and a great deal of surprise from the naked thief in the well as the clever boy steals his clothes! By contrast both illustrations facing 76 are ghastly. The boy from BW is about to be torn limb from limb by a dragon-like wolf, and the man in GGE looks as though he has either seen a ghost or become one! I like this little book very much, since it tells its tales pointedly and illustrates them well. It seems to me to avoid the preachiness of so many contemporary works.

1835? Select Fables for Children.  Paperbound.  Derby: Thomas Richardson.  £20? from LoeBooks, Cornwall, UK, August, '15.

This is a pamphlet of 47 pages offering twenty-one fables, each beginning two pages with a half-page illustration.  Some also have endpieces.  The selection is apt for children.  The kid here forgets her mother's sage advice, opens the door to the wolf, and is devoured (10).  God is the one who will answer the two young thieves who got a piece of meat from the butcher, even if the butcher does not know which did it (16).  BF warns about lying (17-18).  AD here is told of a dove and a bee (21-22).  "The Old Woman and Her Maids" features an illustration of the rooster having its neck chopped in the kitchen (25)!  Here three maids are pictured, while the text speaks of a "parcel."  Several fables are either new or have a new twist.  A boy sits in a tree stealing apples.  Speech and grass thrown by the tree's owner fail to bring the boy down, but stones thrown at him cause him to quit and come down (29-30).  A fox on his deathbed tells his children to live differently than he has.  The children ask how they can, since their nature and his example and upbringing have taught them one clear approach to life (33-34).  "The Bull and the Dog" is new to me.  The bull tosses the irritating dog up in the air once and tells him to quit.  The dog persists, and the bull immediately kills him (35-36).  The miser plans to give only after he dies (37-38).  "All vices leave us…but avarice (too often) goes with us from this world to the next."  I have trouble with "The Eagle and the Assembly of Animals" (41-2).  All the animals complain; Jupiter allows them to change their situations.  Nobody moves.  Moral: "Curiosity is very often fatal in its consequences, and pernicious in its effects."  The title-page illustration shows kids in a toy store receiving "fairings" because they behave.

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1836 - 1840

1836 Aesop's Fables Accompanied by Many Hundred Proverbs and Moral Maxims Suited to the Subject of Each Fable. Text by Samuel Croxall (unacknowledged). Dublin: P. Dixon Hardy. £15 from June Clinton, May, '97.

A beautiful little book very nicely rebound in marbled boards. The title-page illustration is in the same family as that in the similar Thomas, Cowperthwait book of 1839. Here there are 105 fables; FM is missing at the end, which the T of C at the beginning announces as #106. The illustrations are primitive but very engaging. The best of them are "The Old Man and Death" (82) and "The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing" (166). There are few tailpieces; what is that creature on 169? The short applications are not from Croxall. Since they seem to consist of several proverbs and or maxims, they supply what the title advertises—along with the additional saying under each illustration. Like the other books June had for me on this trip, this one represents a wonderful gift, especially treasured because it comes from her Irish collection.

1836 Aesop's Fables Translated into English with a Print Before Each Fable, Abridged for the Amusement & Instruction of Youth. Paperbound. Cooperstown: Stereotyped, Printed and Sold by H. E. Phinney. $17.05 from Renny's Books Vermillion, SD, through eBay, May, '07.

This tender little (3½"x5¼") pamphlet of 30 pages is unusual for its excellent illustrations. Oval in form, they are 2¾" x 2". Several -- like DM (5), FG (25), and DS (28) -- are as detailed as a fine Bewick illustration. Others are less detailed. Croxall is the source of some of the texts, like "The Wolf and the Kid" (26), though the application is considerably shortened here. For FK (9), we get Croxall's text and all of Croxall's application. Was the binding always sewn as this binding is now? I consider this a very lucky find on eBay!

1836 Aesop's Fables Translated into English with a Print Before Each Fable, Abridged for the Amusement & Instruction of Youth.  Paperbound.  Cooperstown: Stereotyped, Printed and Sold by H. E. Phinney.  $41.55 from Harold M. Burstein & Co., Bernardston, MA, June, '12. 

This is my second copy of this tender little (3½"x5¼") pamphlet of 30 pages.  This copy from Harold Burstein is in better condition than my first copy, which was found seven years ago.  Still, both are in such "fair to poor" condition that I will keep both in the collection.  As I wrote then, the pamphlet is unusual for its excellent illustrations.  Oval in form, they are 2¾" x 2".  Several -- like DM (5), FG (25), and DS (28) -- are as detailed as a fine Bewick illustration.  Others are less detailed.  Croxall is the source of some of the texts, like "The Wolf and the Kid" (26), though the application is considerably shortened here.  For FK (9), we get Croxall's text and all of Croxall's application.  Again, the binding is sewn.  Here is another lucky find on eBay.

1836 Fables de La Fontaine. Collationnées et Accompagnées de Notes par M. Walckenaer. Illustrations by Tony Johannot. Hardbound. Paris: Bibliothéque d'Auteurs Classiques: Chez Lefèvre, Libraire/Chez Ledentu, Librairie. €15 from Hinderickx & Winderickx Antiquariaat, Utrecht, July, '09.

Bodemann #282.2. This smaller version of Lefebvre's publication of 1835 includes only five Johannot illustrations of the thirteen offered there. The five are: "Le Berger et la Mer" (frontispiece); TB (facing 160); "Les Femmes et le Secret" (facing 233); "Les Poissons et le Berger qui Joue de la Flute" (facing 324); and "Du Thésauriseur et du Singe" (facing 363). Also lacking is Walckenaer's biographical "Notice." Not lacking is the "Table des Auteurs" after the fables on 413. There is also an AI of fables on 417. This edition is in the series "Bibliothéque d'Auteurs Classiques." There is some staining around the edges, not affecting the images or text. I am amazed that I found this bargain on our afternoon of book-hunting in Utrecht! Leather spine and marbled covers and end-papers.

1836 Fables de La Fontaine.  Collationnées et Accompagnées de Notes par M. Walckenaer.  Illustrated by Tony Johannot.  Hardbound.  Paris: Bibliothéque d'Auteurs Classiques: Chez Lefèvre, Libraire/Chez Ledentu, Librairie.  £70 from Lovewhatido50 through Ebay, Jan., '23.

We already have an inferior copy of this book.  This second copy, which I will keep in the collection, came through my mistaken sense that it was a copy of an 1822 earlier edition.  Though the frontispiece is loose, this is an otherwise fine copy.  Here are some things I wrote then:  Bodemann #282.2.  This smaller version of Lefebvre's publication of 1835 includes only five Johannot illustrations of the thirteen offered there.  The five are: "Le Berger et la Mer" (frontispiece); TB (facing 160); "Les Femmes et le Secret" (facing 233); "Les Poissons et le Berger qui Joue de la Flute" (facing 324); and "Du Thésauriseur et du Singe" (facing 363).  Also lacking is Walckenaer's biographical "Notice."  Not lacking is the "Table des Auteurs" after the fables on 413.  There is also an AI of fables on 417.  This edition is in the series "Bibliothéque d'Auteurs Classiques."  Leather spine.

1836 Fables de La Fontaine avec de nouvelles Gravures exécutées en Relief. Paperbound. Paris/Limoges: Chez Lebigre Frères, Libraires; Barbou, Imprimeur-Libraire. FF 100 from J. Deese, Marché Dauphine, Clignancourt, August, '01.

There are several remarkable things about this little (3½" x 5¾") paperbound book. First, it has survived 165 years! Secondly, it seems to claim different publishing houses and places of publication between the cover (Paris: Chez Lebigre Frères, Libraires) and the title-page (Limoges: Barbou, Imprimeur-Libraire). The illustrations are simple but effective, starting with the unusual landscape-formatted frontispiece of a man reflecting out in nature. Perhaps somewhere between one-third and one-half of the fables are illustrated. As the title-page points out, this is one of those editions that highlights the moral of the fable--wherever it might be found in the fable--with italics. Pages 11-14 are missing.

1836 Fables for the Nursery, Original and Select. Hardbound. Boston: Munroe and Francis. $12 from The Past Again, Farmingville, NY, through Ebay, August, '00.

This is a pleasant little (4½" x 5¾") book of original animal stories about twelve pages in length. The first six of its 224 pages consist of blanks and the title-page. The rest is entirely stories, with large print and very slender outside margins. Each story is preceded by a rectangular illustration about 2"x 2½" with angled corners on a left-hand page of its own. The stories I read are not fables. They include multiple incidents meant to reinforce lessons of obedience, kindness, and the avoidance of vanity. The book is in poor condition. Half of 221-222 is missing, and a tear mars 211-220. The spine is pulling away from the rest of the book.

1836 Fables of Aesop and Others Translated into English with Instructive Applications and a Print Before Each Fable. By Samuel Croxall. Hardbound. Philadelphia: Joseph M'Dowell. £25 from Stella Books Monmouthshire, UK, Jan., '02.

First, there is this bad news: 195-201 are missing. This book uses apparently the same "after Kirkall" plates that were used in my Cowperthwait edition of 1850 and my 1840 edition of unknown origin. My test case for this probe was the illustration for Fable xcii, "The Mule." Though the print is the same, the pagination--like, I assume, the text-plates--is not. One can contrast these illustrations with those found in my 1805 and earlier editions, which are either Kirkall's or very close to his. There are the standard 196 fables here, and there are the two standard changes to be found when Croxall's fables are published in the USA. The dedication to Lord Viscount Sunbury is simply dropped, and the reference to children of Britain becomes a reference to children of America (xviii). There is no frontispiece here now, though there may have been one originally. There is the usual index of virtues on 387-94. Notice that this little book has had to cross the ocean twice and that I had to go to a British bookseller to get it back!

1836 Fables Traduites de l'Anglais de Robert Dodsley. Hardbound. Paris: (Imp. De Mme Ve Brugnot). €15 from Chapitre, Lamnay, France, August, '06.

This is a diminutive volume, 3½" x 5½". It contains fifty-five fables and claims to be translating the third section of Dodsley's work, i.e., Dodsley's original fables. The 1761 original edition of Dodsley's fables has fifty-two newly invented fables. In Bewick's 1784 edition, the section given to Dodsley's fables includes forty-eight fables. I tried cross-checking the fable titles here with those in the 1761 edition. The order has certainly changed. Though I cannot be positive, it seemed to me that there are both fables from Dodsley's third part that are lacking here and that there are fables here that are lacking there. In the title-page illustration, a bear and two cats watch a monkey weigh something. In the frontispiece facing the title-page, a standing gentleman looks down at a seated man near a dog. The seated man may be putting a cloth to his mouth. Other illustrations present "L'Enfant et le Papillon" (50) and "Le Trompette" (114). There is a T of C on 127-131. I seem unable to find any Paris publisher acknowledged in this book. It was printed by Brugnot in Dijon.

1836 Les Fables en Action. Madame Malles de Beaulieu. Hardbound. Paris: Librairie de l'Enfance et de la Jeunesse P.-C. Lehuby. €30 from an unknown source in Europe, August, '09.

A lively introduction agrees with Rousseau that it is a mistake to offer children fables that are beyond them. The key thing to interest children is action. The author admits that there are few La Fontaine fables that fit easily into this program. MSA, for example, will rather reinforce the child's instinctive interest in refusing advice and doing things its own way. A setting brings together a widowed mother and three children and has them ready to hear contes and fables. In their first of thirteen soirees, the mother tells a story of a proud egocentric young girl who, because she is rich, is always at the center of her group of friends. A guest comes and, while the young girl is enjoying a piece of cake, asks if she can see the girl's dancing moves. She is proud to show them off, but the guest makes off with her cake in the meantime. This "fable in action" leads the young man to recite FC by LaFontaine, which he learned recently in school. The whole experience is so good that the children ask for another story. This time she tells the story of a poor student who stole the great tribute of the smartest and most popular student, who happened to fall sick. The cad delivered the tribute to the teacher as though it were his own and received the accolades of faculty and fellow students alike. But he forgot to burn the manuscript, and in fact it fell out of his pocket during some playing. He was discovered and shamed. Soon the real author revived and got the praise he deserved. One of the children is able to identify that this "fable in action" reminds her of BF, which she recites. So, I presume, it goes in the other twelve soirees. 308 pages. About 3½" x 5½". A frontispiece presents the setting of mother telling stories to three children. The title-page's illustration shows the theft of the piece of cake. I find other illustrations at 55 and 150. 

1836 Peter Parley's Book of Fables Illustrated by Numerous Engravings. Peter Parley. Hardbound. Hartford: White, Dwier and Co. $30 from Books Abound, Farmington, MI, through ABE, Feb., '00.

This is a lovely little book. Pages 13-14 are missing. Forty-seven fables full of explicitated lessons about what little children should do. If you look for a sense of how we wanted little kids to behave in the early nineteenth century, look no farther! The fables are heavy on animals learning too late what they should have done and very light on risk and adventure. The principal lesson is overwhelming: obey your parents! I find the rectangular little engravings charming; many of them here have been painted. There tend to be fewer as the book progresses. Surprisingly, the last six fables turn at last to traditional Aesopic material, and there has not been anything explicitly Aesopic before then. Some fables of course reinforce traditional fable themes, like "The Fox and the Spaniel" (71), which teaches that people judge us by the company we keep. Here is a selection of sample stories: "The Wolf and the Young Lamb" (why you should not leave your mother's side, 33); "The Rival Snails" (how to act if you are the fastest snail in climbing up a building, 35); "The Cow and the Clover" ("Or, a Story to show the Danger of Greediness," 49); "The Child and the Rainbow" (why you should enjoy rainbows while they last, 55); and "The Rat and Her Young Ones" (96). This latter story takes a prize. One young rat loses his leg to a trap on an expedition forbidden by mother before she left the hole. When she comes back and asks what happened, the young rat declares "Oh, my dear mother, while you were gone, a strong iron trap came into the hole, and snapped off my leg." There is a T of C at the beginning. The preface admits that the material presented here is based on the fables of Ingram Cobbin published in London. One catches the transatlantic sense in the footnote on 30 telling American children what a hedge is.

1836 Raccolta di Favole Morali, or A Collection of Italian Fables in Prose and Verse Selected from the Works of the Best Italian Fabulists, with Interlinear Translations and Explanation of Idioms. By Pietro Bachi. Hardbound. Printed in Cambridge. Boston: James Munroe and Company. From Clare Leeper, July, '96. Extra copy for From PSJ Uniques, Ayer, MA, through eBay, April, '08.

This booklet serves as second in a series of seven for instruction in Italian at Harvard. The first book was a grammar. The third goes on to prose writers, and further volumes to drama, poetry, conversation, and exercises. Beware when examining this book. Its real title-page comes only about ten pages into the book. The book is divided into two sections, prose and poetry, with some fables from the first recurring in the second. The two sections contain fifty-five and sixty items, respectively, with one allegory added to the second section. A T of C on 153-55 lists the fables and their authors. Pages 129-52 are the "interlinear" portion of the book, but this section offers help on progressively less and less in each item, finally choosing only the more difficult expressions in each piece. There is a list of errata on 156. The covers are almost fully separated from this fragile little old book. Congratulations to Clare for finding a little treasure like this book! Because of the fragility of both books, I will keep both in the collection.

1836 The Penny Magazine, Vol. V, #257. London: The Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. £3.99 from Keith Sadler, Ipswich, England, through eBay, Sept., '10.

The opening of this weekly magazine for Saturday, April 2, 1836, offers a large black-and-white illustration of WC and then argues that "the result of observation may be applied in a practical manner as a guide in actual life." It quotes the introduction to Gay's fables, in which a shepherd speaks to a sage about the simple knowledge he has gained from nature. It then quotes Dodsley's WC. The other articles in this issue treat of "Political Economy of Our Ancestors"'; "Howden Church" with an illustration; "Clermont and the Auvergne Mountains"; and "The River Nile." What I have is pages 129-36 stapled together. Might the original magazine have been larger? 

1836/37/1978 Hundert Fabeln für Kinder. Wilhelm Hey. In Bildern gezeichnet nach Otto Speckter. In two parts reproducing the original publications of fifty fables in 1836 and of the same number in 1837. Dust jacket. Hünstetten: Opera-Verlag. DM 16,90 in Germany, Aug., '88.

Compare with the English translation (1879?) of this work. Excellent pictures here. No T of C or index. The 1837 illustrations come off strong here. The stories are as saccharin in German as in English. Here is a good example of a favorite nineteenth-century children's book.

1836? Neues Fabelbuch: Eine Auswahl des Schönsten aus der Fabelnwelt, in deutscher, lateinischer, französischer und englischer Sprache, für die Jugend bearbeitet.  J(akob) E(berhard) Gailer.  Hardbound.  Tübingen: C.F. Oslander.  €110 from Antiquariat Kitzinger, Munich, July, '23.

This is a delightful and important book.  The first question about it has to do with date and edition.  Bodemann #283 seems to list an 1837 edition after a first edition of 1836.  If we have one of those two here, which might it be?  Our copy shows no date.  Its cover but not its title-page states "Neue Ausgabe," not mentioned in Bodemann.  The modern languages are in three columns, followed by the Latin in two columns.  Fables 1-130 are Aesopic.  Fables 131-211 are "Diverse-Gemischt."  The 36 illustrations come two to a page.  They are strong, like TB (#92 on 168) and "Death and the Woodman" (#140 on 232).  The page count (319 + 1) matches Bodemann's.  There is a T of C for each language at the end.  I found this book in a large collection of fairy tales over a stairwell and almost out of reach.

1837 A Selection of Fables from Florian and Other Authors. Translated and Versified by Theresa Tidy. Paperbound. London: J. Hatchard and Son. £8.99 from Tony Fothergill, Warthill, North Yorkshire, UK, through eBay, Feb., '08.

It is rare to find Florian translated into English. In this small (3½" x 5½") pamphlet one finds twelve from Florian, three from Dodsley, and three "Scraps from a Portfolio." Most of Florian's twelve are in my collections of outlines of his fables. Several are new to me. In "Horse and Colt," a colt wants to break out into the new. His wise father horse leads him around through hardship to his own meadow, which he then declares to be the best place in the world. In "Linnet," a wise crow admonishes the linnet, who thinks he is outstanding in qualities, to go and test himself against others. Adversity can teach one a great deal in a minute. In "The Lion's Education," a lion has a son and wonders who should educate him. Tiger, bear, and fox nominate themselves for their power, wisdom, and political cleverness, respectively. Dog speaks up against each of these. Lion appoints him teacher. Dog keeps young lion's birth from him and teaches him the inequity and injustice of life. Once a tiger attacks dog and young lion defends him, dog declares it is time for this lion to rule. He has lost a son--but taught him well! In "Parrot," a critic criticizes every bird around. Finally they ask him to sing. Embarrassed, he says "No, I only hiss. I can't do any more than that." Unfortunately, 37-38 are missing. "The Owl and the Eagle" by Dodsley is off to a great start! This is ephemera at its best.

1837 Fables de La Fontaine.  Hardbound.  Brussels: Meline, Cans, et Compagnie.  £21 from yeoldbookworms, London, on Ebay, March, '20.

3¾" x almost 6".  This is perhaps the most "regular" La Fontaine edition I have encountered.  There are three illustrations, generally within about 1¾" x 2¼", per book, and they are often quite regular in terms of where they appear.  The first fable of every one of the twelve books has an illustration, and there are two others per book.  Among the first six books, they tend to be, in the first instance, between Fable #7 and 12 of the book, and in the second instance, between 15 and 21.  I can see some poor editor or etcher deciding which fables would get illustrated!  Volume II, included in this book, is newly paginated.  The same patterns hold, though Book VII has for its second illustration Fable #4, "The Heron."  So many of the choices of fables to illustrate seem to turn to "old chestnuts"!  There is an error:  Book XII is called "Livre Onzieme" (165) repeating the title of the eleventh book (143).  The illustrations are dark and poorly rendered.  Among the best might be IV 16, "The Wolf, the Mother, and the Infant."  AI at the back.  This book came from the bookshop of Carlos Poggetti in Bahia and belonged to both John Morgan and A. Eustace Morgan.  Not in Bodemann.

1837 Fables De La Fontaine, precédées de la Vie D'Ésope.  Hardbound.  Paris: Chez Didier, Libraire.  $28.99 from Tami Zawistowski, East Granby, CT, through abe, Dec., '13.  

Here is a small 3½" x 5¼" complete La Fontaine with a T of C at the back of 339 pages.  It is hard to know what is meant by the promise "Nouvelle édition, dans laquelle on aperçoit d'un coup d'oeil la moralité de la fable," since the fables seem to be printed as they would be printed anywhere else.  There are four engraved plates, each with six lovely small panels.  They are found as frontispiece and facing 66, 151, and 263.  OCLC WorldCat lists the book as having only 3 pages of plates.  As the seller notes, this is a worn copy in full calf leather with a black spine label.  The rear cover is detached, and the covers are worn, rubbed, and warped.  Ownership history written on half-title and the verso of the frontispiece plate. Sold -- originally, one presumes -- by Berard and Mondon in NY City.  Not in Bodemann.

1837 Old Friends in a New Dress. By R.S. Sharpe. Frontispiece by J.F. Sharpe. Fifth Edition. Hardbound. Printed in London. London: Smith, Elder, and Co. £38 from Abbey Antiquarian, Winchcombe, July, '98.

See my copy of the 1826 third edition, which added Part II. (Perhaps the first edition was in 1807.) This fifth edition makes several important changes. First, it admits at last who the author is: R.S. Sharpe. Secondly, it cuts the title back by leaving out "or Select Fables of Aesop in Verse." Thirdly, it adds a third section of fourteen more stories, "Additional Fables, 1837." (It seems also to have dropped one from Part II and to have rearranged the order of fables in both the first and second parts.) Fourthly, it is the first edition of this book to add cuts, eighty-two of them spread over the three parts of the book. Fifthly, Chalmers and Collins in Glasgow have dropped out of the picture as publishers. Finally, the book has grown to 264 pages. See my comments there. I continue to enjoy the artistry of these fables. Perhaps I have been reading so many "original" fables lately that it is a special pleasure to come back to good traditional stories. I read the new fourteen fables. They are a mix of the well known and the less well known. Their main lesson is, as so often in nineteenth-century fable books, that children obey their parents. The new vignettes are good. Some good examples are "Two Goats" (112), TT (121), FG (180), and WSC (248). The moral to FG advises doubting the things we cannot gain and being happy without them (180). There is a T of C at the beginning, after the commendations of an earlier edition of the book. The binding has separated completely from the interior of the book. The cover features a gilt arrangement of fable animals around the title. Curiously, the price is stamped in gilt on both the cover and the spine.

1837 Phaedri Augusti Liberti Fabularum Aesopiarum Libri Quinque (Spine: Cornelii Nepotis). Editio Nova. Hardbound. Paris: R. Bregeaut. €95 from Librairie Rita de Maere, Namur, Belgium, June, '03. 

Bound with Cornelii Nepotis Vitae. Includes Perotti's Appendix and an AI. Every fable also has its own (unrelated) end-piece; perhaps the best of these shows two travelers approaching a city (50). The best feature of this beautiful volume may be the illustrations for Phaedrus' fables. I count twenty-two of them. Among the best are "Canis Fidelis" (29), "Anus ad Amphoram" (64), "Aesopus Ludens" (82), and "De Significatione Poenarum Tartari" (157). Carnes has a short listing for an 1838 edition by the same publisher. There seem to be several artists and engravers at work here, none acknowledged. This is a sturdy and well produced volume.

1837 Progressive Interlinear French Reader on Locke's Plan of Instruction. A.G. Collot. Hardbound. Philadelphia: Collot's Progressive French School Series: James Kay, Jun. and Brother. $23 from Vintage Books, Hopkinton, MA, through abe, August, '06.

There are eighty-eight interlinear passages in this volume of 283 pages. The first thirty-one are fables. Collot's preface refers to Locke's interlinear method and Locke's interlinear translation of Aesop's fables, which appeared soon after his death. The object "was to initiate the pupil generally into the knowledge of a language, before he troubled him with the abstruser rules of grammar; and the medium by which he proposed to give him this initiatory knowledge was that of the Interlinear translation" (vii). These fables are in prose. They seem to follow La Fontaine's fables in plot line, but not necessarily in their execution or moralizing of a given story. Thus FG, the third fable here, contains both "gascon" and "goujats," words one may not find too often outside of La Fontaine. However, the moral is quite different from La Fontaine's: "Nous méprisons souvent une chose, parce-que nous ne pouvons pas l'obtenir" (5). The fables take up the first forty pages. I hope someday to find a copy of Locke's book of Aesop's fables. Until then, this book serves as an exemplar of Locke's method.

1837/1979 Noch fünfzig Fabeln für Kinder. Nebst einem ernsthaften Anhange. Wilhelm Hey. In Bildern gezeichnet von Otto Speckter. Faksimile-Ausgabe. Wiesbaden: F. Englisch Verlag. $9 at Hassbecker's, Heidelberg, Aug., '88.

A wonderful book! Beautifully produced facsimile. The pages are printed on only one side. The reproductions are superior to those in my 1836+7/1978 edition of all one hundred fables from Opera Verlag. "The Thief and the Dog" (#30) is straight Aesop. The best illustrations are for #19 (Sausage and Ham) and #49 (Pail and Pitcher). Compare also with the English edition (1879?), for which Speckter did new (and sometimes very similar) illustrations.

1838 Aesop's Fables for the Instruction and Improvement of Youth. NA. Hardbound. London: John McGowan. $15.5 from SEB Books, Stratford Upon Avon, UK, through eBay, June, '03. 

This is one of the fattest little (4¼" x 5½") books I have. It is really two volumes bound together, both dated to the same year on their title pages. Each volume has a T of C at its beginning. The first volume has one hundred and ten fables on 263 pages. The second has one hundred and fifty fables on 311 pages. A quick check finds the fables and applications from Croxall. The frequent black-and-white illustrations are very well done and are surprisingly numerous. Fifteen of the first thirty fables are illustrated, for example. In this group, I find particularly good the illustrations of WSC (28) and of the hunted beaver (50). The fold-out frontispiece has lost some of its furthest extension. This is a remarkable little treasure!

1838 Fables by John Gay. With upwards of one hundred embellishments. Hardbound. Chiswick, England: Booker and Dolman; Whittaker and Co.; Simpkin and Co.; Tegg and Son; and C. Whittingham. $22 from Margaret Hamlin, Duluth, MN, through eBay, Nov., '12.

Can one get too many different editions of Gay's fables? I start to have that feeling. This edition will give some researcher a good time. The book is inscribed in 1857. Elements include a beginning T of C, listing all fifty fables of the first book and seventeen of the second book. Next is Gay's life by Johnson. Then follow the fables, each with a headpiece, almost half a page in size in this small (3¼" x 5¼") book. Many fables also feature tailpieces. Maybe the most informative comparison would be with the Gay edition I have from 1834 from Longman, Rees, Orme et al, only four years prior. These illustrations seem to follow in the tradition before Harvey. I presumed that I was finding a rerun of something I already had, but I think I was wrong. 

1838 Fables de Florian.  Florian.  Victor Adam.  Preface and introduction to fable by Charles Nodier.  Hardbound.  Paris: Delloye, Desmé et Compagnie.  $9.07 from artman61 through Ebay, Nov., '18.

Wow!  A first edition from 1838 for $9!  It pays to watch Ebay carefully!  Bodemann seems to make clear that the second edition in the same year includes the short epics "Ruth" and "Tobie" at the end of the volume, and they are not here.  The fact that the front cover is present but separated is the only major flaw in this impressive volume of some 260 pages.  Each fable gets a full-page illustration on separate paper, a title decoration, and an individual initial.  There are also many strong tailpieces.  I checked out some fifteen of the fables I know from Florian, and I found Adam's illustrations very good.  Those I found particularly strong include "Truth and Fable" (I 1); "The Dog and the Cat (I 11); "Colas' Flock (II 5); "The Monkey and the Magic Lantern" (II 7); "King Lion's Education" (II 15); "The Boar and the Nightingales" (III 3); "King Alphonse" (III 9); "The Fox As Preacher" (III 15); "The Squirrel, the Dog, and the Fox" (IV 2); "The Parrot" (IV 3); and "The Crocodile and the Sturgeon" (V 11).  "The Parrot" also has an excellent tailpiece.  There is an AI at the end.

1838 Fables de Florian, Nouvelle Édition, revue, corrigée et suivie de Tobie et de Ruth. Hardbound. Paris: L.F. Hivert, Libraire. $20 from an unknown source, July, '98.

This little book, 3½" x 5½", contains all 110 of Florian's fables. I would not have thought that Florian's fable corpus could fit into such a small volume. It has a once-beautiful leather binding that is significantly eaten away. The book once belonged to St. Francis Xavier in Liverpool. There is an AI at the back. Its main feature may lie in its frontispiece portrait of Florian and its three inserted plates. These present "The Blind and the Lame" (21), "The Monkey Who Shows the Magic Lantern" (33), and "The Guilty Dog" (127). There is an erratum on 88, where one reads "VII" for what should be "VIII."

1838 Fables de La Fontaine. Tome I: Livres I-VII. Illustrées par J.J. Grandville. Paris: H. Fournier Ainé. 1500 Francs for two volumes from Etienne Lovy at Thierry Margo, Paris, May, '97.

This edition answers my earlier question "What does 'nouvelle edition' mean, since the book was apparently originally published in 1838?" Here is the answer: there was an 1838 edition that was not nouvelle (second). I am presuming that it is a first printing. See my comments there. Let me note some differences between the two editions. The title-page here has "Édition Illustrée, whereas the other has "Fables…Illustrées." This printing has an additional address for the publisher. The typesetting of the pre-text portions is different, e.g. on xii or in the initial letter on xiii. The printer's designs around the titles and after the fables tend to be somewhat airy or spindly. This printing has a tear in the page facing 109 and repairs to 189-92. The pages from 287-290 are loose. Its best illustrations are 4.1 and 5.18. The spine is beginning to weaken. I found this edition by asking as usual for fable books. Monsieur Lovy said that he had at home an edition pre-dating the "nouvelle edition" of 1838 and challenged me to agree to buy the edition the next day for 1800 francs. He insisted that he would not bring it (this was to be a personal deal, not some of the store's business) if I would not take it. I said yes barring a real disaster but said that it would then have to be cheaper. I am not disappointed with the results of our dealing!

1838 Fables de La Fontaine. Tome II: Livres VIII-XII and three other short works. Illustrées par J.J. Grandville. Paris: H. Fournier Ainé. 1500 Francs for two volumes from Etienne Lovy at Thierry Margo, Paris, May, '97.

This second volume follows the pattern set by the first. Its impressions are generally lighter than in the "nouvelle edition" from Pangloss. A good example of that light impression is in 9.19 (facing 113). Among the best impressions here are 10.4 and 11.3. I am so happy to have found this early edition of Grandville! See my comments under Volume I and under the "nouvelle edition" of 1838.

1838 Fables de La Fontaine. Tome I: Livres I-VII. Illustrées par J.J. Grandville. Nouvelle édition. Paris: H. Fournier Ainé. $165 for two volumes at Pangloss in Cambridge, MA, Jan., '89.

One of the finest works I have. The illustrations (120 in the two volumes) are exceptionally clear here. Some of the best are of the city and country rats (20), the cat-woman (82), the lion in love (127), and the fox without a tail (182). Except for decorations at each book's beginning, each woodcut gets a full page, with no print on its back. What does "nouvelle edition" mean, since the book was apparently originally published in 1838? Now (1997) by comparison with that earlier edition, I can write that this edition is really singularly clean! Its paper and impressions are both exceptional! Almost all of the title-frames are changed from that edition, and the paper shows much less foxing. The binding is weakening rapidly, and the spine has lost some of its outer layer. Most of the impressions of the illustrations themselves are clearer and darker than in the previous edition. The illustration for "Le heron - La Fille" is placed one page later, facing 260, not 258. See 7.9's title-frame (269) for a typical case of enhancement from the earlier to the later edition. This edition places the initial at the beginnings of Books 2, 3, 6, and 7 too close to the binding.

1838 Fables de La Fontaine. Tome II: Livres VIII-XII and three other short works. Illustrées par J.J. Grandville. Nouvelle édition. Paris: H. Fournier Ainé. $165 for two volumes at Pangloss in Cambridge, MA, Jan., '89.

One of the finest works I have. As I mentioned above under Volume I, both the paper and the impressions here are outstanding, even and especially in comparison with the beautiful first printing. Some of the best, besides the endpiece (268), are of the bear and the gardener (22), the cat and the fox (103), the two goats (206), and the animals crying at LaFontaine's tombstone (308). This volume continues to have a problem with losing its middle margin to the initials that begin Books 9, 11, and 12. I have the impression that more designs were kept from the first to the "nouvelle" edition in this Volume II than in Volume I. Some title-frames that seem different are the same, just printed more heavily. A typical design transformation can be found on 164.

1838 Fables de La Fontaine, Tome I: Livres I-VII. LaFontaine. Illustrées par J.J. Grandville. Nouvelle édition. Hardbound. Paris: H. Fournier Ainé. $47.5 from Albatross Books, Jamaica Plain, MA, through abe, April, '04. 

This edition seems to me to be identical with that which I have listed under the same publishers and year, having acquired it from Pangloss Books in Cambridge. I make a separate listing here to be on the safe side, since the seller labels it a "First edition, Third state." The one difference I can find is that the illustration for "Le heron - La Fille" is faces 258, not 260. Let me repeat some of my remarks from that other copy. Some of the best illustrations are of the city and country rats (20), the cat-woman (82), the lion in love (127), and the fox without a tail (182). Except for decorations at each book's beginning, each woodcut gets a full page, with no print on its back. See 7.9's title-frame (269) for a typical case of enhancement from the earlier to the later edition.

1838 Fables de La Fontaine, Tome II: Livres VIII-XII. LaFontaine. Illustrées par J.J. Grandville. Nouvelle édition. Hardbound. Paris: H. Fournier Ainé. $47.5 from Albatross Books, Jamaica Plain, MA, through abe, April, '04. 

This edition seems to me to be identical with that which I have listed under the same publishers and year, having acquired it from Pangloss Books in Cambridge. I make a separate listing here to be on the safe side, since the seller labels it a "First edition, Third state." Let me repeat some of my remarks from that other copy. Some of the best illustrations, besides the endpiece (268), are of the bear and the gardener (22), the cat and the fox (103), the two goats (206), and the animals crying at LaFontaine's tombstone (308).

1838 Fables de La Fontaine.  Illustrations: J.J. Grandville.  Nouvelle Édition.  Hardbound.  Paris: H. Fournier Ainé.  $39.99 from Robin Nash, Tonawanda, NY, through eBay, May, '18.

When I noticed that this 1838 edition was up for under $80 for the two volumes, I thought I would take a chance.  I got lucky!  Getting it has given me a chance to compare -- again -- the 1838 Grandvilles that I have.  I will keep these two volumes in the collection simply because they are a first edition of a great work.  And, though there is foxing in these volumes, the illustrations remain stunning!  The result of this comparison in May, 2018 is that I now think that there are only two groupings here.  Only the Lovy copy lacks "Nouvelle Édition."  I believe it is a genuine first printing.  It is distinct from all three other printings in several ways.  The title-page in Lovy has "Édition Illustrée, whereas the others have simply "Illustrées" under "La Fontaine."  The Lovy printing has an additional element for the publisher: "Perrotin, Place de la Bourse, 1."  The typesetting of its pre-text portions is different, e.g. on xii or in the initial letter on xiii.  The printer's designs around the titles and after the fables tend to be somewhat airy or spindly, perhaps prepared quickly and in later printings more painstakingly redone.  The other three -- this copy as well as those found at Pangloss and Albatross -- differ among themselves only, as far as I can tell, in two ways that may depend more on the bookbinder than on the publisher.  The illustration for "Le Héron -- La Fille" faces 258 in Pangloss and this copy, while it faces 260 in Albatross.  Secondly, Pangloss and this copy place the initial at the beginnings of  Books 2, 3, 6, and 7 too close to the binding.  Let me turn now to comments I made on the Pangloss and Albatross copies.  One of the finest works I have.  The illustrations (120 in the two volumes) are exceptionally clear here.  Some of the best are of the city and country rats (20), the cat-woman (82), the lion in love (127), and the fox without a tail (182).  Except for decorations at each book's beginning, each woodcut gets a full page, with no print on its verso.

1838 Fables de La Fontaine, Vol. II.  Illustrations: J.J. Grandville.  Nouvelle Édition.  Hardbound.  Paris: H. Fournier Ainé.  $39.99 from Robin Nash, Tonawanda, NY, through eBay, May, '18.

When I noticed that this 1838 edition was up for under $80 for the two volumes, I thought I would take a chance.  I got lucky!  Getting it has given me a chance to compare -- again -- the 1838 Grandvilles that I have.  I will keep these two volumes in the collection simply because they are a first edition of a great work.  And, though there is foxing in these volumes, the illustrations remain stunning!  The result of this comparison in May, 2018 is that I now think that there are only two groupings here: Lovy as a first edition, and Pangloss, Albatross, and this copy as all a single later printing.   Some of the best illustrations, besides the endpiece (268), are of the bear and the gardener (22), the cat and the fox (103), the two goats (206), and the animals crying at LaFontaine's tombstone (308).  This is a good copy of one of the finest publications in the collection.

1838 Fables de La Fontaine.  J.J. Grandville.  Nouvelle Édition.  Hardbound.  Paris: H. Fournier Ainé.  £50 from Zoe Chiari, Winchester, UK,March, '22.

This book joins three others as "Nouvelle Édition" printings of Grandville's La Fontaine in 1838 but with one significant difference, that this is a single book containing two volumes while all of those are two-book copies.  The three parallel copies came to us from Pangloss, Albatross, and Nash.  As was the case with the Nash copy found in 2018, I was surprised at the low price and thought it worth capturing while it was available.  Again, I will keep this volume in the collection simply because it is a first edition of a great work.  The Nash copy provoked a review of the several copies, including the Lovy copy that is not a "Nouvelle Édition."  I will present results of that review here.  This copy comes with a note from Peter G. Tudor on the restoration of the binding of this book done in 1992 for £30.  The copy also features a bookplate of Henry Reeve.  These four copies differ among themselves only, as far as I can tell, in two ways that may depend more on the bookbinder than on the publisher.  The illustration for "Le Héron -- La Fille" faces 258 in Pangloss and Nash, while it faces 260 in Albatross and here.  Secondly, Pangloss and Nash place the initial at the beginnings of Books 2, 3, 6, and 7 too close to the binding.  Some of the best illustrations within Volume 1 are of the city and country rats (20), the cat-woman (82), the lion in love (127), and the fox without a tail (182).  In Volume 2, they include the bear and the gardener (22), the cat and the fox (103), the two goats (206), and the animals crying at LaFontaine's tombstone (308).

1838 Gay's Fables.  With elucidations and comments by the Very Rev. Archdeacon Coxe.  With sixty-eight woodcuts.  Sixth Edition.  Hardbound.  London.  $28.95 from Greatpandas at ebay, Sacramento, CA, June, '17.

Instead of a publisher, one reads on the title-page "Sold by All London Booksellers"!  I do believe that that is a first for me!  Gay was illustrated by Thomas Bewick in 1779 and William Harvey in 1856.  Bodemann lists no edition of Gay's fables between those two dates, though he is frequently included in anthologies of fables between those years.  The illustrations here are small and octagonal.  As might be assumed of a sixth edition, they are sometimes not as distinct as one might like.  My first glimpse of a Gay illustration is usually the last fable in Part II, "The Ravens, the Sexton, and the Earth-worm."  The sexton in this illustration is leaning on his shovel in an awkward position like those my physical therapist recommended for me in imitation of a pro football player!  I see no trace of the earthworm in this illustration.  The frontispiece may be the most engaging illustration in the book: a playful sprite or child lifts a triple mask off of the human face atop a monument.  The mask features a lion, an eagle, and a fish.  I am unsure of the interpretation one might best give this illustration.  Comments on individual fables range from quite brief to quite long.  The frontispiece page has come loose, and the book shows plenty of wear around its edges.

1838 Persian Fables for Young and Old. By the Rev. H.G. Keene. New edition. Hardbound. London: John W. Parker. £18 from The Minster Gate Bookshop, August, ‘01.

"Published under the Direction of the Committee of General Literature and Education, Appointed by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge." There are thirty-two fables, with nineteen illustrations, in this small (3¾" x 5½") book of 88 pages. Several are new to me: "The Wolf and the Fox Who Went to Rob the Garden" (27), "The Shepherd's Dog" (63), and "The Fox and the Hyena" (74). "The Fox and the Ass" (39) takes a very surprising turn. Usually the stupid ass lets himself be led a second time by the clever fox back into the trap where the lion lurks. Here he refuses the fox and rather goes back to working for the washerman. Perhaps the best of the illustrations is for "The Fox and the Drum" (23). "The Heron and the Crab" is told well and at considerable length (53-62). "The Rose and the Clay" ends with a curious statement: "Let the Christian learn humility and gratitude from this lesson of the Mohammedan" (79). "The Dervise and the Raven" (80) is a good fable I have encountered before. The dervish sees a raven feed a little hawk and takes the event as a pattern for his life. He will let himself be fed by life. After he and his family go hungry, he realizes that he is called to be not the little hawk but the adult raven, "laborious and benevolent." The last paragraph expresses the author's hope. A drop in the ocean might become a pearl (88). The back endpaper has a little sticker "Bound by Remnant & Edmonds." The book comes from the era in which a customer took the publisher/printer's work to a bookbinder.

1838 Peter Parley's Book of Fables Illustrated by Numerous Engravings. Hardbound. Hartford: Reed and Barber. $28.64 from Deborah Sprague, Orangeburg, NY, through eBay, August, '05. 

This is a lovely book. It seems to be identical with a book published two years earlier (1836) with the same title and plates by White, Dwier and Co in Hartford. One special quality of this book is the careful coloring of the illustrations. Since both copies have this feature, might it be that the publisher had laborers water-coloring the illustrations? There tend to be fewer illustrations as the book progresses. This book supplements that one in that it has the pages (13-14) missing in the earlier copy. Let me repeat comments I made on that book. Forty-seven fables full of explicitated lessons about what little children should do. If you look for a sense of how we wanted little kids to behave in the early nineteenth century, look no farther! The fables are heavy on animals learning too late what they should have done and very light on risk and adventure. The principal lesson is overwhelming: obey your parents! Surprisingly, the last six fables turn at last to traditional Aesopic material, and there has not been anything explicitly Aesopic before then. Some fables of course reinforce traditional fable themes, like "The Fox and the Spaniel" (71), which teaches that people judge us by the company we keep. Here is a selection of sample stories: "The Wolf and the Young Lamb" (why you should not leave your mother's side, 33); "The Rival Snails" (how to act if you are the fastest snail in climbing up a building, 35); "The Cow and the Clover" ("Or, a Story to show the Danger of Greediness," 49); "The Child and the Rainbow" (why you should enjoy rainbows while they last, 55); and "The Rat and Her Young Ones" (96). This latter story takes a prize. One young rat loses his leg to a trap on an expedition forbidden by mother before she left the hole. When she comes back and asks what happened, the young rat declares "Oh, my dear mother, while you were gone, a strong iron trap came into the hole, and snapped off my leg." There is a T of C at the beginning. The preface admits that the material presented here is based on the fables of Ingram Cobbin published in London. One catches the transatlantic sense in the footnote on 30 telling American children what a hedge is. The binding is in the process of separating. Included in this book is a touching note from someone perhaps in the 1840's or 1850's giving the book to a nephew as a remembrance of Uncle Ezra Fairchild, who composed the poem on the green ex libris stamp on the inside front cover.

1838 Phaedri Augusti liberti Fabulae Aesopiae quum veteres tum novae atque restitutae. Christianus Timotheus Dressler. Hardbound. Bautzen: In libraria Welleriana. €26 at Antiquariat Canicio, Heidelberg, July, '12.

"Ad fidem codicum Pithoeani, Remensis, Danielini et Perotti utriusque, quorum integra adjecta est varietas, et optimas editiones recognovit, lacunas explevit, versus a Nic. Perotto solutos refecit, fabulas a Marq. Gudio et Petro Burmanno in versiculos redactas locis plurimis emendavit, quas hic praetermisit, libro singulari comprehensas addidit Christianus Timotheus Dressler. Accedunt Ugobardi Sulmonensis Fabulae Phaedrianae e codice Haeneliano et Duacensi cum utriusque varietate accurate editae." I have a Dressler edition of Phaedrus published seventeen years later by Teubner in 1850; my copy is from 1855. This earlier attempt by Dressler is published by the Libraria Welleriana in Bautzen (Latin Budissa). Pack Carnes writes about it: "The first edition of the Christian Ehregott Timotheus Dressler (1800-1850) recension. See shorter school edition, Dressler, 1850." This collection of fables as it is presented here thus has, after the tenth fable of Book V, Liber VI, containing 31 "Fabulae Novae"; Liber VII, identified as "Appendix Vetus," containing 29 fables; Liber VIII, identified as "Appendix Nova," containing 12 fables. All of this material is then followed by the appended Phaedrian Fables by Ugobardi Sulmonensis. xvi+206 pp. Inscribed in 1844. Carnes writes of the Teubner edition: "A school edition outfitted with a six page introduction. No glossary, no notes. Prints the five books of fables, then the Perotti Appendix, then an 'appendix II', with 30 fables recovered from the Romulus tradition, and finally a third appendix with twelve medieval versions of what are considered to be probably Phaedrine fables in substance, if not exactly in form." 

1838 Phaedri, Augusti liberti, Fabularum Aesopiarum libri quinque.  Phaedrus.  NA.  Hardbound.  Paris: H. Delloye.  $41 from Voyager Books: alkhudra on eBay, Jan., '15.  

This is a lovely book, with, as the seller notes, original marbled-paper endpapers and the original leather binding, and marbled-paper covered boards.  I find illustrated Phaedrus editions to be quite rare.  None had been done before this one since 1806.  This book is in neither Carnes nor Bodemann.  However, Carnes has two brief listings of books done in 1837 and 1838, respectively, and with the same exact title and page count as this volume.  The word "schematibus" in the title of both appears in only these two titles in the whole of Carnes' catalogue.  Here are Carnes' two references:  "Phaedri, Augusti liberti, Fabularum Aesopiarum libri quinque / quibus accedunt fabulae novae ex codice Perottino.   Ed. nova ex optimis exemplaribus emendata et schematibus illustrata. Paris: Henriot, 1837, 172 pp. UBN. Nijmegen."  And "Phaedri Fabularum Aesopiarum libri quinque, quibus accedunt fabulae novae ex codice Perottino. Editio nova, ex optimis exemplaribus emendata et schematibus illustrata. Paris: R. Bregeaut, 1838. 172 pp. LC, NYPL."  Bodemann does have Delloye publishing a "Florian" in 1838.  The artist there was Victor Adam.  Might he have been the artist here too?  Jules David also did a LaFontaine in 183July, '38, as did of course Grandville.  The illustrations -- and their printing here -- are of high quality.  There are also abundant printer's devices.  A strange thing happens after the eighteenth fable of Book I: the text changes from movable print to script.  That pattern perdures through Fable XXVI of the first book.  In that section, the printer's designs are also replaced by hand-drawn symbols.  The paper is also thinner.  On 36, a strong design sweeps outside the margins.  Who were the illustrators here?  One of the fine partial-page designs is signed "T. P. Molet" (52), who is not in Bodemann.  Another is signed "H. Faxardo" (64), also not in Bodemann.  Still another is signed "Lesestre," who is listed in Bodemann for engraving a La Fontaine in 1851.  He may have the best fable illustration picturing the owl and cicada on 86.  "Verdeil" on 73 is listed three times in Bodemann between 1837 and 1852.  Altogether, this is a fascinating and unusual book!  Is it an insult to a book to say that its best feature may be its printer's devices?  There is an AI at the back.

1838? Fables de La Fontaine, Tome Premier. Accompagnée d'une notice historique et de notes par le bon Walckenaer. Illustree par J. David. Apparent first printing. Hardbound. Paris: Armand Aubrée, Éditeur. $25 from Tallmandan, Arcadia, FL, through eBay, Dec., '11.

At first this seemed a second copy of a book I found twelve years ago at Minster Gate and have listed under "1839" (Bodemann #287.3). After closer inspection, I believe that this may be Bodemann #287.1, the first printing (1838). Apparently the first printing of the accompanying second volume was in 1839, since Bodemann gives two dates for this two-volume set. What this and its companion Volume II lack are the added features of that third printing, especially the elaborate title-pages for each of the twelve books of fables and the full-page inserted illustrations, one for each book of fables. This volume also lacks the stiff added title-page in full color that is found in all three other volumes under consideration, that is, Volume II of this set and both volumes of the more elaborate set from Minster Gate. There is considerable foxing, but I still love the David engravings. What this volume does have includes both the sensitive frontispiece of La Fontaine with "poésie" and "morale" at his sides and the wonderful David illustrations, including a head-piece (about 3" by 2") for each fable and a smaller tail-piece for many. There are also some printer's devices after fables that seem to have dropped in the later printing (e.g., 76). Among my favorite illustrations are: OF (61); CJ (99); the tail-piece to BF, showing an academic copying things out of many books (216); the grisly tail-piece to "The Mother, the Child, and the Wolf" (233); and "The Eagle and the Owl" (281). Part of the confirmation that this may be a first printing is that it was printed at "Imprimerie d'Everat et Comp" but that same indication is found in Bodemann's #287.3.

1838? Fables de La Fontaine, Tome Premier.  Accompagnée d'une notice historique et de notes par le bon Walckenaer.  Illustree par J. David.  Apparent first printing.  Hardbound.  Paris: Armand Aubrée, Éditeur.  $25 from Anthony M. Bax, Quaker Hill, CT, through Ebay, August, ‘21.

This is our fourth pair of volumes that belong in Bodemann #287.  It is not like either the Canicio or Minster Gate copies, which I believe are #287.3.  They have the added features of that edition, including elaborate title-pages for each of the twelve books of fables and the full-page inserted illustrations, one for each book of fables.  It is like the Tallmandan copy, and my investigation this time confirms my view that these two sets are indeed #287.1.  I now believe that this first edition had only one stiff colored additional title-page, and it is the additional title-page present in this volume.  In the Tallmandan copy, that title-page is inserted loose into the second volume.  Both #287.1 and #287.3 were printed by Everat, while #287.2 was not.  That was a single volume printed by Lacrampe.  Might what becomes in Canicio and Minster Gates the confusing second stiff additional title-page, with the date “1839,” be pirated from that edition to serve as title-page in the second volume of #287.3?  That addition would explain how a 1839 title-page appears in a book published in 1840.  The great advantage of this book over the Tallmandan set is that it is in much better condition.  In particular, it does not have the foxing of that copy.  What this set has in common with the Tallmandan set includes both the sensitive frontispiece of La Fontaine with "poésie" and "morale" at his sides and the wonderful David illustrations, including a head-piece (about 3" by 2") for each fable and a smaller tail-piece for many.  There are also some printer's devices after fables that seem to have dropped in the later printing (e.g., 76).  As I wrote there, among my favorite illustrations are: OF (61); CJ (99); the tail-piece to BF, showing an academic copying things out of many books (216); the grisly tail-piece to "The Mother, the Child, and the Wolf" (233); and "The Eagle and the Owl" (281).

1838? Fables de La Fontaine, Tome Deuxième. Accompagnée d'une notice historique et de notes par le bon Walckenaer. Illustrée par J. David. Apparent first printing. Hardbound. Paris: Armand Aubrée, Éditeur. $25 from Tallmandan, Arcadia, FL, through eBay, Dec., '1

As I wrote for Volume I (1838?), this volume seemed at first a second copy of a book I found twelve years ago at Minster Gate and have listed under "1839" (Bodemann #287.3). After closer inspection, I believe that this may be Bodemann #287.1, the first printing. Apparently the first printing of the accompanying first volume was in 1838, since Bodemann gives 1838-39 for this two-volume set. What this and its companion Volume I lack are the added features of that third printing, especially the elaborate title-pages for each of the twelve books of fables and the full-page inserted illustrations, one for each book of fables. This volume has the stiff added title-page in full color. There is considerable foxing, but it seems to be heaviest around 140-43, which also show some pencil scribblings. This volume has the wonderful David illustrations, including a head-piece (about 3" by 2") for each fable and a smaller tail-piece for many. Among my favorite illustrations are both the head-piece and the tail-piece for "Le Curé et le Mort" (37); "The Rat and the Elephant" (100); and "The Fox, the Wolf, and the Horse" (323). The leather covering the spine has chipped at the top and is coming loose. Part of the confirmation that this may be a first printing is that it was printed at "Imprimerie d'Everat et Comp" but that same indication is found in the volumes that I believe are #287.3 from about two years later.

1838? Fables de La Fontaine, Tome Deuxième.  Accompagnée d'une notice historique et de notes par le bon Walckenaer.  Illustree par J. David.  Apparent first printing.  Hardbound.  Paris: Armand Aubrée, Éditeur.  $25 from Anthony M. Bax, Quaker Hill, CT, through Ebay, August, ‘21.

This is our fourth pair of volumes that belong in Bodemann #287.  It is not like either the Canicio or Minster Gate copies, which I believe are #287.3.  They have the added features of that edition, including elaborate title-pages for each of the twelve books of fables and the full-page inserted illustrations, one for each book of fables.  It is like the Tallmandan copy, and my investigation this time confirms my view that these two sets are indeed #287.1.  I now believe that this first edition had only one stiff colored additional title-page, and it is the additional title-page present in this volume.  In the Tallmandan copy, that title-page is inserted loose into the second volume.  Both #287.1 and #287.3 were printed by Everat, while #287.2 was not.  That was a single volume printed by Lacrampe.  Might what becomes in Canicio and Minster Gates the confusing second stiff additional title-page, with the date “1839,” be pirated from that edition to serve as title-page in the second volume of #287.3?  That addition would explain how a 1839 title-page appears in a book published in 1840.  The great advantage of this book over the Tallmandan set is that it is in much better condition.  In particular, it does not have the foxing of that copy.  What this set has in common with the Tallmandan set includes both the sensitive frontispiece of La Fontaine with "poésie" and "morale" at his sides and the wonderful David illustrations, including a head-piece (about 3" by 2") for each fable and a smaller tail-piece for many.  As I wrote there, among my favorite illustrations are both the head-piece and the tail-piece for "Le Curé et le Mort" (37); "The Rat and the Elephant" (100); and "The Fox, the Wolf, and the Horse" (323).

1838? (Aesop's Fables for the Instruction and Improvement of Youth). Hardbound. (London: John McGowan). £ 12.50 from Hawk5377 through eBay, Dec., '03.

Some patient research on my part seems to have yielded a likely title and publisher for this book. It is identical with the first half of a book I already have had in the collection, with the above title and publisher. The one hundred and ten fables are from Croxall. If this book were to follow the pattern of that one, then it would have the following missing parts and pages. At the front, it would be missing a frontispiece, picture pre-title-page, title-page, T of C (iii-vi), and preface (vii-xxi). At the back it is missing 263. The front and back covers are detached except for a small strip connecting them to the spine at the top. The inside of the front cover bears the gold-engraved leather bookplate "Harman Nicholls 1839." The leather covering the spine is also detached and has been laid inside the book. The illustrations may occur at slightly different places here from there; they are again labeled and numbered according to the numbers of the texts. As I commented then, the frequent black-and-white illustrations are very well done and are surprisingly numerous. Fifteen of the first thirty fables are illustrated, for example. In this group, I find particularly good the illustrations of WSC (27) and of the hunted beaver (49). "The Fatal Marriage" (60) is funny! Most of the torn pages 65-66 and "The Fox and the Lion" are missing. The illustration for "The Horse and the Lion" (136) is full of vigor. This is a frail but beautiful old treasure!

1839 Aesop's Fables with Upwards of One Hundred and Fifty Emblematical Devices. Text (unacknowledged) and preface by Samuel Croxall. Philadelphia: Thomas, Cowperthwait & Co. $22 by mail from John Martin, LaGrange, IL, August, '97.

One hundred and ten fables, each with a simple woodcut and many with a (sometimes generic) tailpiece. Apparently the first paragraph of Croxall's "Application" is taken in each case. T of C at the front. Leather cover. This little book is in surprisingly good condition for its age. What a wonderful find on the Internet! Thomas Beckman writes that the illustrations are probably by James Poupard, and they were initially used in a Philadelphia edition of 1802 by R. Aitkin. They seem also to have been copied or reproduced for an 1842 edition by John Locken in Philadelphia.

1839 Fables de La Fontaine, Tome I.  Jean de LaFontaine.  Illustrated by J.J. Grandville.  Hardbound.  Paris:  H. Fournier Ainé.  $12.77 from mr.diggy, Schaumburg, IL, through eBay, Jan., '17.

I have a copy of this two-volume work in poorer shape.  I add this second copy for two reasons.  First, it is in good condition, better condition than that pair of volumes.  Secondly, I celebrate the triumph of finding this spectacular pair of volumes for a ridiculous price.  It seems that Bodemann found a three volume edition of 1839, listed, like this pair, as "Nouvelle Edition."  That there was already a "Nouvelle Edition" in 1838, the year of publication, complicates things.  The illustrations in this pair of volumes are very well rendered, with only occasional foxing.  Gilt page edges.  The overlay on the non-leather parts of the covers is starting to come loose, revealing the fascinating substratum used for fine books in the middle of the nineteenth century.

1839 Fables de La Fontaine, Tome II.  Jean de LaFontaine.  Illustrated by J.J. Grandville.  Hardbound.  Paris:  H. Fournier Ainé.  $12.77 from mr.diggy, Schaumburg, IL, through eBay, Jan., '17.

I have a copy of this two-volume work in poorer shape.  I add this second copy for two reasons.  First, it is in good condition, better condition than that pair of volumes.  Secondly, I celebrate the triumph of finding this spectacular pair of volumes for a ridiculous price.  It seems that Bodemann found a three volume edition of 1839, listed, like this pair, as "Nouvelle Edition."  That there was already a "Nouvelle Edition" in 1838, the year of publication, complicates things.  The illustrations in this pair of volumes are very well rendered, with only occasional foxing.  Gilt page edges.  The overlay on the non-leather parts of the covers is starting to come loose, revealing the fascinating substratum used for fine books in the middle of the nineteenth century.  As an example of how well the illustrations are rendered in this edition and copy, notice XII.24, "Le Soleil et les Grenouilles, " facing 258. 

1839 Fables de La Fontaine. Tome I: Livres I-VII. Illustrées par J.J. Grandville. Nouvelle édition. Paris: H. Fournier Ainé. $80 for two volumes at Safari, San Diego, Aug., '93.

Seems to be exactly the same pages as in the Fournier Ainé printing of a year earlier. See my comments there. There is significant foxing here, and there are problems of a loose spine. But, oh, Grandville's illustrations are magnificent! Originally owned by the A.K. Smiley Public Library in Redlands, CA.

1839 Fables de La Fontaine. Tome II: Livres VIII-XII and three other short works. Illustrées par J.J. Grandville. Nouvelle édition. Paris: H. Fournier Ainé. $80 for two volumes at Safari, San Diego, Aug., '93.

Seems to be exactly the same pages as in the Fournier Ainé printing of a year earlier. See my comments there. There is significant foxing here, and there are problems of a loose spine. But, oh, Grandville's illustrations are magnificent! Originally owned by the A.K. Smiley Public Library in Redlands, CA.

1839 Fables de La Fontaine, Tome I.  J.J. Grandville.  Hardbound.  Paris: H. Fournier Ainé.  $22.50 from ledlo-74 through Ebay, Jan., '21.

There are already two copies of this magnificent first volume in the collection – besides two, three, or four different states of the first edition from 1838.  The other two 1839 copies come from Safari in San Diego and from Mr Diggy in Schaumburg, IL.  The major differences among these three are in the earliest pages.  The Schaumburg copy has a different frontispiece than the other two.  This copy and the Safari copy vary the order of their first pages, specifically the place of the simplest title-page with reference to the more elaborate title-page.  In this copy, that simpler page comes after the frontispiece.  This copy is remarkable, as is the Schaumburg copy, for its clean pages.  No foxing!  Its spine is tender.  A beautiful book.  At an inexpensive price on Ebay, I could not resist!

1839 Fables de La Fontaine, Tome II.  J.J. Grandville.  Hardbound.  Paris: H. Fournier Ainé.  $22.50 from ledlo-74 through Ebay, Jan., '21.

There are already two copies of this magnificent second volume in the collection.    This copy is again slightly unlike both the copy from Safari in San Diego and that from Mr Diggy in Schaumburg, IL.  This copy has as its frontispiece the frontispiece featured in the Schaumburg copy of the first volume.  Might the bookbinder in the case of the Schaumburg copy simply have mixed up the two frontispiece pages?  This copy differs from the Safari copy in having a frontispiece.  Again, this copy is remarkably clean.  No foxing!  Its spine is tender.  A beautiful book.  As I wrote about the first volume, at an inexpensive price on Ebay, I could not resist!

1839 Fables de La Fontaine, précédées de la vie d'Ésope. Hardbound. Paris: Lebigre Frères, Libraires. $29 from Janet Dunn, Caledonia, NY, through eBay, Nov., 10.

"Nouvelle Édition, collationnée sur la belle Édition de M.P. Didot l'Ainé." I have smaller illustrated Lebigre editions from 1835 and 1836. Here is an unillustrated edition in standard format. Since it is unillustrated, it does not appear in Bodemann. AI on 365-74. Lovely worked leather cover. Marbled endpapers. No notes. 

1839 Fables de La Fontaine, Tome Premier. Accompagnée d'une notice historique et de notes par le bon Walckenaer. Illustrée par J. David. Hardbound. Paris: Armand Aubrée, Éditeur. £47.5 from Minster Gate Bookshop, York, July, '98.

This is one of my favorite acquisitions for the collection. It seems to reproduce the 1842 edition (Bassy #42, p. 268) in many respects, except that it is published by Armand Aubrée, publisher of the 1839 edition. Further, it has the title-page information of that 1839 edition, and the special frontispiece to the second volume includes a date of 1839. Its features from the 1842 Aubert edition include 1) the sensitive frontispiece of La Fontaine with "poésie" and "morale" at his sides; 2) the wonderful David illustrations (Bassy "a"), including a head-piece (about 3" by 2") for each fable and a smaller tail-piece for many ; 3) the twelve frontispieces (signed by Schaal and Laisné), one at the beginning of each book, each of which incorporates motifs from several fables in that book into a beautiful emblem (Bassy "b"); and six plates outside the text in each volume designed by such as Johannot, Grenier, and Lange and often engraved by Thompson (Bassy "c"). These added plates are not at the page numbers given by Bassy, but rather at the exact point in the book where they further illustrate their given fables. There is also another frontispiece added to each volume, complete with gold and coloring, and well described by Bassy, but they are exchanged here, with the musical shepherd and Perrin Dandin in the second volume and FG and the countryman with the serpent in the first volume. However, my volume seems to have them where they belong, since the latter two fables are Books I and VI, respectively! These two lovely volumes in leather with gilt page-edges all around were found on a day of hooky from the Leeds conference at one of the nicest used book stores I have been in. Among my favorite illustrations are: OF (61); the bald man between the two women he is courting (93); CJ (99); the highly balanced and intricate frontispiece to Book II, with the falling astronomer at its center; the tail-piece to BF, showing an academic copying things out of many books (216); the grisly tail-piece to "The Mother, the Child, and the Wolf" (233); the full-page plate of the two servants ready to kill the rooster (facing 261); and "The Eagle and the Owl" (281). How should we understand the human figures set into the full-page plate for TH (facing 309)? There are inscriptions on the first pages from "9.1.24" and "March, '44." The only watermark I can find in the first fifty pages of either volume is a mark ("D"?) in the lower right corner of the added frontispiece of the first volume. Now that I have a second copy, perhaps of the 1838 and 1839 original printing (Bodemann 287.1), I note that this volume is very close to Bodemann's #287.3, published by Aubrée about 1840.  Until I am certain, I will stay with the original date I have already assigned of 1839, which is found, by the way, on the added title-page that perhaps should have been inserted into Volume I rather than into Volume II!

1839 Fables de La Fontaine, Tome Second. Accompagnée d'une notice historique et de notes par le bon Walckenaer. Illustrée par J. David. Hardbound. Paris: Armand Aubrée, Éditeur. £47.5 from Minster Gate Bookshop, York, July, '98.

See my comments on the first volume. As pointed out there, this volume's special frontispiece gives the 1839 date. This volume has the same inscriptions: "9.1.24" and "March, '44." Among my favorite illustrations are: both the head-piece and the tail-piece for "Le Curé et le Mort" (37); the frontispiece to Book VIII; "The Rat and the Elephant" (100); the frontispiece to Book XI; and "The Fox, the Wolf, and the Horse" (323).

1839 Fables de La Fontaine, Tome Premier.  Accompagnée d'une notice historique et de notes par le bon Walckenaer.  Illustree par J. David.  Hardbound.  Paris: Armand Aubrée, Éditeur.  €50 from Antiquariat Canicio, Heidelberg, July, '19.

This book is extremely close to the first volume in a set I found twenty-one years earlier at Minster Gate Bookshop in York.  Though Herr Canicio thinks it is a first printing and dates it to 1837-1838, I believe it is a third printing.  I say that it is, with its Volume II, extremely close to the Minster Gate Volume I with its companion Volume II.  What is different?  Two things are different that I have noticed so far.  First, I had long ago noticed that a printer's design on 76 in what I believe is the first printing from 1838-1839 is not present in the Minster Gate copy.  To my surprise that printer's design is present here.  Secondly, the two colored frontispieces to the two volumes, printed on heavy stock, are reversed here.  I had already noticed a discrepancy between the Minster Gate copy's placement and Bassy's description.  I will include comments based on those I made on the Minster Gate copy.  Its features include 1) the sensitive frontispiece of La Fontaine with "poésie" and "morale" at his sides;  2) the wonderful David illustrations (Bassy "a," commenting on the 1842 Aubert edition), including a head-piece (about 3" by 2") for each fable and a smaller tail-piece for many ; 3) the twelve frontispieces (signed by Schaal and Laisné), one at the beginning of each book, each of which incorporates motifs from several fables in that book into a beautiful emblem (Bassy "b"); and six plates outside the text in each volume designed by such as Johannot, Grenier, and Lange and often engraved by Thompson (Bassy "c").  These added plates are not at the page numbers given by Bassy, but rather, as in the Minster Gate copy, at the exact point in the book where they further illustrate their given fables.  There is also another frontispiece added to each volume, complete with gold and coloring, and well described by Bassy, but they are in Bassy's order here, not exchanged as in the Minster Gate copy.  Here the musical shepherd and Perrin Dandin are in the first volume and FG and the countryman with the serpent in the second volume.  Among my favorite illustrations are: OF (61); the bald man between the two women he is courting (93); CJ (99); the highly balanced and intricate frontispiece to Book II, with the falling astronomer at its center; the tail-piece to BF, showing an academic copying things out of many books (216); the grisly tail-piece to "The Mother, the Child, and the Wolf" (233); the full-page plate of the two servants ready to kill the rooster (facing 261); and "The Eagle and the Owl" (281).  How should we understand the human figures set into the full-page plate for TH (facing 309)?  This copy is generally remarkably clean.

1839 Fables de La Fontaine, Tome Second.  Accompagnée d'une notice historique et de notes par le bon Walckenaer.  Illustree par J. David.  Hardbound.  Paris: Armand Aubrée, Éditeur.  €50 from Antiquariat Canicio, Heidelberg, July, '19.

This book is extremely close to the second volume in a set I found twenty-one years earlier at Minster Gate Bookshop in York.  Though Herr Canicio thinks it is a first printing and dates it to 1837-1838, I believe it is a third printing.  I will include comments based on those I made on the Minster Gate copy.  Its features include the wonderful David illustrations, including a head-piece (about 3" by 2") for each fable and a smaller tail-piece for many ; the twelve frontispieces (signed by Schaal and Laisné), one at the beginning of each book, each of which incorporates motifs from several fables in that book into a beautiful emblem; and six plates outside the text in each volume designed by such as Johannot, Grenier, and Lange and often engraved by Thompson.  There is also the second frontispiece added to each volume, complete with gold and coloring, and well described by Bassy, but they are in Bassy's order here, not exchanged as in the Minster Gate copy.  Here we have FG and the countryman with the serpent featured in the columns with many animals in various places around the illustration.  This frontispiece is unlike its companion in the first volume: it does not have the date "1839."  This copy is, like its companion first volume, generally remarkably clean.  Among my favorite illustrations are: both the head-piece and the tail-piece for "Le Curé et le Mort" (37); the frontispiece to Book VIII; "The Rat and the Elephant" (100); the frontispiece to Book XI; and "The Fox, the Wolf, and the Horse" (323).

1839 Fables Original and Selected by the Most Esteemed European and Oriental Authors. By G. Moir Bussey. Illustrated by Numerous Engravings, Designed by J.J. Grandville. Hardbound. London: Charles Tilt. £ 7.80 from Chris Poppe, Granborough, UK, through eBay, August, '04. 

I have worked my way back to what I believe is the original edition of this book. I have it otherwise in editions listed under "1842," "1842?," "1863," and "1869." The former two were published by Willoughby (the printer here) and the latter two by Appleton. This edition does not have the magnificent hand-colored plates of the 1842 copy, but it is still a treasure. 497 fables from some thirty-two fabulists, named with their respective fables in the AI on xxix. Forty-nine full-page illustrations, listed on xxxiv. Each of the full-page illustrations is not only printed on a separate page, but also has its own slip-sheet. The versions include prose and verse, revised from their sources for the use of children. LaFontaine is taken chiefly from Matthews (1820), Yriarte from Belfour; all other translations are original. I believe that the illustration of "The Miser and the Treasure" (145) is missing. The very best plates depict the dog with cropped ears (201), the acorn and the gourd (217), the viper and the file (225), the frogs demanding a king (273), and the mountain in labor (297), identified as by "Aesop." Notice the adaptation of Grandville's frontispiece to include "Aesop, etc." The front cover is becoming detached.

1839 La Fontaine: A Present for the Young From the French. Hardbound. Boston: Weeks, Jordan and Company. $40 from Brattle Books, Oct., '03. 

This is an unusual--and an unusually expensive--little volume. It has its title clearly engraved in gold on its green cloth cover. There are 108 pages of verse fables without illustrations. Now, here is a pleasant surprise. The only thing that is not either title-page or fable texts is "To the Public." Here the author describes this booklet as a "pigmy balloon" or, as we might say, "trial balloon." Its fables are selected from a manuscript translation of the entire work of La Fontaine. A little checking in my records proved helpful. The writer is Elizur Wright, and this is a little precursor of his fine and important work. Maybe it was worth the high price after all! The translation of GA, the first fable here, is different from that in his later published work of 1841 and 1843, but the translations of other fables are the same.

1839/41 A Pleasing Companion for Little Girls and Boys. Jesse Torrey, Jun. Twenty-Fifth Edition. Hardbound. Philadelphia: Grigg & Elliot. $9 from Kevin Peshick, Ann Arbor, MI, through eBay, Nov., '05. 

The title continues "Blending Instruction with Amusement. Being a Selection of Entertaining Stories, Dialogues, Fables, and Poetry Designed for the Use of Primary Schools and Domestic Nurseries." The cover is an almost exact copy of the title-page, except that the former lists "1839" while the latter has "1841." The verso of the title-page actually has "1824" in its two elements. The first is a certification that the book was deposited and registered in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. There is also an 1824 report from the Committee of the Philadelphia Academy of Teachers recommending the book. The book is intended for children six to ten years old. Chapter V (122) offers ten traditional fables: BF, DS, DW, LM, "Hercules and the Carter," "Aesop at Play," "The Lion, the Bear, and the Fox", BC, "The Husbandman and the Stork," and SW.

1839? Fables de La Fontaine, Tome Deuxième. Accompagnée d'une notice historique et de notes par le bon Walckenaer. Illustrée par J. David. Apparent first printing. Hardbound. Paris: Armand Aubrée, Éditeur. $25 from Tallmandan, Arcadia, FL, through eBay, Dec., '11.

As I wrote for Volume I (1838?), this volume seemed at first a second copy of a book I found twelve years ago at Minster Gate and have listed under "1839" (Bodemann #287.3). After closer inspection, I believe that this may be Bodemann #287.1, the first printing. Apparently the first printing of the accompanying first volume was in 1838, since Bodemann gives 1838-39 for this two-volume set. What this and its companion Volume I lack are the added features of that third printing, especially the elaborate title-pages for each of the twelve books of fables and the full-page inserted illustrations, one for each book of fables. This volume has the stiff added title-page in full color. There is considerable foxing, but it seems to be heaviest around 140-43, which also show some pencil scribblings. This volume has the wonderful David illustrations, including a head-piece (about 3" by 2") for each fable and a smaller tail-piece for many. Among my favorite illustrations are both the head-piece and the tail-piece for "Le Curé et le Mort" (37); "The Rat and the Elephant" (100); and "The Fox, the Wolf, and the Horse" (323). The leather covering the spine has chipped at the top and is coming loose. Part of the confirmation that this may be a first printing is that it was printed at "Imprimerie d'Everat et Comp."

1839? One Hundred Fables with Illustrations; Hundert Fabeln in Wort und Bild; Cent Fables Illustrées. Neue Ausgabe in drei Sprachen. J.H. Hedley, F. Franke, and Ad. Dupuy. Apparently first edition. Hardbound. Leipzig, London, Vienna: Leipzig: Georg Wigand; London: Ackermann & Co; Vienna: Carl Gerold. £30.30 from Christopher Jones, Bristol, Avon, UK, through eBay, August, '05. 

Bodemann #292.1. A very nice volume bound in half leather with marbled covers and endpapers. As Bodemann notes, the illustrations are after Grandville, but more proximately they are reproduced from another version that Wigand did--only in German--in 1837. The fables begin immediately on the page after the title-page. Every fable begins on a right-hand page after an illustration slightly larger than a half-page. The illustrations are well rendered here. The text, which is divided into three columns, regularly continues onto the obverse; Fables 65 and 69 present an exception, since in at least these two cases the fable is completed on the first page and the obverse is thus blank. The right-hand pages are numbered from "1" to "100." There is a crack in the spine at 54. The book ends as abruptly as it starts, with nothing but two blank pages following the obverse of 100. The seller guessed at 1860, but I find nothing to distinguish this book from Bodemann's publication of 1839. This is one of the more notable books in the collection.

1839? One Hundred Fables with Illustrations; Hundert Fabeln in Wort und Bild; Cent Fables Illustrées. J.H. Hedley, F. Franke, Ad. Dupuy. Illustrations after Grandville. Hardbound. London: Ackermann & Co. £19.99 from Clive Jones, Felinfach, Ceredigion, UK, through eBay, Oct., '12.

The cover reads "One Hundred Fables in English, German & French. Illustrated." The sub-title on the title-page includes "A New Edition in Three Languages" in all three languages. If this is indeed a copy of the first edition -- and I confirm here that the publisher does check out with Bodemann's listing -- then this book is some forty years earlier than the bookseller estimated. Bodemann does not mention the frontispiece: an unusual full-page landscape of a castle with trees and animals in front of it. Its connection with fable is not immediately clear. The paper stock is thicker than one finds in most books. This copy is missing pages 5, 48, 58, and 59. There is a wormhole on 22. 47 is detached. There are a number of repairs in the book. Only right-hand pages are numbered, with one number for each fable, and each fable starts on a right-hand page with a picture. Then the three texts are in columns beneath it. Thus a number of left-hand pages following short texts have only a quadrangular frame on them. I have seen three-column works and am delighted to include this one in the collection. The texts seem to be prose adaptations of La Fontaine. It would be fun to track down their sources. There is no T of C, introduction, or index. This copy seems different from an otherwise identical copy in that only Ackermann appears on the title-page -- or anywhere -- as publisher. 

1840 A Selection of One Hundred of Perrin's Fables Accompanied with a Key. A. Bolmar. A new edition. Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard. See 1832/40.

1840 Fables Amusantes. Suivies d'une Table Générale et Particulière des Mots et de leur Signification en Anglais. Par J. Perrin. Vingt-troisième Édition. London: Longman, Orme, and Co. et al. $10 at Great Northwest Bookstore, Portland, July, '93.

Compare especially with my 1804 edition from Philadelphia. See my comments there. This edition has slightly different vocabulary on the title page ("suivies d'" for "avec"), gives Perrin a first-name initial, and puts the notes at the back of the book (starting on 98) rather than in the lower half of each page. Pages 107-8 are missing. Crude spine, leather bound. Apparently the same 140 fables in French as in the Philadelphia 1804 edition. The only illustration is before the first fable on 11. AI on vi-x. Compare also with various editions of Bolmar's A Selection of One Hundred of Perrin's Fables Accompanied with a Key, listed under 1832.

1840 Fables de la Fontaine. Nouvelle Édition, Enrichie des Notes de Coste, Dans laquelle on Aperçoit d'un Coup-d'Oeil la Moralité de la Fable. Avec les Vignettes de Carez de Toul. Hardbound. Moscow: Imprimerie de l'Institut Lazarew. £45 from Nial Devitt Books, Leamington Spa, UK, Jan., '02.

This is an otherwise straightforward presentation of La Fontaine's twelve books of fables with a T of C at the back following La Fontaine's epitaph with a design of its own. The two noteworthy features of the volume are its provenance and its illustrations. As to the first, this book was published in French in Moscow. As to the second, there is an interleaved illustration in smaller format on different paper at the beginning of each book except Book XII. I cannot tell whether there ever was an illustration for Book XII. The artist here seems to be more comfortable rendering humans than animals--for good reason. His or her lions (Books IV and XI) are particularly unsuccessful. At the beginning of Book I, the artist hides the head of the ox in depicting OF. There is, however, a fascinating dressed wolf as shepherd at the beginning of Book III. The book is not in Bodemann or Bassy. Coste's commentary appeared first in the David publication of 1746. I have it in editions from 1790 and 1793, but even closer may be an edition from Mame in 1852 with the same claim that one can perceive the moral quickly. Here that claim is accomplished with italics. The notes here are simple and brief.

1840 Fables et Poésies Choisies de Théophile-Conrad Pfeffel. Traduites en Vers Français et Précédées d'une Notice Biographique par M. Paul Lehr. Various artists. First edition. Hardbound. Strassburg: G. Silbermann et L. Dervaux. €30 from the Marché du Livre Georges Brassens, Paris, July, '12.

Bodemann #297.1 calls this a first edition and offers a black-and-white reproduction of the colorful title-page. This was a fortunate find on a Sunday morning at the Brassens book market that I had once visited but long since forgotten. And this visit happened just before I took a train ride through Pfeffel's old territory and worked on some of his poetry to use in the videotaped lectures I was preparing that summer. This is a substantial book on heavy paper, providing not only French verse translations of Pfeffel's fables and other works but also a black-and-white portrait frontispiece; an opulently colored title-page that features a doubting Thomas at the top and at the bottom a crocodile facing a lizard (see I:XXX); a colored initial on the biographical notice on Pfeffel, along with a black-and-white illustration of his home at its end; chromolithographed title-pages for each of the four books of fables; and one full-page black-and-white fable illustration per book. These include "La Pipe Turque" (55); "Les Bonzes" (153); "Thémire et le Serpent" (233); and "Le Pommier" (343). The wildest of the title-pages is for Book III. It features a native and an eagle in glorious colors (200). My two favorite fables from Pfeffel so far are "The Bee and the Butterfly" and "The Ass and the Cart," but unfortunately I could not find either here. There seem to be just over forty fables in each book, specifically 43, 43, 44, and 41 as they are numbered here. After the closing AI, there is an eight-page list of subscribers arranged by cities. 

1840 Moral Fables and Parables. By Ingram Cobbin. Hardbound. NY: T. Mason and G. Lane. $26.49 from an anonymous seller through eBay, Sept., '03.

This book seems to be an earlier and smaller version of a book by the same author and with the same title, published in London in 1863 by William Tegg. It is about 3½" x 5½" and contains thirty-eight fables, whose sub-titles indicate the vice or virtue dealt with. Cobbin's fables are apparently related or even identical to those of Peter Parley, full of explicit lessons about what little children should do. Many of the stories show animals learning too late what they should have done. The principal lesson is overwhelming: obey your parents! A typical fable is thus "The Angry Monkey" (59). Affronted by other monkeys, he climbs up into the rafters and begins throwing bricks and timbers at the other monkeys. He is admonished to be careful or he will bring the building down. He pays no heed. Soon the roof falls and the monkey's brains are dashed out. The fables here include "The Fox and the Spaniel" (32); "The Child and the Rainbow" (60); and "The Young Wolf and the Lamb" (67). I have read the first twenty. "The Boy and the Loaded Ass" (21) is the only one that surprises me as reader. In this story, both return from a difficult trip to find the master ordering the boy to take the ass on his back and carry him to the stable! To make the parallel even more vivid, the master flogs the boy to do what he cannot do, just as the boy had done to the ass. Now there is an object lesson! With this one exception, the stories and their lessons are so predictable! My heart goes out to the children who had to read these. Each fable has an illustration at the beginning; some also have tailpieces, generally unrelated to the story. There is a T of C at the beginning. Cobbin is not in Bodemann, Hobbs, Schiller, Snodgrass, Quinnam, or McKendry.

1840 Reineke der Fuchs.  G(otthard) O(swald) Marbach.  Woodcuts by Ludwig Richter.  Paperbound.  Leipzig: Volksbuecher 15-17: Otto Wigand Verlag.  €32 from Buecherstube Eilert, Ludwigsburg, Germany, Jan., '23.

Here is an inexpensive three-number volume from a series of inexpensive literature in the mid 1900's.  Marbach's "Reineke" is divided into four books, each with multiple chapters.  The verses -- 6844 of them -- are shorter than Goethe's.  As might be expected of an ephemeral book from 1840, the book is fragile!  The seller identifies the artist as Ludwig Richter.  There are perhaps 15 illustrations.  The strongest may be the one repeated on the cover: Reynard appears before King Lion's court (65).  My favorite occurs somewhat surprisingly at the very end (255), though it refers back to 47: the priest squats in pain and his mistress grieves as Hinz the cat escapes after maiming the priest.  Other good illustrations include Reynard playing possum (127) and swiping his tail across Isegrim's face (236).  261 pages, including illustrated advertisements at the back.  4½" x 7½".

1840 Things by Their Right Names.  Sarah J. Hale.  Hardbound.  School Library, Board of Education, Massachusetts: Juvenile Series, Vol. VI:  Boston: Marsh, Capen, Lyon, & Webb.  $7.50 from McMillen Book through eBay, April, '14.  

This little volume is unusual in having a series page, then a pre-title-page, and then a title-page.  The pre-title page identifies this volume as "Selections from the Writings of Mrs. Barbauld by Mrs. Sarah J. Hale.  The publisher on this page is "Thomas H. Webb & Co."  The title-page then has "Things by Their Right Names and Other Stories, Fables, and Moral Pieces in Prose and Verse Selected and Arranged from the Writings of Mrs. Barbauld with a Sketch of Her Life."  Whew!  The publisher is again "Thomas Webb & Co."  Some pieces are identified as fables but I would include others as well: "The Goose and Horse" (29); "The Phenix and Dove" (67): "The Young Mouse" (79); "The Wasp and Bee" (80); "The River and the Brook" (94); "The Pine and the Olive" (112); and "Confidence and Modesty" (220).  Inscribed in 1847.

1840/1920? Fables Ancient and Modern Adapted for the Use of Children. Edward Baldwin, Esq. Eleventh edition. London: Thomas Tegg. $15 from Charles Lloyd, Red Bank, NJ, at Baltimore Antiquarian Fair, Aug., '91.

A genuine curiosity right from the beautiful embossed silver/blue cover of WL stolen from Bennett. Before the seventy-one fables, there are nine pages of illustrations gathered together, eight to a page. Each fable has one illustration ("The Contractor and the Cobbler" gets two). These illustrations are unfortunately small. The introduction gives some surprising tips, which the versions follow: (1) Do not shorten fables; make them visible; (2) do not let fables end unhappily; and (3) introduce nothing new without explanation. Endings are thus often softened, and we get some surprises. The country mouse lives at Horace's villa, the town mouse at Maecenas' palace. The dog in the manger gets both the meat and an admonition. The miller recovers the ass. The ant gives the grasshopper a little. The hermit dismisses the bear after his wound. Men save the tangled stag before the dogs kill him. All ends well in "The Travellers and the Money-Bag." This is a genuinely unusual fable book.

1840? Aesopische Fabeln für die Jugend. Nach verschiedenen Dichtern gesammlet und bearbeitet von A.G. Meissner. Neue mit 150 Holzschnitten versehene Ausgabe. Paperbound. Dresden: Die Königliche Buchdruckerey. DM 220 from Antiquariat Fritz Keller, Stuttgart, July, '98.

I was on my way to another bookstore when I happened across this fascinating shop full of old toys and books. Among them was this little treasure. This 352-page paperback book's binding has become bowed, and its paper wraps are disintegrating. Otherwise it seems thoroughly intact. I could not get the dealer to come down from his high price! Bodemann lists fifteen different editions in which Meissner is somehow involved, but this is not one of them. Subsequent research suggests that the book was first published in Leipzig in 1791, but I still cannot find a date for this edition. As the opening T of C makes clear, there are five books, each with thirty fables. There is also an appendix with three unillustrated fables. The T of C alone gives the source of each fable; very few seem unattributed. The framed rectangular woodcuts take close to half a page. They are quite simple. An example is "Der Igel und der Maulwurf" on 11. Among the liveliest is "Die Knaben und die Frösche" (43). A few woodcuts are signed "C.F. Rudiger fecit." Most fables take two pages. "Die beiden Krebse" is a one-page exception (120). "Die Eiche und die Weide" (191) receives an unusual comment, since Meissner takes the willow and not the reed as a contrast to the oak. For Meissner, the point is not about hypocrisy and weakness but about humility and a proper sense of oneself. No fable starts on the same page as another fable. The title-page bears an illegible stamp of ownership. One suspects that this little book could tell some tales of where it has been! It has, no doubt, come through many hands.. I have no idea when it was published.

1840? Fables composées pour l'éducation du Duc de Bourgogne par Fénelon. Précédée d'un extrait de l'histoire de Fénelon sur la manière dont furent composées ces fables par le Cardinal de Bausset, et accompagnée de notes mythologiques, historiques et géographiques par A.M. Paris: Librairie Classique d'Eugène Belin. $15 at Antique Books, New Orleans, Dec., '92.

Now how is that for a title?! My first edition of Fénelon's (1651-1715) fables, mentioned by Hobbs on 16. Thirty-nine prose fables in a small book with simple boards--reprinting the title page and advertising some books--for covers. 1840 is the bookseller's guess at its date.

1840? Fables de Florian. Illustrées par Victor Adam. Précédées d'une Notice par Charles Nodier. Hardbound. Paris: Houdaillle et Cie, Éditeurs. €54 from Librairie de l'Avenue, St. Ouen, Dec., '04. 

This is Bodemann #289.3. The first and second editions of it were apparently both done in 1838, and so Bodemann dates this edition--done by a new publisher--"after 1838." The special charm of this book lies in its one-hundred-and-eleven full-page interpaginated plates: a frontispiece and one plate for each of the twenty-two fables in each of the five books. Each plate has not only a consecutive number at the upper left but also a number at the upper right showing the page it faces. I have been looking for a book to help me find my way in Florian, who is seldom translated into English; these plates can help with some of the more obscure fables. Among the better plates here are "The Cat and the Mirror" (12); "Le Chat et la Lunette" (32); "The Monkey Who Shows the Laterna Magica" (64): "The Tight-Rope Walker and the Balancer" (87); "The Two Bachelors" (120); "The Avaricious Man and His Son" (177); and "The Two Bald Men" (192). Besides the plates, there are initials and printer's designs after many of the fables. Do not miss, e.g., the two faces on 81. Both the initial and the final designs for "The Parakeet" (161-62) and "The Two Bald Men" (192) are excellent. With all the intercalated stiff-stock pages, this is quite a hefty book! There is an AI at the back.

1840? Fables de Florian.  Probable first edition.  Hardbound.  Paris: J. Langlumé et Peltier.  $62.87 from Ekaterina75, London, through Ebay, March, '19.

This book matches in all its particulars Bodemann #293.1, including the notation that the book does not show a date.  The book appeared at a time when Florian's appeal seems to have been at a peak.  These publishers or artists did Florian fable books about this time: Comynet (1830, 1832);  Ledentu (1832); Victor Adam (1838); Tastu (1841); Mame (1841); and Grandville (1842).  There are five pages with two illustrations each in this small (3½" x 5¾") book; there is also an illustration ("Truth and Fable") on the title-page.  The frontispiece features "The Two Travellers" (the wallet found on the road) and "The Coquette and the Bee."  The bee flatters the coquette he has just stung -- "I thought her lips were a rose" – and the coquette forgives the bee.  On 49, in "Le Savant et le Fermier," the old farmer answers the philosopher that he has not learned from Pythagoras or Plato but from nature, and these learnings have served him well.  In “Le Pacha et le Dervis,” a prize of jewels goes to the maddest man on earth.  The dervish seeks and finds a fellow who commands silly tasks on sacred documents.  Winner!  On 60, in "Le Paysan et le Riviere," we learn that if you want to accomplish something, cross the river now.  It will keep flowing!  Then Jupiter asks Minos what corrupts so many.  Is it selfishness?  Answer: No, father: idleness.  On 109, in "Le Grillon," a cricket sees a butterfly loved by everyone and sees himself not paid attention to.  Then some kids come and capture the butterfly.  Aha, says the cricket, let's live the quiet, concealed life!  Then in "L’Enfant et le Miroir," we learn "Smile, and the world will smile back at you.  Menace, and you'll find the world menacing," as a kind mother shows her distraught child.  On 120, King Alphonse hears "Don't look for the man in the moon.  Look for the poor man on your doorstep."  I gave up on “Le Dervis, la Corneille et le Faucon."  Too long for me!  The illustrations are well preserved.

1840? Fables de Florian.  Probable first edition.  Hardbound.  Paris: J. Langlumé et Peltier.  €45 from Europe, July, '19.

This small (3½" x 5¾") book is a second copy in our collection, but with different binding and different placement of the five pages of illustrations.  As I noted about this first copy, this book matches in all its particulars Bodemann #293.1, including the notation that the book does not show a date.  The book appeared at a time when Florian's appeal seems to have been at a peak.  These publishers or artists did Florian fable books about this time: Comynet (1830, 1832); Ledentu (1832); Victor Adam (1838); Tastu (1841); Mame (1841); and Grandville (1842).  Besides the five pages with two illustrations each in this book, there is also an illustration ("Truth and Fable") on the title-page.  The frontispiece features "Le Grillon," in which a cricket sees a butterfly loved by everyone and sees himself not paid attention to.  Then some kids come and capture the butterfly.  Aha, says the cricket, let's live the quiet, concealed life!  Then in "L’Enfant et le Miroir," we learn "Smile, and the world will smile back at you.  Menace, and you'll find the world menacing," as a kind mother shows her distraught child.  Next up is the illustration for "The Two Travellers" (5), about the wallet found on the road, and that for "The Coquette and the Bee."  The bee flatters the coquette he has just stung -- "I thought her lips were a rose" – and the coquette forgives the bee.  On 64, King Alphonse hears "Don't look for the man in the moon.  Look for the poor man on your doorstep."  I gave up on “Le Dervis, la Corneille et le Faucon."  Too long for me!  On 79, in "Le Savant et le Fermier," the old farmer answers the philosopher that he has not learned from Pythagoras or Plato but from nature, and these learnings have served him well.  In “Le Pacha et le Dervis,” a prize of jewels goes to the maddest man on earth.  The dervish seeks and finds a fellow who commands silly tasks on sacred documents.  Winner!  On 112, in "Le Paysan et le Riviere," we learn that if you want to accomplish something, cross the river now.  It will keep flowing!  Then Jupiter asks Minos what corrupts so many.  Is it selfishness?  Answer: No, father: idleness.  This copy is in good condition.  The covers are pink and gold.

1840? Fables de La Fontaine en Estampes.  Jean de La Fontaine.  Ornées de 24 Gravures.  Hardbound.  Paris and Limoges: Librairie Classique et de l'Education; Martial Ardant Frères.  €70.40 from Abraxas Libris, Becherel, France, April, ‘21.  

Here is a fragile landscape book 7½" x 5" of 80 pages, with, by my count, 23 intercalated illustrations on pages with a blank verso.  These full-page illustrations are quaint, occurring at intervals of about 3 pages.  Good examples are OF (6) and OR (34).  Might there be one missing illustration?  Not, as far as I can discover, in Bodemann.

1840? Fables of Aesop, and Others (?) By Samuel Croxall. $25 from Fuller and Saunders, Sept., '91.

This little volume is lacking a number of things, including its title-page, Fables II-VI, and the last 1½ fables. If it followed the tradition of similar Croxall editions, also lacking are a frontispiece, a preface, and an AI before the fables and an index of themes after them. It fits squarely in the tradition of cheap reprintings of the Croxall edition of 1722 with new illustrations. The illustrations here are identical with those found in the Derby & Jackson edition of 1859. The format of this book is smaller and the type is set differently than there, though also already with a modern "s." Thus the illustrations are imitations of Kirkall's, simpler and mirror-reversed (as they were in Mozley's editions of 1804 and 1807), but all in the "oval within a rectangle" style. The non-image portion of the rectangle becomes simpler and less ornate than it was in Kirkall's work. Fable CXCV begins here on 348. This copy is in fair condition, with a spine that shows some damage; the illustrations seem well preserved. This is a little treasure from a friendly local book-dealer who tried to watch out for me during my year at Georgetown and died soon thereafter.

1840? Fablier de l'Enfance et de la Jeunesse.  Par Eug(ène-Amadée) Balland.  Hardbound.  Paris: D. Belin.  $14.99 from Russell Wattenberg, Baltimore, MD, through eBay, Jan., '14.  

The book's alternate title is "Choix des Meilleures Fables Françaises."  This is a curious little (3¼" x 5¼") book.  It presents the fables of some eleven French authors, with a short "Notice" before each author's section.  At the end there is a long list of other French authors whose fables were not chosen for the strict limits of this volume.  The eleven presented in the 200 pages here are La Fontaine, Florian, Lamotte, Aubert, Boissard, Richer, Lemonnier, Dorat, Imbert, Guinguené, and Dutramblay.  They form a T of C at the book's very back. Perhaps the largest curiosity of the book for me has to do with illustrations.  The frontispiece is a full-page, full-body portrait of someone, perhaps Balland?  "The Monkey and the Dolphin" receives part of the title-page itself.  After that, illustrations come two to a page on 44 and 93,  Balland's opening "Avertissement" notes that he has some 150 fabulilsts in his library.  That notice is preceded by a dedication to Ch. Nodier.  Not in Bodemann.

1840? Hoch-Deutsches Reformirtes ABC- und Namen-Büchlein für Kinder welche anfangen zu lernen. Neue und verbesserte Ausgabe. Canvas bound. Printed in Philadelphia. Philadelphia: Schäfer und Koradi. $30 from Second Story Books, Dupont Circle, Washington, DC, Dec., '98.

This booklet is almost identical with one I have listed under "1832?" The cover here is yellow, and page numbers are added in the outside upper corners throughout. Check my comments there. There are four fables almost at the end of this lovely old German book produced in the United States. Each takes a page from 30-34: MM, "Der partheyische Richter," TB, and "Der Apfeldieb." The rectangular illustrations for them are strong; each adds its own ornate border. "Der partheyische Richter" is fun here, as always. "Ha! Sagte der Advokat, das ist ganz was anders! Diese Sache muss ich zuvor untersuchen; und wenn, wenn…." The farmer interrupts him: "The argument would have been resolved immediately without an 'if' if you would gladly let others experience justice just as you demand it from them." The pail when spilled seems to have caused a whole river of milk to flow!

1840? The Book of Fables Illustrated by Engravings. Pamphlet. Worcester: J. Grout, Jr. $35 from Hurley Books, Westmoreland, NH, through Bibliocity, Nov., '99.

This small (almost 6" x 4") pamphlet with ornate wraps contains sixteen fables on 24 pages, with nine illustrations. A beautiful rectangular illustration of FG starts the booklet off, followed by an apologia that foxes would rather be in a henhouse than in a vineyard, and a verse version of FG. Next is the first of several fables new to me, "The Fox and the Tortoise." The fox is being pursued by humans for robbing their henhouses and stops to chat for a moment with a tortoise before running off to save his life. The tortoise realizes that an honest life is better than running after forbidden pleasures. BW (illustrated) and "The Fox and the Goat" follow in verse--in different sized print, by the way. Next up are DLS in verse and DS in prose, the latter with another fine illustration. WC (verse) WL (prose, with an illustration), TB (verse) and DM (prose, with an illustration) follow. "Hurcules [sic] and the Clown" (verse), "The Lark and Her Yonug [sic] Ones" (prose), and "The Doves and Hawk" (verse, with a large illustration) follow. "The Groom and the Horse" (prose, 20) is new to me; the groom fools the horse, who has refused to be caught, by bringing out the "measure" (bucket?) in which he regularly brought the horse's oats. The measure is empty, and the horse chides him for his deception. "The Lion and the Other Beasts" (prose) is about smells in the lion's den; the accompanying illustration is really for the fable about the lion's partners in hunting (sheep, goat, and cow) and their division of the stag clearly in evidence in the picture. "The Owl and the Nightingale" (prose) criticizes the former for monkish book learning that is disturbed by the nightingale's lovely singing. The back cover features the books available at J. Grout's "Cheap Bookstore." Very good condition. A fine specimen of good printing work--except for the lamentable errata! What is that frontispiece about, showing a dog (?) in front of a home's fireplace? Very good condition.

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1841 - 1845

1841 A Pleasing Companion for Little Girls and Boys. Jesse Torrey, Jun. Twenty-Fifth Edition. Hardbound. Philadelphia: Grigg & Elliot. See 1839/41.

1841 Aesop's Fables with Upwards of One Hundred and Fifty Emblematical Devices. Text (unacknowledged) and preface by Samuel Croxall. Hardbound. Philadelphia: Thomas, Cowperthwait & Co.   $16.50 from Margaret Zygarowicz, Downsville, NY, through Ebay, March, '99.

See my identical copy of 1839 from the same publisher with the same title. The only change I see here is that we have nice leather with "Aesop's Fables" embossed on the cover. The top of the spine is damaged. See my comments there.

1841 Fables de Florian. Nouvelle Édition revue, corrigée et suivie de Tobie et de Ruth, poèmes tiré de l’écriture sainte. Tours: A^d Mame et C^ie. $15 at La Librairie d’Arcadie, New Orleans, August, ’96.

A wonderful little volume with delightful illustrations. The book contains an essay on fable, eight illustrations (two per page on the frontispiece, first title-page, facing 3, and facing 25), five books of twenty-two fables each, an epilogue, two poems, and (151-4) an AI. Page 154 is misprinted as "144." The best of the illustrations for me is that for "L’Ane et la Flute" on the frontispiece. There is an indication on the first, heavily-pictured title-page of "Lebigre Frères Librairie." Might these be this book’s featured booksellers? Heavy foxing. Emilie Hincks managed to get her name on all three sets of page-edges!

1841 Fables de La Fontaine. F. Sales, A.M. Seconde Édition. Hardbound. Boston: Jâques Munroe & Cie. $9.99 from ultima12205 on eBay, April, '12.

Munroe seems to have been quite the active American publisher of French literature. This makes at least the fourth volume I have from that firm. This is a handy student volume. The selection of fables looks complete. There is a frontispiece portrait of La Fontaine, but there are no other illustrations. 

1841 Fables of La Fontaine. Two Volumes in One. Translated from the French by Elizur Wright, Jr. Illustrated by J.J. Grandville. Hardbound. Stamped as Lafcadio Hearn's copy with his ownership stamp on the first title-page. Boston: Tappan and Dennet; NY: Willliam A. Colman/London: Edward Moxon. $280 from Chanticleer Books, Sonoma, CA, July, '00.

My brother John and I parked in front of this shop at almost exactly 6 p.m. to visit another store in Sonoma, which turned out to be closed by then. Upon our return to Chanticleer, they announced that they were closed, but when I asked about fable books, Stephen Blackmer showed me this volume. It replicates my earlier two volumes, found at Brattle Books, but puts them into one volume (with two title-pages, one for each volume) and has only one selected illustration for each of La Fontaine's twelve books. There is a similar cover, but the front and back gold ornaments are reversed from that other edition. There is the same misprint on 173 of Volume II, which shows "Book XI" instead of the correct "Book IX." The illustrations, which are heavily foxed, are bound in facing the appropriate fable: I 14, II 12, III 10, IV 14, V 13, VI 13, VII 10, VIII 19, IX 11, X 8, XI 1, and XII 19. Do not miss here, as there, the ornate designs around the fable titles. By contrast with the Brattle copy, here 161 through 168 of Volume II are bound in the correct order.

1841 Fables of La Fontaine. Illustrated by J.J. Grandville. Translated from the French by Elizur Wright, Jr. Volume I. Boston: Tappan and Dennet. $60 for two-volume set at Brattle Book Shop, Boston, Dec., '89.

A magnificent pair of volumes! The pagination is exactly the same as in the Derby and Jackson edition (1860) that describes itself as "two volumes in one." There is some staining of the pages. The printing of the illustrations is excellent, and--by contrast with the 1860 book--they seem to be all here. A real treasure! Compare with the 1838 Fournier Ainé edition.

1841 Fables of La Fontaine. Illustrated by J.J. Grandville. Translated from the French by Elizur Wright, Jr. Volume II. Boston: Tappan and Dennet. $60 for two-volume set at Brattle Book Shop, Boston, Dec., '89.

A magnificent pair of volumes! The pagination is exactly the same as in the Derby and Jackson edition (1860) that describes itself as "two volumes in one." There is some staining of the pages. The printing of the illustrations is excellent, and--by contrast with the 1860 book--they seem to be all here. A real treasure! Compared with the 1838 Fournier Ainé edition, this Volume II begins with Book 7, drops the three poems after the fables and the final table, and alters some engravings for an English audience. The pages 161 through 168 are bound out of order.

1841 Fables of La Fontaine. Elizur Wright, Jr. J.J. Grandville. Second edition. Hardbound. Boston: Tappan and Dennet. $24.46 from Cheryl Cole, Wells, ME, through eBay, April, '11.

I had thought at first that this was an extra -- in very poor condition -- of the apparent first edition. On closer inspection, the year is still that of the first edition, but this is clearly marked "Second edition." The title-page also shows the omission now of "London: Edward Moxon" after Boston with Wright and Tappan and Dennet along with New York with William A. Colman. The cover and spine are held together crudely by tape, and the book is splitting in the middle. But it remains a beautiful work! As in the first edition, the printing of the illustrations is good. The covers show the same embossed gold vases, front (FWT) and back (DW). For an excellently printed illustration, try "The Drunk and His Wife" facing 106.

1841 Fables of La Fontaine, Vol. 1.  Elizur Wright, Jr.  J.J. Grandville.  Second edition.  Hardbound.  Boston: Tappan and Dennet.  $11.99 from Apex Book Co., Gansevoort, NY, through Ebay, Feb., '21.

This book is in better condition and has a better cover -- even though the front cover has come loose from the block -- than our first copy of the first volume of the second edition.  In whatever condition, this book remains a beautiful work!  As in the first edition, the printing of the illustrations is good.  For an excellently printed illustration, try "The Drunk and His Wife" facing 106.  Gilt edges.  Other than the separated cover, the book is in good condition.

1841 Fables of La Fontaine, Vol. II.  Elizur Wright, Jr.  J.J. Grandville.  Second edition.  Hardbound.  Boston: Tappan and Dennet.  $24.46 from Cheryl Cole, Wells, ME, through eBay, April, '11. 

As I wrote of the first volume, I had thought at first that this was an extra -- in very poor condition -- of the apparent first edition.  On closer inspection, the year is still that of the first edition, but this is clearly marked "Second edition."  The title-page also shows the omission now of "London: Edward Moxon" after Boston with Wright and Tappan and Dennet along with New York with William A. Colman.  The cover and spine are held together crudely by tape, as is true of the first volume.  This second volume has a stronger spine.  As in the first edition, the printing of the illustrations is good.  The covers show the same embossed gold vases, front (FWT) and back (DW).  For an excellently printed illustration, try "L'Aigle et la Pie" (292).

1841 Fables of La Fontaine, Part I.  Translated by Elizur Wright, Jr.  Illustrated by J.J. Grandville.  Hardbound.  Boston:  Tappan and Dennet.  $62.49 from Cheryl ONeil, Oceanside, CA, through eBay, Jan., '17.

This lovely volume includes two volumes of an earlier set.  Where that took four volumes to present a bilingual text and translation of La Fontaine's fables, this set uses just two beautifully presented volumes.  As I wrote of that four volume set, the binder did not have an easy time with this procedure, partly perhaps because, as in that edition, the full-page illustrations are never printed on the obverse.  The strange result can be seen as this book, as there, begins FS, which is La Fontaine's I 18.  What precedes this fable had been a two page spread featuring on the left I 17 starting in English and on the right, in a page marked 35, the French of I 16 finishing.  We turn the page to find on the left the beginning of I 17 in French, and on the right an exquisite illustration of I 17.  Turn the page to find, on the left, the blank obverse of the illustration and on the right, on a page marked 35, the finish of the English translation of I 17.  Turn the page and FS (I 18) begins in English on the left, while I 17 finishes in French on the right.  Notice that there are two pages marked 35, and so it continues with two pages marked 37.  This first volume has the same anomalies as the first volume there: "To My Subscribers"; a preface that changes its heading, as it did there, between xviii ("Fable and the Fabulists") and xix ("La Fontaine"); an English AI; and a "Fables" title alone on a page.  Then, before a page announcing "Book 1" with an illustration, this volume has "To Monseigneur the Dauphin" with a bust of Aesop in front of animals and then "A Monseigneur le Dauphin" with the same illustration.  This is a magnificent volume, beautifully bound.  There is an issue between the first printed page and the following picture-page.  Otherwise the volume is wonderfully intact.  It ends with the end of Book VI, with a number 200 etched at the bottom of the last page.

1841 Fables of La Fontaine, Part II.  Translated by Elizur Wright, Jr.  Illustrated by J.J. Grandville.  Hardbound.  Boston:  Tappan and Dennet.  $62.49 from Cheryl ONeil, Oceanside, CA, through eBay, Jan., '17.

This lovely volume includes two volumes of an earlier set.  Where that took four volumes to present a bilingual text and translation of La Fontaine's fables, this set uses just two beautifully presented volumes.  This remains a very curious edition.  After a title-page for Volume II, we get an elaborate pictorial page that proclaims Fournier as the printer, followed by a print-page that proclaims Tappan and Dennet as the publishers, with bibliographical information on its verso.  Facing that on the right is "Fables" made of animal characters standing alone.  A random opening of the book brings me to another brilliant image: "The Women and the Secret" (VIII 6).  One element in this volume is IX 19, "The Shepherd and His Flock."  A curiosity is that the header for this page erroneously has "Book XI.  Fable XIX" just as the English-only volume did (173).  This last part ends rather unceremoniously by repeating twice the small illustration that had housed in French "Fin des Fables" on a theater stage's archway and "II G" on an open book among the footlights.  The former of these two has been removed, though Grandville's initials remain.  Those searching for exceptional illustrations may want to look at the last of the full page illustrations: "The Arbiter, the Almoner, and the Hermit" (XII 27).  Who cannot love the illustration for "The Two Goats" (XII 4)?

1841 Fables of La Fontaine, Part I.  Elizur Wright, Jr.  Illustrated by J.J. Grandville.  Hardbound.  Boston:  Tappan and Dennet.  $25 from Joel Noble, Bartonville, IL, through eBay, April, '16.

This set of four volumes constitutes a wonderful surprise.  I had thought it would be a worthy second copy of the original Tappan and Dennet publication of Wright's translation of La Fontaine.  I remembered the printing of Grandville's illustrations as being especially good.  I was surprised by the description that it spreads into four parts the two volumes which Tappan and Dennet published then.  The surprise when I received the four books is that this edition intercalates La Fontaine's French texts with the Wright translations.  The binder apparently did not have an easy time with this procedure, partly perhaps because, as in that edition, the full-page illustrations are never printed on the obverse.  The strange result can be seen as this book begins FS, which is La Fontaine's I 18.  What precedes this fable had been a two page spread featuring on the left I 17 starting in English and on the right, in a page marked 35, the French of I 16 finishing.  We turn the page to find on the left the beginning of I 17 in French, and on the right an exquisite illustration of I 17.  Turn the page to find, on the left, the blank obverse of the illustration and on the right, on a page marked 35, the finish of the English translation of I 17.  Turn the page and FS (I 18) begins in English on the left, while I 17 finishes in French on the right.  Notice that there are two pages marked 35, and so it continues with two pages marked 37.  I tried a hypothesis that the illustrations always face French text, but that pattern does not hold.  This first volume begins with the same title-page and the same beginning elements as the aforementioned first volume: "To My Subscribers"; a preface that changes its heading, as it did there, between xviii ("Fable and the Fabulists") and xix ("La Fontaine"); an English AI; and a "Fables" title alone on a page.  Then, before a page announcing "Book 1" with an illustration, this volume has "To Monseigneur the Dauphin" with a bust of Aesop in front of animals and then "A Monseigneur le Dauphin" with the same illustration.  This volume stops with III 18.  It features the same two gold embossed urns on its covers as the two volume English edition referred to above.  The base of its spine is hanging from one side.  The inside front cover features a small seal "Bound by P. Row, 21 Devonshire St., Boston."

1841 Fables of La Fontaine, Part II.  Elizur Wright, Jr.  Illustrated by J.J. Grandville.  Hardbound.  Boston:  Tappan and Dennet.  $25 from Joel Noble, Bartonville, IL, through eBay, April, '16.

This book continues the first half of Volume I by covering Books IV through VI of La Fontaine's fables.  It thus becomes Part II of four parts.  This set of four volumes constitutes a wonderful surprise.  I had thought it would be a worthy second copy of the original Tappan and Dennet publication of Wright's translation of La Fontaine.  I remembered the printing of Grandville's illustrations as being especially good.  I was surprised by the description that it spreads into four parts the two volumes which Tappan and Dennet published then.  The surprise when I received the four books is that this edition intercalates La Fontaine's French texts with the Wright translations.  The binder apparently did not have an easy time with this procedure, partly perhaps because, as in that edition, the full-page illustrations are never printed on the obverse.  The strange result, described in my comments on Part I, is that French and English texts do not match up perfectly and page numbers are repeated.  This second part begins with an endpaper and a blank page before we see the title-page for Book IV.  As the second half of Volume I of two it would not have had a title-page of its own.  The first full-page illustration, which occurs at that very point, is the brilliant depiction of the lion having his nails cut so that he can marry the human girl.  The illustrations are wonderfully executed.  Another fine example is the miser who finds that his buried treasure has been stolen (IV 20).  Students of the history of the book may want to compare the elaborate printer's devices around the fable numbers -- in both English and French -- with those in the several states of Grandville's first printing of 1837/38.  This part ends with the end of Book VI of La Fontaine's fables and a notation "End of Volume First."  It features the same two gold embossed urns on its covers as the two volume English edition referred to above, and as on the covers of Part I here.  The inside front cover features a small seal "Bound by P. Row, 21 Devonshire St., Boston."

1841 Fables of La Fontaine, Part III.  Elizur Wright, Jr.  Illustrated by J.J. Grandville.Hardbound.  Boston:  Tappan and Dennet.  $25 from Joel Noble, Bartonville, IL, through eBay, April, '16.

This book presents the first half of Volume II by covering Books VII through IX of La Fontaine's fables.  It thus becomes Part III of four parts.  This set of four volumes constitutes a wonderful surprise.  I had thought it would be a worthy second copy of the original Tappan and Dennet publication of Wright's translation of La Fontaine.  I remembered the printing of Grandville's illustrations as being especially good.  I was surprised by the description that it spreads into four parts the two volumes which Tappan and Dennet published then.  The surprise when I received the four books is that this edition intercalates La Fontaine's French texts with the Wright translations.  The binder apparently did not have an easy time with this procedure, partly perhaps because, as in that edition, the full-page illustrations are never printed on the obverse.  The strange result, described in my comments on Part I, is that French and English texts do not match up perfectly and page numbers are repeated.  This third part begins with an endpaper and a blank page before we see the title-page for Volume II, with bibliographical information on its verso.  Facing that on the right is the same "Fables" made of animal characters standing alone.  After the letter to Madame de Montespan in both languages, we have the title-page for Book VII, and the book is on its way.  Again we start with a brilliant image of the lion ruling over the animals sick of the plague.  A random opening of the book brings me to another brilliant image: "The Women and the Secret" (VIII 6).  The last element in this volume is IX 19, "The Shepherd and His Flock."  A curiosity is that the header for this page erroneously has "Book XI.  Fable XIX" just as the English-only volume did (173).  As in the earlier parts, the printer's devices are fascinating on their own.  This book features the same two gold embossed urns on its covers as the two volume English edition and as Part I and II here.  The lower half of the spine is detached at one side, and the back cover is breaking away from the block.  This is a tender treasure!  The inside front cover features a small seal "Bound by P. Row, 21 Devonshire St., Boston."

1841 Fables of La Fontaine, Part IV.  Elizur Wright, Jr.  Illustrated by J.J. Grandville.Hardbound.  Boston:  Tappan and Dennet.  $25 from Joel Noble, Bartonville, IL, through eBay, April, '16.

This book presents the second half of Volume II by covering Books X through XII of La Fontaine's fables.  It thus becomes Part IV of four parts.  This set of four volumes constitutes a wonderful surprise.  I had thought it would be a worthy second copy of the original Tappan and Dennet publication of Wright's translation of La Fontaine.  I remembered the printing of Grandville's illustrations as being especially good.  I was surprised by the description that it spreads into four parts the two volumes which Tappan and Dennet published then.  The surprise when I received the four books is that this edition intercalates La Fontaine's French texts with the Wright translations.  The binder apparently did not have an easy time with this procedure, partly perhaps because, as in that edition, the full-page illustrations are never printed on the obverse.  The strange result, described in my comments on Part I, is that French and English texts do not match up perfectly and page numbers are repeated.  This fourth part begins with an endpaper and a blank page before we see the title-page for Book X.  This last part ends rather unceremoniously by repeating twice the small illustration that had housed in French "Fin des Fables" on a theater stage's archway and "II G" on an open book among the footlights.  The former of these two has been removed, though Grandville's initials remain.  Those searching for exceptional illustrations may want to look at the last of the full page illustrations: "The Arbiter, the Almoner, and the Hermit" (XII 27).  Who cannot love the illustration for "The Two Goats" (XII 4)?  As in the earlier parts, the printer's devices are fascinating on their own.  This book features the same two gold embossed urns on its covers as the two volume English edition and as the earlier parts here.  The front cover here is breaking away from the block.  The inside front cover features a small seal "Bound by P. Row, 21 Devonshire St., Boston."

1842 A Selection of One Hundred of Perrin's Fables Accompanied with a Key. A. Bolmar. A new edition. Philadelphia: Lea and Blanchard. See 1832/42.

1842 Aesops Lefnadshändelser. Bearbetade för Ungdom af Carl Dielitz. Jemte Valda Fabler af Aesop. Med 6 plancher. Nyköping. C.H. Des Réaux. Gift of Dorothy and Ed Chesko, Old Delavan Book Company, Jan., '97.

What a wonderful little gift! This little booklet contains the life of Aesop and nineteen fables. (It is missing 45-6). The special feature consists in the six wonderful colored illustrations from the life of Aesop. They present Aesop as hunchbacked and otherwise misshapen but engaging. As far as I can tell, the six include "The Breadbasket Choice," "The Figs Demonstration," "The Slave Auction," a banquet scene with footwashing, "The Savior of the City," and "Thrown from a Cliff." The Swedish is fun to try to figure out. The cover, dated 1843, says something about a "Lekkamrats Barnbibliothek." My, the places this book must have been and the stories it could tell!

1842 Fables de Florian, Suivies de Tobie et de Ruth. Illustrées par J.-J. Grandville. Precédées d'une notice sur la vie et les ouvrages de Florian par P.-J. Stahl. Premier tirage. Hardbound. Paris: J.-J. Dubochet et Cie. €500 from François Coté of Québec at the Paris International Book Fair, July, '09.

For some time, I have wanted to get an early Grandville Florian. Here is the earliest! It was a major find for me with an old friend at an impressive international book fair. François Coté describes the qualities of the physical book: "cartonnage romantique de papier moiré rose, dos lisse avec le titre dans une cartouche dorée. Bel état, sans rousseurs. Rare cortonnage de l'époque, papier moiré." I am delighted to see the illustrations, which I have seen elsewhere in reproductions, in their pristine, sharp state here. Grandville is always a delight! There are a frontispiece, five title illustrations, and 74 other illustrations. A gem! Among my favorite illustrations from Grandville is the pre-title-page, which uses the same women represented in I, 1 for "truth" and "fable." This pre-title-page includes a whole series of masks and several mirrors, key elements in Florian's presentation of self-knowledge. Another favorite is the title-piece for Book 1, with various animals grouped around a mirror and two human faces within the mirror. Do not miss the following: "The Cat and the Mirror" (14); "The Carp and the Little Carps" (16); "The Monkey Who Shows the Magic Lantern" (68); "The Child and the Mirror" (71); "The Cat and the Sparrow" (98); "The Eagle and the Dove" (152); "The Owl and the Pigeon" (169); "The Male and Female Monkey and the Nut" (185); "The Boasting Cock" (207); "The Ass and the Flute" (222); and "The Flying Fish" (258).

1842 Fables de Florian, Suivies de Tobie et de Ruth.  Illustrées par J.-J. Grandville.  Introduction by P.-J. Stahl.  Premier tirage.  Hardbound.  Paris: J.-J. Dubochet et Cie.  $150 from Barbara Stahura, Pompano Beach, FL, through Ebay, Oct., '20.

Here is a second copy of a lovely first edition Grandville Florian.  I purchased the other from François Coté of Québec at the Paris International Book Fair in July of 2009 for $714.93.  This copy differs in its embossed covers showing a duck and rabbit in gold and its elaborately embossed spine.  It has the same large margins as that copy.  If anything, the illustrations are even more distinct here.  As I wrote there, Grandville is always a delight!  There are a frontispiece, five title illustrations, and 74 other illustrations.  Among my favorite illustrations from Grandville is the frontispiece, which uses the same women represented in I, 1 for "truth" and "fable."  This frontispiece includes a whole series of masks and several mirrors, key elements in Florian's presentation of self-knowledge.  Another favorite is the title-piece for Book 1, with various animals grouped around a mirror and two human faces within the mirror.  Do not miss the following: "The Cat and the Mirror" (14); "The Carp and the Little Carps" (16); "The Monkey Who Shows the Magic Lantern" (68); "The Child and the Mirror" (71); "The Cat and the Sparrow" (98); "The Eagle and the Dove" (152); "The Owl and the Pigeon" (169); "The Male and Female Monkey and the Nut" (185); "The Boasting Cock" (207); "The Ass and the Flute" (222); and "The Flying Fish" (258).

1842 Fables de Florian, Suivies de Tobie et de Ruth.  Illustrées par J.-J. Grandville.  Introduction by P.-J. Stahl.  Premier tirage?.  Hardbound.  Paris: J.-J. Dubochet et Cie.  €60 from a Buchinist, Paris, June, '19.

This book's texts and illustrations are identical with those in another copy from the same publisher at the same time.  It appears to be another version of the first printing of Florian's fables illustrated by Grandville and published by Dubochet.  The key difference in the two books is the size of the pages, including their margins.  This copy also suffers from the fact that its first two pages are loose and may have been bound – or since glued together – in a different order.   I cannot complain too much, since the price here from a Paris buchinist was €440 lower than that of other copy!  This copy has black leather (leatherette?) covers with gold title and decorations on the spine.  The earlier copy has "cartonnage romantique de papier moiré rose, dos lisse avec le titre dans une cartouche dorée.  Bel état, sans rousseurs.  Rare cortonnage de l'époque, papier moiré." I will include comments I made on the earlier copy.  Grandville is always a delight!  There are a frontispiece, five title illustrations, and 74 other illustrations.  A gem!  Among my favorite illustrations from Grandville is the pre-title-page, which uses the same women represented in I, 1 for "truth" and "fable."  This pre-title-page includes a whole series of masks and several mirrors, key elements in Florian's presentation of self-knowledge.  Another favorite is the title-piece for Book 1, with various animals grouped around a mirror and two human faces within the mirror.  Do not miss the following: "The Cat and the Mirror" (14); "The Carp and the Little Carps" (16); "The Monkey Who Shows the Magic Lantern" (68); "The Child and the Mirror" (71); "The Cat and the Sparrow" (98); "The Eagle and the Dove" (152); "The Owl and the Pigeon" (169); "The Male and Female Monkey and the Nut" (185); "The Boasting Cock" (207); "The Ass and the Flute" (222); and "The Flying Fish" (258).

1842 Fables de Florian. Hardbound. Paris: Librairie Classique de Mme Ve Maire-Nyon. $4.99 from McGoldricee, Waterloon, CT, through eBay, May, '06. 

This is a beautiful small (3¾" x 5¾") book with a separated place-marker, leather covers, and an AI at the end. The book has two illustrations on its frontispiece--"Le Roi et les deux Bergers" and "La Mère, l'Enfant et les Sarigues"--and then no more illustrations in the book. It is a sturdy little volume of 160 pages. I think I was fooled by the eBay illustration that showed the frontispiece!

1842 Fables de La Fontaine. Nouvelle Edition. Hardbound. Paris: Félix Locquin. $24.94 from Gilda Gordon, Blowing Rock, NC, through eBay, April, '12.

This is a fragile little volume with its cover almost off. It has four sets of two illustrations to a page. These are curious in that they are numbered. Present here are "(3)" at the frontispiece, featuring OF and "Les deux Mulets"; "(7)" at 140, featuring "La Besace" and "The Swallow and the Little Birds"; "(11)" at 208, featuring "The Man and His Image" and "The Dragon with Many Heads and the Dragon with Many Tails"; and "(15)" at 281, featuring "Death and the Unhappy Man" and "Death and the Woodman." There are explanatory footnotes along the way and one AI for each half at the back. 

1842 Fables de La Fontaine.  Avec des notes par Mme Amable Tastu. Illustrée de 20 grands dessins par Bouchot, gravés par Trichon. First edition. Hardbound. Paris: Librairie de l'Enfance et de la Jeunesse: P.-C. Lehuby. £4.99 from Fine Books, Palma de Mallorca-Balleares, Spain, Dec., '11.

In 1998, I found an undated sixth printing of this book in relatively poor condition. Now, for less than a third of the price, I have found a good first edition! A little investigating has turned up some information. Contrary to what I wrote then, Bouchot is in Bodemann, but only for Florian (#300), in fact in the same year of 1842 with the same editor and publisher. I have a later (1870?) printing of that edition by this same publisher. This copy is cleaner than the sixth printing. Let me offer an edited version of my comments there. Nattily dressed animals in very expressive poses, as the frontispiece of DW immediately shows. WL (46) is strongly dramatic. Other illustrations include FS (57); LM (78); UP (64); "The Wolf Become Shepherd" (100); FG (111); "The Ass and the Little Dog" (129); BF (a favorite of mine, 135); FWT (163); "The Stag and the Vine" (173); "The Stag Seeing Himself in the Water" (another favorite of mine, 191); "The Fowler, The Hawk, and the Lark" (197); MM (229); "The Cobbler and the Banker" (251); "The Bear and the Lover of Gardens" (with a great fly on the nose, 264); "The Monkey and the Cat" (327); "The Fish and the Flute-playing Shepherd" (355); "The Wolf and the Fox" (380); and "The Wolf, the Fox, and the Horse" (429). FG has a monkey lass standing in front of a ladder and holding a basket of grapes in one hand and a bunch in the other, while the fox shows a gesture of aversion. I have seen this illustration of "The Wolf and the Fox" (380) somewhere before; it has a very playful fox, who may even be thumbing his nose at the wolf down in the well! The images are very much in the tradition of Grandville. They are different from his illustrations in adding a gray background against which pure whites can stand out. The book ends with a table of authors from whom La Fontaine has drawn subjects and an AI. 456 pages.

1842 Fables de La Fontaine: Edition Illustrée, Vol. I.  Par le Baron Walckenaer.  Illustrations by J. David, T. Johannot, V. Adam, F. Grenier et Schall.  Hardbound.  Paris: Aubert et Cie.  €22.50 from a Buchinist on the Seine, August, '14.  

This is a lovely pair of volumes.  It belongs, I believe, most appropriately between Bodemann #287.3 and #287.4.  It seems that the family of Bodemann #287 is dominated by the illustrations of Jules David.  The unusual quality of these two volumes may be to integrate his work with those of others.  He is responsible, I believe, for the lovely portal illustrations on thin paper before each book, one of which is illustrated at Bodemann #287.1.  It appears in this copy facing the frontispiece cameo of La Fontaine, just before the title-page.  These little (4½" x 6_") volumes include not only those portals before each book but also, for each book, a full-page black-and-white illustration, like GA for Book I.  One of the two signatures for this GA is "Thompson."  Might the other be "S. Grenier"?  Virtually every fable has an introductory partial-page illustration.  These I believe I have seen often before.  Many also have tailpieces or printer's designs.  The headpieces and tailpieces are extraordinarily clear and sharp.  Other full-page illustrations are added, like "Les Voleurs et l'Ane" facing 65, with a slipsheet (this illustration is signed by Johannot and Thompson).  The first book is also interrupted for a full-page illustration of FS, apparently unsigned.  MSA again interrupts with a full-page illustration facing 126, signed by Thompson and another.  A further interrupter is "Le Loup, la Mere, et l'Enfant" facing 196, without attribution.  One of these full-page illustrations takes a fresh look at "The Old Woman and the Two Servants."  Instead of the old woman awakening the unhappy girls, we have the girls ready to kill the cock that keeps waking them up (facing 222).  The portal for Book VI is signed by Schaal and Laisné (?).  These and other names fit with the engravers in Bodemann #287.3.  The last of the full-page illustrations is a surprising TH (facing 266).  Though the two animals are presented in small format, the picture is dominated by two human beings, male and female, while a third lingers in the background with a staff.  There is a T of C for this volume at the end.  In sum, this lovely pair of volumes offers four kinds of illustrations.  First, there is a portal for each book, offering several images in an architectural tour-de-force.  Secondly, there are the strong full-page illustrations.  Thirdly there are the standard but well printed headpieces for each fable.  Fourthly, there are tailpieces and printer's designs at the end of some fables.

1842 Fables de La Fontaine: Edition Illustrée, Vol. II.  Par le Baron Walckenaer.  Illustrations by J. David, T. Johannot, V. Adam, F. Grenier et Schall.  Hardbound.  Paris: Aubert et Cie.  €22.50 from a Buchinist on the Seine, August, '14.  

Here is Volume II of a lovely pair of volumes. They belong, I believe, most appropriately between Bodemann #287.3 and #287.4.  It seems that the family of Bodemann #287 is dominated by the illustrations of Jules David.  The unusual quality of these two volumes may be to integrate his work with those of others.  He is responsible, I believe, for the lovely portal illustrations on special paper before each book,  These little (4½" x 6_") volumes include not only those portals before each book but also full-page black-and-white illustrations, like "La Fille" (facing 17); "L'Horoscope" (facing 92); "Le Loup et le Chasseur" (facing 117); "L'Huitre et les Plaideurs" (facing 143); and "Le Corbeau, la Gazelle, la Tortue, et le Rat" (facing 283).  Virtually every fable has an introductory partial-page illustration.  These I believe I have seen often before.  Many also have tailpieces or printer's designs.  The headpieces and tailpieces are extraordinarily clear and sharp.  The names fit with the engravers in Bodemann #287.3.  There is a T of C for this volume at the end.  In sum, this lovely pair of volumes offers four kinds of illustrations.  First, there is a portal for each book, offering several images in an architectural tour-de-force.  Secondly, there are the strong full-page illustrations.  Thirdly there are the standard but well printed headpieces for each fable.  Fourthly, there are tailpieces and printer's designs at the end of some fables.

1842 Fables of La Fontaine, 3rd ed., Vol. I. Translated from the French by Elizur Wright, Jr. Illustrations by A. Hartwell. Hardbound. Boston: Tappan and Dennet. $25.55 from Gerald Bell, Falmouth, ME, through eBay, August, '05.

Apparently identical with the fourth edition, which I have. A lovely little pair of books. The notice says that the warm reception of Grandville's illustrations in the 1841 original was expected, but the favor accorded Wright's translation was not! The present volumes cost 10% of the original, it claims. AI for both volumes is at the front of Volume I. Twenty-four well executed and well preserved illustrations; it is a shame that they are so small. Inscribed to or by Hannah H. Hadley on Jan. 1, '43 and again in November of 1885. The presenter of the book on one of these occasions seems to have been Gideon F. Thayer; I wonder if he was an ancestor of the Prof. Thayer who gave money to the Vergilian Society. Did teaching run in the family? The spine of this little book is deteriorating.

1842 Fables of La Fontaine, 3rd ed., Vol. II. Elizur Wright, Jr.. A. Hartwell. Hardbound. Boston: Tappan and Dennet. $25.55 from Gerald Bell, Falmouth, ME, through eBay, August, '05. 

Apparently identical with the fourth edition, which I have. A lovely little pair of books. See my comment on Volume I. Twenty-five well executed and well preserved illustrations; it is a shame that they are so small. The best of them is of the squealing pig on the way to slaughter (71). Inscribed to or by Hannah H. Hadley on Jan. 1, '43 and again in November of 1885. The presenter of the book on one of these occasions seems to have been Gideon F. Thayer; I wonder if he was an ancestor of the Prof. Thayer who gave money to the Vergilian Society. Did teaching run in the family? The spine of this little book has seriously deteriorated.

1842 Fables Original and Selected by the Most Esteemed European and Oriental Authors. With an introduction by G. Moir Bussey. Illustrated by numerous engravings designed by J.J. Grandville. London: Willoughby and Co. $250 from Ashe and Deane, Nov., '91.

One of the gems in my collection! 497 fables from some thirty-two fabulists, named with their respective fables in the AI on xxix. Forty-eight magnificent hand-colored plates; the list of full-page illustrations (xxxiv) counts forty-nine, but the presentation plate is uncolored. The versions include prose and verse, revised from their sources for the use of children. LaFontaine is taken chiefly from Matthews (1820), Yriarte from Belfour; all other translations are original. New to me and good: "The Schoolboy, the Pedant, and the Gardener" (169). The very best plates depict the miser and the treasure (145), the dog with cropped ears (201), the acorn and the gourd (217), the viper and the file (225), the frogs demanding a king (273), and the mountain in labor (297, "Aesop"). My favorite private collector lists an edition of this book from Charles Tilt in London in 1839. Notice the adaptation of Grandville's frontispiece to include "Aesop, etc." The arrangement in four books seems haphazard. A real treasure for its versions and especially for its plates.

1842? Fables de La Fontaine.  Avec des notes par Mme Amable Tastu? Bouchot, gravés par Trichon.  Hardbound. Paris?: Librairie de l'Enfance et de la Jeunesse?: P.-C. Lehuby?  $31 from Antique Book Central, Southbury, CT, through eBay, July, '12.

Here is a mysterious book. I have spent some time with it. It sold on eBay with this description: "From the 1840s, in the original French, this is a handsome leather bound edition, Fables de La Fontaine, wonderfully illustrated with many full page prints. Bound in black leather with 4 raised bands, gilt titles, marbled boards. 7x5 inches, 448 pages. The book lacks a conventional title page, so we are not precisely sure when and where it was published, but there is an inked inscription from 1842. Solid condition, wonderful prints. The French engravers of this period were the best in the world." I spent a good deal of time scouring Bodemann for a clue and found none. Then I tried my own database and found a direct hit.almost. I am grateful that I spent some effort describing that book. This book is inscribed in 1842 or 1843. As mentioned above, it has no tittle-page. That circumstance makes the sleuthing about its origin much more challenging! Almost everything in my description of Tastu's edition of 1842 published by Lehuby matches with this book. What does not match? First, this book finishes on 448 and does not include "a table of authors from whom La Fontaine has drawn subjects and an AI." Thus it does not have the other book's total of 456 pages. Secondly, there are several missing illustrations: FWT (163); "The Fowler, The Hawk, and the Lark" (197); MM (229); "The Wolf and the Fox" (380). Both of these circumstances can be easily explained through wear and tear -- and removal of good pictures -- over the decades. A third difference is totally surprising. This volume has at 177 an inserted picture page of "Le Hérisson et les Lapins." "The Hedgehog and the Rabbits" is a fable by Florian! The bottom of the page has "Liv. V, Fable VIII." Whose "Book 5" are we dealing with? Good questions! Let me excerpt some of my comments on that edition as they apply to this copy. Its illustrations display nattily dressed animals in very expressive poses, as the frontispiece of DW immediately shows. WL (46) is strongly dramatic. Other illustrations include FS (57); LM (78); UP (64); "The Wolf Become Shepherd" (100); FG (111); "The Ass and the Little Dog" (129); BF (a favorite of mine, 135); FWT (163); "The Stag and the Vine" (173); "The Stag Seeing Himself in the Water" (another favorite of mine, 191); "The Cobbler and the Banker" (251); "The Bear and the Lover of Gardens" (with a great fly on the nose, 264); "The Monkey and the Cat" (327); "The Fish and the Flute-playing Shepherd" (355); and "The Wolf, the Fox, and the Horse" (429). FG has a monkey lass standing in front of a ladder and holding a basket of grapes in one hand and a bunch in the other, while the fox shows a gesture of aversion. The images are very much in the tradition of Grandville. 

1842? Fables Original and Selected. With an introduction by G. Moir Bussey. Illustrated by numerous engravings by Orrin Smith, Breviere, etc. after designs by J.J. Grandville. London: Willoughby and Co. Found in a bookbarn in Pennsylvania. Gift of Jerry McKevitt, S.J., Oct., '92.

This somewhat-the-worse-for-wear book represents a real find on Jerry's part. It uses exactly the same plates as my fancy hand-colored 1842 edition. So it has the same 497 fables from some thirty-two fabulists, named with their respective fables in the AI on xxix. See my comments there on the fables and the art. Here are the differences I can see between the two books. This one has a green cover with a gold-engraved spine, poorly repaired, and no date. The title page here drops "by the most esteemed European and Oriental authors"; specifies the engravers; adds two other publishers, one in Glasgow; and changes Willoughby's address. There are smaller pages, lacking the printed border of the 1842 edition. Dropped are the second publisher's notice on the back of the title page and the simple "Fables" page before Book I. Book I's "insignia" page here comes after, not before, the alphabetical index. Finally this edition adds eight pages of Willoughby's book advertisements at the end; this edition is featured with reviewers' quotations on 7. It is hard to believe the transformation that the coloring brings to Grandville's wonderful art. Thank you, Jerry!

1842? Fables Original and Selected. By G. Moir Bussey. Numerous Engravings, by Orrin Smith, Breviere, &c after Designs by J.J. Grandville. Hardbound. London: Willoughby and Co. $9.99 from Your Auction Company.com through eBay, August, '05.

This undated book has a place between the two editions I already have of this fine work. Its page size is smaller than the hand-painted copy with a date of 1842 on its title-page. It does not have the frames around the printed portion of a page that are found in that 1842 copy. On the other hand, it has larger page size than the copy found by Jerry McKevitt in a bookbarn in Pennsylvania, for which I have guessed a date of 1842. One of the mysteries about this present book is that its eBay seller gave a date of 1842, but I can find it nowhere in the book. This book once belonged to the James V. Brown Library. This copy agrees with the address in the hand-painted copy; the address here is different from the address in the McKevitt copy, and two of the publishers mentioned there (W. Tegg and Company and R. Griffin and Company) are omitted here. The typesetting of the title-page is different in all three copies. This copy has in its first line of title tall thin letters followed by a semi-colon. The two smaller copies, including this one, mention Orrin Smith and Breviere on the title-page, while the hand-painted copy does not. All three have the same 497 fables from some thirty-two fabulists, named with their respective fables in the AI on xxix. This book has partial marble patterns on both covers, with leather corners and a canvas spine with hand-lettering in white. Let me mention some of my comments from the copies found earlier: LaFontaine is taken chiefly from Matthews (1820), Yriarte from Belfour; all other translations are original. New to me and good: "The Schoolboy, the Pedant, and the Gardener" (169). The very best plates depict the miser and the treasure (145), the dog with cropped ears (201), the acorn and the gourd (217), the viper and the file (225), the frogs demanding a king (273), and the mountain in labor (297, "Aesop"). My favorite private collector lists an edition of this book from Charles Tilt in London in 1839. Notice the adaptation of Grandville's frontispiece to include "Aesop, etc." The arrangement in four books seems haphazard. A real treasure for its versions and especially for its plates.

1843 Fables of La Fontaine. Volume I. Translated from the French by Elizur Wright, Jr. Fourth Edition. Vignettes engraved by A. Hartwell from designs of Grandville. Boston: Tappan and Dennet. $10 from Ahab, Cambridge, MA, June, '91.

A lovely little pair of books. The notice says that the warm reception of Grandville's illustrations in the 1841 original was expected, but the favor accorded Wright's translation was not! The present volumes cost 10% of the original, it claims. AI for both volumes is at the front of Volume I. Twenty-four well executed and well preserved illustrations; it is a shame that they are so small.

1843 Fables of La Fontaine. Volume II. Translated from the French by Elizur Wright, Jr. Fourth Edition. Vignettes engraved by A. Hartwell from designs of Grandville. Boston: Tappan and Dennet. $10 from Ahab, Cambridge, MA, June, '91.

A lovely little pair of books. See my comment on Volume I. Twenty-five well executed and well preserved illustrations; it is a shame that they are so small. The best of them is of the squealing pig on the way to slaughter (71).

1843 Fables of La Fontaine. Volume I. Translated from the French by Elizur Wright, Jr. Sixth Edition. Vignettes engraved by A. Hartwell (NA) from designs of Grandville (NA). Boston: Tappan and Dennet. $15 from Kelmscott, Baltimore, April, '92.

A lovely small fancy edition, with marbled boards and gilt on spines. It seems at first identical with the fourth edition of the same year, but a closer look reveals a wonderful surprise. Wright replaces the "Notice" of October, 1842, with a new one dated from Dorchester, March 3, 1843. The old one had acknowledged Hartwell and Grandville. The new notice includes this statement: "The testimonies of my success in this respect are extremely gratifying. But, having reason to suppose, from criticisms both friendly and unfriendly, that the work might be rendered more acceptable to parents and teachers in other respects, I have, with some care, revised it for that purpose, changing many expressions, altering some fables, and entirely omitting a few." The places of those omitted are filled up with other fables from his own pen. Thus in this volume "The Fly and the Game" is inserted for "The Bitch and Her Friend" (2.7), "The Dog and the Cat" for "The Mountain in Labor" (5.10), and "The Golden Pitcher" for "The Young Widow" (6.21). Catching the smaller alterations would be fun sometime! The substitutions are marked in the AI for both volumes at the beginning of Volume I. The impression of the illustrations seems darker here than in the fourth edition; it is easier to read detail in the earlier edition. These two fancy volumes originally sold for the grand total of $1. There are six pages of tribute to Tappan's edition at the end of Volume I.

1843 Fables of La Fontaine. Volume II. Translated from the French by Elizur Wright, Jr. Sixth Edition. Vignettes engraved by A. Hartwell (NA) from designs of Grandville (NA). Boston: Tappan and Dennet. $15 from Kelmscott, Baltimore, April, '92.

A lovely small fancy edition, with marbled boards and gilt on spines. See my comment on Volume I for the surprising changes from the fourth edition. In this volume "Party Strife" is substituted for "The Wives' Secret" (8.6) and "The Thrush and the Cat" for "The Husband, the Wife, and the Thief" (9.15). The substitutions are marked in the alphabetical index for both volumes at the beginning of Volume I. The impression of the illustrations seems darker here than in the fourth edition; it is easier to read detail in the earlier edition. The two fancy volumes originally sold for the grand total of $1. The very last page contains someone's pencilled notes on a regimen for getting healthy!

1843 Fables Selected from the Works of Northcote, Bewick, and Others. Embellished with Numerous Engravings on Wood. Blake's School Library. NY: Alexander Blake. $40 at Arkadyan, Aug., '94.

There are 114 fables here, listed in a T of C at the beginning. I have made acquiring this book an opportunity for looking over Northcote editions that I have. The 1833 John Murray edition has 101 fables, listed in an AI at the beginning. Its rectangular illustrations are the basis for the (fewer) rectangular illustrations here, but a careful eye can distinguish clear differences between imitation and model. (The creators of the 1833 rectangles are listed at the back of that edition.) The 1848/70? Leavitt and Allen edition has 106 fables in its second part and seems to have the same rectangular illustrations as this 1843 edition. (Further study could well go into the supplemental designs in all three of these editions.) Dean and Son's 1855? Familiar Fables contains fifty fables with landscape-cameo illustrations; its "finis" page speaks curiously of the "End of Northcote's Illustrated Fables" (emphasis mine). I had thought that these were shortened versions of Northcote originals, but a quick check finds none of the titles or subjects here among those of Northcote's fables in the 1833 edition. Note also the advertisement on 111 for "Northcote's Fables, re-edited by Miss Corner and re-embellished by Alfred Crowquill." In any case, Northcote is listed as artist for the engravings. Finally, the 1857 Routledge edition skips 1833's biographical sketch of Northcote but otherwise uses the same plates and pagination but inferior paper; it thus has the same 101 fables, with the original rectangular illustrations. It has a helpful "Index to the Engravings" at the end identifying each illustration, including the tail-pieces. The inexpensive Blake 1843 school edition is also done on inferior paper. There is ample room here for further investigation!

1843 The Fables of Aesop with Instructive Applications Illustrated with One Hundred Engravings. Samuel Croxall. Hardbound. Halifax: William Milner. $25 from an unknown source, June, '98?

This book represents a nice version in better condition of the book I have listed under "1870?" from Milner and Sowerby. Their place of business is now Halifax, whereas then it is London. The same size as that volume (3¾" x 5"), this book presents a more ornate brown cloth cover with gilt spine and page edges. Internally it is identical but cleaner. The illustrations are in particularly good condition. There are no advertisements after the 296 pages of fables. Like that book, it has 211 fables, an unusual number for a Croxall edition. See my comments there. The title-page has a tortured "X" before its "L" that makes me think it says "1843," but I cannot be certain. This book has the same delightful fold-out before the title-page.

1844 Babrii Fabulae Iambicae CXXIII. Joh. Fr. Boissonade recensuit Latine convertit annotavit. Paris: Firmin Didot Fratres. $35 from Inner Circle, NY, May, '91.

A treasure, with its own history. The book once belonged to St. Andrew on the Hudson and Loyola Seminary at Shrub Oak! And no one ever took it out! Beautiful facing texts in Greek and Latin with notes. A quick glance at the introduction suggests that there is rich history here of a recently found manuscript for which Mt. Athos' monks demanded too much money! Excellent condition. The Greek T of C (258-9) uses letters for page numbers. Copious addenda et corrigenda on 250-7.

1844 C.F. Gellert's sämmtliche Fabeln und Erzählungen in drei Büchern. Christian Fürchtegott Gellert. Illustrirt von G(eorg). Osterwald. Neueste Original-Ausgabe. Hardbound. Leipzig: In der Hahn'schen Verlagsbuchhandlung. €18 from Antiquariat Haufe & Lutz at the Heidelberg Flea Market, August, '12.

Here is a large-format (7½" x 10¼") book of 138 pages. Osterwald adds a variety of sizes and forms of illustration. I have tracked particularly those in the first book. Among the best are "Die Geschichte von dem Hute" (4); "Der Tanzbär" (6); "Der Blinde und der Lahme" (13); "Der Hund" (15); "Das Gespenst" (20); "Der Bettler" (24); "Die zärtliche Frau" (29); "Der zärtliche Mann" (30); "Die Widersprecherin" (35); "Der gütige Besuch" (38); "Selinde" (42); and "Der baronisirte Bürger" (51). Others I notice in the book include "Der junge Drescher" (59); "Die beiden Wächter" (69); "Till" (87); and "Die schlauen Mädchen" (98). The illustrations are copious and well done. They catch Gellert's emphasis in each fable. I am surprised not to find this book in Bodemann. What a lucky find at a flea market! 

1844 (Fabulas de Esopo, Filósofo Moral, y de otros famosos Autores, Corregidas de Nuevo). Hardbound. Barcelona: Herederos de Roca. $108 from International BookSales, Inc., eBay, Sept., '10.

283 pages. Bodemann makes this book a descendant of the 1489 "Libro del Ysopo" from Zaragossa and, even further back, from Julien Macho. Bodemann mentions that there are 27 illustrations to the "Vida" and 167 to the fables. The clincher that we have the same edition here is the title of the book's second element: "Vida del agudísimo y muy escelente filósofo moral Esopo." I find the illustrations endearing. They are more 17th century in approach than 19th century. A good example is "El Caballo, y el Asno" (117). Lined shading is everything for this artist! The title-page is missing, and so are the last several pages at the end. The T of C gets only to Chapter 27 of the 28 chapters in the "Vida," and there is no T of C for the fables themselves.

1844 The Fables of Phaedrus with the Scanning (On Spine: "Smith's Phaedrus"). Rev. Thomas Smith. Hardbound. London: T. Allman. AUD $75 from Antiquariat, Bowral, Australia, Dec., '02. 

The title goes on: "Followed by an Appendix and Vocabulary, Being a Reprint of Stirling's Phaedrus, Containing Every Thing in His Edition except the Ordo, in Lieu of Which is Given the Scanning of Each Verse." "For the Use of Schools" indeed! This is a student's dream. Every line of Phaedrus is scanned here before one's eyes. There is also a huge Latin-English vocabulary at the back of the book. A final helpful feature of this book is a list of "mottoes," clever idiomatic phrases drawn from Phaedrus and listed in the order of the fables' appearance. On the contrary, there are few helpful notes along the way. Smith gives the student several kinds of help and them lets him or her figure it out from there. There is an AI at the front. I will be able to use this book!

1844 The Little Esop. No author or illustrator acknowledged. Miniature with about twenty fables, each having two pages of text and a blank-backed picture. The covers are imprinted with an illustration of "The Mischievous Dog." Alternating fables in verse and prose. Inscribed 1850. Philadelphia: Smith and Peck; New Haven: Durrie and Peck. $25 from Jane Choras, Cambridge, April, '89.

A wonderful little treasure. The paper is stained, but the book is otherwise in great shape. The best illustrations are "The Stag and His Horns" (29) and LM (45). In versions different from the usual, the mouse gets into the granary and gets fatter, while the weasel comments (52), and the eagle makes true the turtle's lying prophecy about food hidden in a cave. King Crane is "as fond of frogs as a Frenchman"! There is some delightful hedging on morals, e.g., "Don't relax too much!" (43).

1844 The School Reader: Third Book. Charles W. Sanders. Hardbound. Cincinnati: Sanders Series: William H. Moore & Co. $25 from Portland, OR, July, '11.

There are a number of acknowledged fables among the hundred-and-one "Lessons" here. The first is "The Groom and the Horse" (41), which is new to me and seems to say that he who seems to promise food without offering it is a deceiver. Other fables include "The Squirrel and the Weasel" (55, illustrated); "The Peacock and the Oyster" (67); GA (86); "The Maiden and the Tulip Bulb" (123); "The King and the Hawk" (128, illustrated); "Nature and Education" (157); "The Ant and Caterpillar" (167); "The Honey-Guide and the Bear" (217); and "The Silk-Worm's Will" (229). "Nature and Education" may be all too typical of these fables. I believe that such personifications do not engage a reader. Better are "The Ant and Caterpillar" and "The Honey-Guide and the Bear"; they build nicely off of natural phenomena. "The King and the Hawk" is frequently in the standard western corpus of fables: the hawk dashes a cup from the king's hand because he knows it contains poison. All in all, this is a good sample reader from the first half of the nineteenth century. The half-page illustrations are infrequent and occur among fables with only the two named above. Both the book's covers are loose. The book's overall condition is fair to poor.

1844? Hundert Fabeln nach Aesop und den grössten Fabeldichtern aller Zeiten, Zweiter Theil. Mit hundert colorierten Kupfern. Hardbound. Berlin: Carl Kühn. $150 from Booksource, Ltd., Swarthmore, PA, July, '02.

Beautifully inscribed in 1844. Apparently not in Bodemann. 4¼" x 6¾". I have only Part II of two parts. Thus this book handles only fifty fables, listed in a beginning T of C. It handles them in lovely fashion! The book's two great features include first its four languages (French, German, Italian, and English) for each fable, each presented on separate pages. The other great feature consists in the hand-colored copper etchings. Even they have titles in four languages. Among the best of these are "The Geese and the Cranes" (26), "The Dog and the Ox" (38), "The Stag and the Horse" (54), CJ (122), and "The Peasant and the Stork" (182). Less successful are all the lions' heads and the leopard's spots on 126. Though the spine is still firm, many of the illustration pages are coming loose. Is that a contemporary figured cover? It includes nice etchings on both front and back.

1844? The Child's Picture and Verse Book; Commonly Called Otto Speckter's Fable Book with the Original German and with French [cover: Otto Specter's Fable Book in Three Languages]. Translated into English by Mary Howitt. Art presumably by Otto Speckter. Hardbound. London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans. £10 from M Gartland, Graysbrook, Surrey, UK, through eBay, March, '08.

Compare this edition with my two editions by Mary Howitt, dated 1845 and 1850. This edition takes exactly 201 pages for the one hundred fables because there is a preface for English children on 1. After that there is French and German always on the left-hand page and English and the illustration on the right-hand page. See my comments about the illustrations in the records for those 1845 and 1850 editions. This may now be my earliest English edition of Speckter's work. This copy was bound by Burn on Kirby St. There is a T of C at the book's beginning. At its end, this edition marks its printer, Manning and Mason in London. It is curious that Hey is not even mentioned here. Speckter is mentioned only in the title.

1845 Aesop's Fables as Romanized by Phaedrus, with a Literal Interlinear Translation, Accompanied by Illustrative Notes on the Plan Recommended by Mr. Locke; bound with Phèdre, Hachette, 1846. Eleventh Edition. Hardbound. Printed in England. London: Taylor and Walton. AU$45 from Antiquariat, Gordon and Cathy Hughes, North Mittagong, New South Wales, Australia, April, '98.

Carnes 894. "The introduction (iii-xx) to this literal translation of Phaedrus explains the usefulness of such a translation, provides an introduction to Phaedrus and defends the choice of fables presented. The choice of Phaedrus as the elementary text in a series of such texts is discussed. The editors/translators provide promythia to each of the fables. The fifty fables presented are followed by a short section on Phaedrus’ meter followed by a reprint of the fifty fables without the interlinear translation." xx + 100 pages. There are scattered notes at the bottom of the page. The book is bound here with Hachette's Phèdre of 1846. See the separate listing for that under 1846.

1845 The Child's Picture and Verse Book; Commonly Called Otto Speckter's Fable Book. Translated from the Original German by Mary Howitt. Illustrated with one hundred engravings by Otto Speckter. Hardbound. Printed in NY. NY: D. Appleton & Co./Philadelphia: George S. Appleton. $35 from Heartwood Used & Rare Books, Charlotttesville, VA, April, '95.

This book represents an earlier edition or printing of a book from 1850 which I have already catalogued. See my comments there. This book is thus now my earliest English edition of Speckter's work. It is in good condition, with an elaborate gold-embossed red-cloth cover. It reads "Mary Howitt's Picture & Verse Book," while the spine reads simply "Picture & Verse Book." The back cover is similarly imprinted but not embossed. Inscriptions record its having been given as a gift "about 1847" and by that recipient again "about 1908." Other than Appleton's change of address, I see little that is different in the book. U. Holzer, a Boston bookbinder, worked on the book. There is again a T of C at the book's beginning. At its end, this edition marks its printer, J.F. Trow & Company in NY.

1845 The Ladder to Learning: A Collection of Fables Arranged Progressively in Words of One, Two, and Three Syllables, with Original Morals. Edited and Improved by Mrs. Trimmer. With Seventy-Nine Wood Engravings. Seventeenth Edition. Hardbound. Printed in London. London: Grant and Griffith, Successors to John Harris. £22 from Abbey Antiquarian, June, '98.

See my remarks on the fourteenth edition in 1835. What has changed here? The engravings are now labeled on the title-page as wood engravings. Grant and Griffith has succeeded to John Harris as publisher. The company-name of Bentley the printer has expanded. A new frontispiece pictures "The Old Hound" and LM. The text-pages are reset in smaller type, and so the whole work finishes now on 214, rather than 222. There are other new illustrations. Some of them face 5, 96, 119, 134, and 139. I will leave it to the next researcher to see which old illustrations have dropped, since there are still seventy-nine illustrations in all. Each plate of illustrations counts as two illustrations, I learned. The new illustrations are on new subjects; they do not redo what had been done earlier. They are perhaps of inferior quality to the originals. There are eighteen pages of advertisements at the back, including mention of this work near the end of them.

1845 The Third-Class Reader. Designed for the Use of the Younger Classes in the Schools of the United States. By B.D. Emerson. Philadelphia: Hogan and Thompson. $7 at Gryphon, NY, March, '93.

Surprisingly dependent on fables. There are thirteen fables among the eighty-four story-lessons. Nine of the fables have strong small illustrations. "The Goat and the Fox" (19) comments on animals' language and on truth-telling in stories. This first fable involves the loss of the goat's vaunted beard. TH (52) is done in verse. In TMCM (63), the two rats have many close escapes. The author is puzzled by the adder's behavior in "The Countryman and the Snake" (111). Different: "The Ant and the Butterfly" (134) where the tradition calls for a cicada or grasshopper. The best illustration: "The Countryman and the Snake" (111). A very nice find!

1845? Funfzig Fabeln für Kinder, Nebst einem ernsthaften Anhange. Von W. Hey. In Bildern gezeichnet von Otto Speckter. Paperbound. Gotha: Schul-Ausgabe I: Friedrich Andreas Perthes. $35 from Avocado Pit, Charlottesville, April, '98. 

I cannot find this edition in Bodemann. Its images seem not to follow the edition I have marked as "1852?" For example, the first illustration's crow looks right, as it seems to in most Speckter editions. The binding has all but given way on this lovely older book! The book is done in Gothic Script. Its cover has a proliferation of white figures on a black background. By contrast with some early editions, this book presents stories and illustrations on both sides of its pages. From what I can gather, this edition would belong somewhere in Bodemann #277. The fifty fables, but not their pages, are numbered. The pages are numbered, starting afresh, in the appendix.

1845? Sammlung von Fabeln und Erzählungen aus vaterländischen Dichtern: Ein Geschenk für die Jugend.  Various fabulists.  Hardbound.  Berlin: Winckelmann & Söhne.  €220 from Thomas Rezek, Munich, July, '23.

"Mit 16 illuminirten Bildern."  I guess at something like 1845 as a date of publication for this lovely little book.  There are here 72 fables, often identified by their author.  Familiar names appear: Hagedorn, Lichtwer, Pfeffel, Lessing, Gellert, and Zachariä.  This is a rather expensive little book, but probably rightly expensive because of the excellent hand-colored illustrations.  Thomas Rezek is right: these are beautifully colored illustrations!  The first is the frontispiece, DLS.  Unusual in this presentation is that a dog is attacking the "lion."  Is that an exasperated owner in the background?  According to Gleim's text, the ass at the end "wants to be a lion no more."  In "Bedachtsamkeit" (32), little Hänschen is so intent on catching a butterly that he plunges into a ditch.  Another great illustration is for a traditional version of "The Goat, Lamb, and Pig" (49).  MSA (61) and "Der Affe vor dem Spiegel" (65) are further excellent illustrations.  92 pages.  4" x 6¼".

1845? The Book of Fables in Prose and Verse. No author or illustrator acknowledged. Fourth Series, No. 1. Original blue pictorial wraps. NY: Kiggins and Kellogg. $45 by mail from Harold M. Burstein, Waltham, MA, April, '92.

This book, originally sold for $.06, is charming evidence of what fables meant for children in the middle of the nineteenth century. The fables here are long and heavily didactic. The first and longest of the seven fables is the Aesopic fable of the axe, here with Honestus Woodman and Cheathim. Further fables focus on: the animals' argument over greatness, led by orator hog; the bird's three lessons (also Aesopic); the sundial and the weed; the complaining dove (a parable for little girls); the foolish lamb who stays out at night and is devoured by the wolf family; the thief of a bird nest (boo, hiss). Simple engravings. I am glad both to have this little booklet and not to have been born in 1840!

1845? The Book of Fables in Prose and Verse. Paperbound. NY: Fourth Series, No. 1: Kiggins and Kellogg. $2.50 from Fletcher, through eBay, Dec., '03. 

This is a second copy of a book I have already catalogued, only the blue pictorial wraps there have become tan pictorial wraps here. The advertisements on the back proclaim the same prices. My price for this copy was $42.50 less than for that copy! The back cover identifies the series as "Redfield's Toy Books" and says that they are illustrated from designs by Chapman. I will include most of my comments from there. This book, originally sold for $.06, is charming evidence of what fables meant for children in the middle of the nineteenth century. The fables here are long and heavily didactic. The first and longest of the seven fables is the Aesopic fable of the axe, here with Honestus Woodman and Cheathim. Further fables focus on: the animals' argument over greatness, led by orator hog; the bird's three lessons (also Aesopic); the sundial and the weed; the complaining dove (a parable for little girls); the foolish lamb who stays out at night and is devoured by the wolf family; the thief of a bird nest (boo, hiss). Simple engravings.

1845?/1970 The American Pictorial Primer. Or the First Book for Children. No author or illustrator acknowledged. Original: NY: George F. Cooledge and Brother. Facsimile: San Marino, CA: Huntington Library and Art Gallery. $2.95, Summer, '89.

Simple and straightforward booklet. Among the few stories is MM (34). There is here no dreaming or counting of chickens before they hatch. This may not even be a fable. Simple illustrations.

To top

1846 - 1849

1846 Fables de Florian.  Illustrator: Bouchot.  Hardbound.  Paris: Lehuby.  $15 from Yisroel Markov, Brighton, MA, through Ebay, April, '19.

Here is yet another Florian edition coming towards the end of a period in which his fables were frequently published.  This 1846 copy seems to be a reprinting of Bodemann #300.2, which Lehuby reprinted in 1843 from its original edition in about 1841 (Bodemann #300.1).  It thus comes soon after Grandville's Florian in 1842.  Others in this cycle are Comynet (1830, 1832);  Ledentu (1832); Victor Adam (1838); Langlumé et Peltier (1840); Tastu (1841); and Mame (1841).  Consistent with Bodemann's description there are here twenty full-page illustrations for Florian's fables designed by Bouchot and engraved by Trichon, Bertrand, and Pouget.  One of them is the frontispiece, apparently on a goldfinch smuggled into a family of canaries.  These strong illustrations are done on heavier paper.  One lovely feature of this book is the cover picture of "Le Lapin et La Sarcelle" enshrined in an elaborate frame embossed in gold on the black cloth.  The spine similarly shows the title, "Lehuby," and a squirrel and a wolf (?).  I see this as a lucky find on Ebay!

1846 Literary Fables of Don Thomas De Iriarte. Bound with The Yes of The Young Ladies by Leandro Fernandez De Moratin. F. Sales. Fourth edition improved. Hardbound. Boston: James Munroe & Co. $19 from Allen Gregory, Limington, ME, through eBay, June, '11.

Here is a well worn textbook prepared by a Harvard professor of Spanish. It has title-pages in both English and Spanish containing a wealth of information. "All the posthumous literary fables of the Author. Reprinted from a Madrid edition of 1830..Prepared for the use of schools and colleges in the United States of North America. By F. Sales, A. M., Instructor of Spanish in Harvard University, Cambridge. Fourth Edition Improved." Both covers are detached and show strong wear around the edges. The spine cover is missing. Inside pages show a few foxing spots on the title pages and strong foxing to the "English Notes" section at the back of book. The Iriarte section of the book has copious amounts of penciled notes. 3⅞" x 6½" with 144 & 123 numbered pages. Iriarte's section has sixty-seven fables and then nine "fábulas añadidas."

1846 Phèdre, bound with Aesop's Fables as Romanized by Phaedrus. Hardbound. Paris: Librairie de L. Hachette. AU $45 from Antiquariat, Gordon and Cathy Hughes, North Mittagong, New South Wales, Australia, April, '98.

The pre-title here is just too long to try to fit into the title slot: "Les Auteurs Latin expliqués d'après une méthode nouvelle par deux traductions françaises, l'une littérale et juxtalinéaire presentant le mot a mot Français en regard des mots Latins correspondants, l'autre correcte et fidele precedée du texte Latin avec des sommaires et des notes par une société de professeurs et de Latinistes." Whew! There are thus three items for each fable: Phaedrus' Latin, a prose translation, and a two column phrase-by-phrase presentation of the Latin in a new word order with a corresponding French phrase at its side. There are notes on 224-236. Carnes has a fragmentary listing of a later printing of this work from 1878 under #1013. See the separate listing for the 1845 bilingual Latin/English edition of Taylor and Walton, bound with this book.

1846 Select Fables in Short Words for Little Folks from the Best of Uncles.  Texts after Croxall.  Paperbound.  Boston: Saxton & Kelt.  $172.49 from Resource Books, East Granby, CT, through AbeBooks, Sept., '22.

I hesitated for a long time as I left this expensive little treasure in my cart at AbeBooks.  Now that we have it here, I am delighted to have helped to save a lovely representative of ephemera from 180 years ago.  There is a strong frontispiece of FS.  The title-page duplicates the front cover except for the abundant decoration there.  A curious feature of the title-page is that  the acknowledgement of the publisher is pasted over with a new version.  I wonder what was involved there.  A T of C introduces this little (4¼" x 5¼") volume, showing that each fable receives a left-hand page for its illustration and a right-hand page for its title and text.  The inside back cover is also the final page, 95.  The illustrations are set inside a repeated frame.  I wonder if they are not taken from another publication.  The illustrations are good.  The text is modified from Croxall; his long applications are much shortened.  Is this what one might call a chapbook?  It is remarkable that it is so well preserved!  Do not miss the larger image of "the best of uncles" on the back cover, echoing the smaller images on the front cover and title-page.

1846 The Little Esop. Miniature. Hardbound. Philadelphia: Loomis and Peck. New Haven: Durrie and Peck. $37.05 from Pat Thornburg, Muncie, Indiana, through Ebay, August, '00.

See my notes on the 1848 edition by the same firms. The two editions seem to be identical. This little book is in very poor condition. Its Ebay advertisement says "This sweet lil book has not had an easy life!" Someone has tried to sew its binding back together. It is unfortunately missing the frontispiece of Aesop with two children. Missing are 15-18, 31-32, 49-50, 97-98, and 111-14. Several pages are loose, and there is some foxing. But this book is a little treasure!

1846/57 Reineke Fuchs. Wolfgang von Goethe. Zeichnungen von Wilhelm von Kaulbach. Auf Holz gezeichnet von Julius Schnorr, gestochen von Allgaier and Siegle. Stuttgart: J.G. Cotta'scher Verlag. $12 at Pageturners, July, '93.

Finding this lovely old edition has convinced me to open a small "Reynard" section in my collection. See my favorite private collector's notes on the first edition. That has a frontispiece and thirty-five plates; this has thirty-six plates and numerous woodcut head and tail pieces. Originally (?) sold by William Schmidt in Baltimore. Damaged front endpaper and beginning pages. Gothic script. Heavily foxed. Fables are illustrated on 52, 122, 158, and 161. The illustrations show a delightful humanizing of trees (e.g. 23). My favorite illustrations include 2 (originally frontispiece?), 38, 46, 92, 142, and 211.

1846? Fables and Parables from the German of Lessing, Herder, Gellert, Meissner, etc. and Fables Selected from Croxall, Dodsley, etc. (cover: Select Fables Ancient and Modern). Hardbound. London: James Burns. $12 from Antique, Art and Book Collections, McLean, VA, through Ebay, Feb., '00.

Two volumes in one, separately paginated. The spine is crumbling. The first volume is especially helpful for its 112 English versions of German fables on 72 pages. They have no detached morals. The first 72 fables are from Lessing. There is a full-page frontispiece illustration of "The Traveller and the Skylark" and a half-page illustration of the first fable, "The Apparition." Especially valuable for their translations are the following fables: "The Apparition" (#1), "The Ass and the Fox" (#6), "The Nightingale and the Hawk" (#11), "The Wasps" (#16), "The Dogs" (#20), "The Young Swallow" (#23), "The Lion and the Tiger" (#25), "The Blind Hen" (#38), "The Stag and the Fox" (#55), "The Thorn" (#56), and "The Poet and the Peasant" (#88). Many of those after Lessing seem to be either a retelling of La Fontaine or a long sermon. There is a good full-page frontispiece to the second volume, "The Farmer and the Stag." The telling and illustration are unusual, since this fable usually involves the hiding and revealing of a smaller animal, like a fox or wolf. This second volume contains 122 fables on 72 pages. New to me among these English fables are "The Court of Death" (37), in which Intemperance is chosen as prime minister of Death, and "The Dervise" (38), which asks pointedly what the difference is between a castle and an inn. There is a T of C at the beginning of each volume. There are eighteen pages of advertisements at the back of the whole book.

1846? Fables de La Fontaine: Édition Illustrée.  Illustrators: J. David, T.Johannot, V. Adam, F. Grenier and Schaal.  Hardbound.  Paris: Henri Plon; Morizot.  $55 from Gordon Bray, Hampton, VA, through eBay, March, '18.

Of a similar book fifteen years ago, I wrote "This book represents a lovely find."  Here is an even lovelier find.  I wrote of that edition that it seemed equivalent to Bodemann #287.4 except that it lacked Walckenaer's historical notice.  This lovely copy includes that notice.  Bodemann dates the edition to "circa 1846," and I follow her dating.  With this book, as with that, I feared, as so often, that I was probably purchasing something that I already had.  As so often, I was wrong on that.  Both books are in the tradition of my two-volume set of La Fontaine from 1839 illustrated by J. David.  This copy features a small (2" x 3") illustration at the beginning of each book, typically signed by J. David.  It also has many more small illustrations before and after the fables than that smaller copy without the notice.  There are also the twelve full-page engravings inserted on heavier stock, typically etched by Thompson and signed by one of the five artists mentioned on the title-page: David, Johannot, Adam, Grenier, or Schaal.  At least three of these seem to be repeaters from the work in my 1839 edition: "Wolf, Mother, and Child"; "Old Woman and Two Servants"; and TH.  The other full-page illustrations are GA; "Thieves and Ass"; FS; MSA; "La Fille"; "Horoscope"; "Wolf and Hunter"; "Oyster and Litigants"; and "Crow, Gazelle, Turtle, and Rat."  Similarly, each of the twelve books has a title-page on heavier stock.  6½" x 9¾", this is a substantial volume!  I have now seen on the web copies whose title-page includes the date of 1846.  This then is most likely a later printing of the same.

1847 Der Deutsche Fabelschatz.  Published by Otto Wigand.  Illustrations by Ludwig Richter?.  Pamphlet.  Leipzig: Volksbücher #38: Otto Wigand.  €10 from Kitzinger, Munich, July, '18.

This is a well-worn pamphlet of 38 pages.  There are many uncut pages here.  Well-preserved partial-page black-and-white illustrations.  Many of the fables here are in verse, and many are new to me.  There may have been a further cover, as on the copy on Google Books, showing a family on a hill watching several birds.  The cover here offers an intriguing image of a human rowing a small boat for a wolf pilgrim.  That fable, "Der Wolf und der Schiffer," with its illustration begins on 57.  The wolf asks for a free ride in return for three words of wisdom.  "Do what you can."  "Do not believe a liar."  "The person who helps a scoundrel should not expect a reward."  The Library of Congress attributes this illustration to Ludwig Richter.  A quick search on the web could not find an author for this rhyming verse fable.  None of the fables is attributed to an author.  And one looks in vain for something like a T of C or AI.  Wigand published "Neue Fabeln" by K.F.W. Wander, with illustrations by Richter, in 1846 (Bodemann #310).  Might this be a later form of the same?

1847 Fables de Florian. Illustrées par Ch. Delhomme. Hardbound. Paris: Belin-Leprieur et Morizot, Libraires. €54 from Librairie Henry Veyrier, Saint Ouen, Dec., '04. 

Bodemann has a listing (#313.1) that is very close. It seems to describe this book but ascribes it to "Henry" for the texts and "Fernique & Cie" for the lithographs. The publisher listed here is Belin-Leprieur et Morizot, Libraires. However, each lithograph is marked "Fernique & Cie," the Imprimerie on the verso of the title page is "A. Henry," and the date of the book is the same--1847--for the Henry/Fernique volume Bodemann lists. Might the plates have been given immediately to another publisher? Or might Bodemann be reporting, correctly or incorrectly, on the very version I have? This book does not seem to be a cheap offprint. The division is, as Bodemann notes, into five books of twenty-two fables each. There are fourteen lithographs in all, starting with the frontispiece of mother and child in a pastoral setting. The best of the fourteen seem to me to be "The Avaricious Man and His Son" (161) and "The Two Bald Men" (175). Bodemann rightly notes that Delhomme's lithographs are realistic portraits devoted exclusively to human fables. There are also a number of smaller tailpieces along the way. How nice that I happened upon this important book in a chance visit to a favorite Paris bookstore!

1847 Fables for Children, Young and Old, in Humorous Verse. By W. Edwards Staite. Illustrations signed by T.H. Jones. Apparent first edition. Presentation inscription. Hardbound. London: E. Churton. $37.04 from Kelvin Books, Glasgow, Jan., '02.

See the 1848 second edition of this lovely little book. The differences here include a pictorial onlay on the front cover, now very worn and only half present. There are only six hand-colored plates here, as opposed to eight there. Images not included here but in the second edition are "The Barber and His Customer" and "How Sir Roger Spent Christmas." And this book extends not to 126 but only to 64, where there is the clear marker "The End." The colored plate of "Bears and Buffaloes" now faces not the hand-colored title-page but its fable on 11. The cover is here green cloth. The six colored plates in common offer a fine occasion for comparing the differences in hand-coloring the same image. I will include here some of the comments I made on the second edition. About 5" x 6½". The signature of T.H. Jones is clear on each of the illustrations. The title-page illustration is strong: an adult with distinctive round glasses reads from a fable-book to an eager group of children. Another attractive illustration is that of "Tom and Harry and the Donkey" (28). The fables here seem new to the Aesopic tradition. While they are humorous, they are also pointedly didactic. For example, the sparrow that envies ducks sees two of them decapitated (32)! For me the morally focused character of the fables can make them tiresome. There is a presentation inscription from the author on the half-title-page and, from thirty-four years later, an owner's inscription on the inside front endpaper. Not in Bodemann.

1847 Flowers of Fable from Northcote, Aesop, Croxall, Gellert, Dodsley, Gay, La Fontaine, Lessing, Krasicki, Herder, Merrick, Cowper, etc. Preface signed "C.K.F." With numerous engravings. Hardbound. NY: Harper & Brothers. $65 from Yessterday's Used Bookroom, Fort Lauderdale, FL, through Ebay, March, '00.

The first sentences of the preface of this little (4½" x 6¾") book set a fascinating tone: "The principal object of the compiler of this collection of Fables, has been to avoid all such as contain coarse, rude, or profane expressions" (iii). The same preface contains a spirited defense of long morals for short fables. This collection of 223 fables on 252 pages seems a mixtum-gatherum. There is no attempt to attribute these fables to particular authors among those mentioned on the title-page. Prose follows verse. Some fables have long applications and some none. Traditional fables are brought together with many that are new to me. I am surprised to find "The Dog and the Crane" (29). Here the dog acts as the wolf does in the traditional tale, but then has the same throat-problem a second time. He becomes remorseful. The crane hears of his plight and relieves him again. The dog licks her feet and asks to be her slave! The crane declares that virtue is its own reward and flies off. In another transformation, the cormorant takes fishes to a shallow pool, where he can eat them whenever he wants (9). In the traditional Bidpay fable, a crane takes them to rocks and eventually pays for his sins. Upon reflection, is the version here not the sort of fable that this editor wanted to keep out of the collection? There are also various forms of illustration, including especially rectangles, framed rectangles, initials, and tailpieces. I find the emotion expressed in GGE (34) good. Also delightful is the little devil sitting at the rich sick man's ear as a philosopher lectures him about idleness (41). The illustration for MSA on 105 is full of exertion and contortion. I am surprised to see "The Benefit of Recreation--Aesop at Play" included, with illustration (236). The preface is signed "C.K.F." "William M. Whitney" is stamped on the leather portion of the half-leather cover.

1847/2001? Babrius: Fables. Explained by Théobald Fix and translated by M. Sommer. Paperbound. Les Auteurs Grecs expliqués d'après une Méthode nouvelle par deux Traductions Françaises. Paris: Hachette. Photographic replica by Elibron Classics: Adamant Media of Boston. $13.70 from Alibris, July, '03. Extra copy for $13.70 from Alibris, Jan., '03. 

Here is a case where I ordered the same book twice because I had not catalogued it promptly. The error allows me to keep a work copy of this handy paperback in Berkeley. It is handy because it gives two Greek versions and two French translations of each of the 126 Babrian texts. The first version is the usual Greek verse of Babrius with its prose French translation. Then follows a phrase by phrase Greek sense-line version, with the complementing French. In the latter translation, supplementary words are italicized and explanatory comments are put into parentheses. This should be a helpful book for resolving--or at least locating well--some translation issues in Babrius. I wonder how many Greek authors were included in this series by Hachette. Elibron Classics, identified at www.elibron.com as a Boston company, presents here a photographic replica of the original book. It is so completely a replica that one searches in vain, even on the website, to find the date of its publication!

1847/2010 Phaedrus Construed: The Fables of Phaedrus Construed Into English. Paperbound. London/La Vergne, TN: Simpkin, Marshall, and Company/Kessinger Legacy Reprints. $16.62 from Buy.com through eBay, August, '10.

The title-page adds "For the use of grammar schools." This is as thoroughgoing a pony as I have seen! I thought Locke was destroying Latin by doing an interlinear translation. This book goes a step further and adds a word-by-word interspersed translation. The first lines thus read this way: "Materiam the matter quam which Aesopus Aesop reperit found auctor (as) author, hanc this ego I polivi have polished senariis versibus in verses of six (Iambic feet)." The Latin is in standard print and the English in italics. I guess that this book may be a help the next time I get stuck in construing Phaedrus! It was certainly a boon to schoolboys in 1847. There are twelve pages at the end of the book of advertisements for similar helps.

1847? Das Reich der redenden Thiere.  Neuestes Fabelbuch für die Jugend.  Von G.F. Müller.  Nürnberg: Verlag von J.L. Lotzbeck.  $20 at Arkadyan, Aug., '94.

A curious and delightful sideways book that I find difficult to date.  Twelve "tables" present ten engravings apiece, with a Gothic-script text, generally in verse, for each engraving.  The texts follow the illustrations left to right, starting at the top; they often seem wordy and forced.  Many of the fables tend to become punchless arguments.  Sources include Kalila and Dimna--for example, for "The Fox and the Drum" (2), "The Lion and the Hare" (8), and TT (16)--and various authors like Lessing ("Zeus and the Horse," 3) and Lichtwer ("The Ape with the Watch," 57).  Is that Krylov's "Quartet" pictured on the title page?  I cannot find "Quartet" in the collection.  Many of the fables are new to me, starting with the first, "The Dog and the He-Goat."  Is that "The Musicians of Bremen" that we find as a fable on 8?  A good story that is little known is "The Lion and the Rabbit" (2) about self-knowledge.  The engravings are charming, starting from the cover engraving of Aesop writing.  Among the best illustrations are "The Frog and the Mouse" (Table II), "The Cat and the Mice" (Table IV), "The Magic Lantern (Table V, though the fable is in my opinion very poorly told), LM (Table VI), and "Wolf" (Table XI).  Table II and the backs of most illustration pages are pencilled in.  Inscribed by Oscar Mayer.  Now, twenty-two years later, I have seen a beautiful hand-painted exemplar of the book in Justin Schiller's in New York.  He had guessed a date of about 1850.  A quick check in Bodemann reveals a publication date of 1847.  Who knows if this copy is from then; it could be a later reprint.  I want to think it is an original.

1847? Fables de La Fontaine Choisies pour les Enfants (Cover: Choix de Fables de La Fontaine).  Par Elizabeth Müller.  Hardbound.  Paris: Amédée Bédelet, Libraire.  £15 from Eastleach Books, Newbury, Berkshire, UK, Sept., '06. 

The title-page continues "Accompagnées de Notes Explicatives et Précédées d'un Aperçu sur la Fable et le Principaux Fabulistes."  Bodemann helps with this edition, which I take to be #303.2.  All the data seem to match.  The frontispiece of this sturdy book is a sepia presentation of La Fontaine sitting under a tree with a text in his hand.  He is flanked by two women, "La Fable" and "La Morale."  There are eleven further full-page sepia illustrations.  I agree with Metzner in Bodemann that these remind one of Grandville.  They are well done.  Note particularly DW (23); "Le Coche et la Mouche" (85); and "Le Chartier Embourbé" (108).  FS incorporates the first phase of the fable in the table-cloth (48).  There are many smaller engravings.  Though they are generally sketchy, several stand out, like WL (30); "The Cat and an Old Rat" (63); "Le Loup, la Chèvre et le Chevreau" (71); and FM (117).  Pauquet is at least one of the engravers at work here.  Someone has done hand-coloring on a few of these.  Fifty-one fables on 156 pages, with a T of C at the back.

1847? Fables de La Fontaine Choisies pour les Enfants. Hardbound. Paris: Bibliothèque du premier âge: Amédée Bédelet, Libraire. £30 from Marché du Livre Georges Brassens, Paris, July, '12.

This book belongs to a family with another in the collection, published also by Bédelet, for which I have with Metzner and Bodemann guessed a date of 1847. That family is Bodemann #303. In fact, the four magnificent hand-colored illustrations here appear in sepia versions in our copy of #303.2. They are TMCM (19); "Le Coche et la Mouche" (44); "Le Chartier Embourbé" (55); and "Le Savetier et le Financier" (74). Three of the four were those I had chosen as best among the eleven in the larger edition! The only other internal art is the small black-and-white design of "The Cat, the Weasel, and the Hare" on the title-page. The cover, which surprisingly omits the title but gives the series name, "Bibliothèque du premier âge," pictures "The Peacock Complaining to Juno." That is another of the full-page sepia versions in the larger book. The title-page continues "Accompagnées de Notes Explicatives." T of C on 80. Thirty-six fable texts. 

1847? Pictorial Book of Fables. Hardbound. Leeds: Webb and Milllington. €15 from Céline Poisat, Paris, Jan., '05. 

Here is a first find on a day of book-hunting in Paris. I was surprised to find the bookstore and even more surprised to find an English fable book there. The booklet's count of 16 pages includes both covers. The six fables here are nicely hand-colored--by the publisher? I suspect that the hard green cover without any print was added by someone later. The cover of the pamphlet inside has two inscribed dates on it: 1904 and 1847. Take your pick! The verso of the cover has a lovely illustration of CJ and a reference to find the text of the fable on the last page. Text and image are surrounded here by pairs of matching printer's designs, with a new pair for each two-page spread. In each case, the two are differently colored. This book has seen significant use!

1848 Aesop's Fables. A New Version, Chiefly from Original Sources. Rev. Thomas James. With more than One Hundred Illustrations designed by John Tenniel. First edition. Inscribed in 1848. Bound by Remnant and Edmonds, London. London: John Murray. $220 from quill and brush of Rockville, MD, at Rosslyn, March, '92. Extra copy in very poor condition for $55 from Antiques Colony, San Jose, CA, June, '97.

I get nervous just having this book in my hand! At last a first edition of Tenniel! It is a joy to see crisp renditions of illustrations I have seen copied or redone in blurred reprints. Among my favorites here: WC (3), "The Stag in the Ox Stall" (53), "The Thief and His Mother" (106), "The Dog Invited to Supper" (121), "The Birds, the Beasts, and the Bat" (133), "The Ass and His Driver" (143), DLS (167), "The Miser" (203), and MSA (217-221). "The Stag in the Ox Stall" illustration at last makes sense of a fable I had trouble imagining from its text alone. List of illustrations on xxi-xxv. AI at the back of the book. The curious slip-cover matched to the book's cover proclaims "First Edition." As to the texts, James in his introduction traces the tradition broadly and expresses the hope that he is restoring "in a more genuine form than has yet been attempted" the body of Aesop’s fables, "at least as they were known in the best times of Greek literature. The "wearisome and otherwise objectionable paraphrases of the ordinary versions" had banished the genuine Aesop from the hands of the present generation. The recent discovery of Babrius encourages James in this effort to get back to the Greek texts and collate and sift the various ancient versions. His general rule is to give a free translation from the oldest source to which the Fable could be traced or from its best later form in the dead languages. But there are exceptions. Even the English tradition gets into the process: "a few adopt the turn given by L’Estrange, or speak almost in the very words of Croxall or Dodsley." (Note, e.g., that James #145, "The Bald Knight," is verbatim identical with Croxall's #47 with the same title.) This method of translation would be "wholly without excuse, if applied to a genuine classic." Greater liberty has been taken with the morals than with the narratives. English fabulists have generally smothered the fable under their own commentary. A few fables are marked as modern in the index: "The Boy and the Nettle," MM, "The Hedge and the Vineyard," BC, and MSA. I appreciate finding that list now because I had struggled to find the two of these with longer titles in Perry and could not. James offers 203 fables and so includes many not found elsewhere. Generally because of his program the versions are quite standard. Several are very well executed, including FWT (James #68) and MSA (#203). There is the curious reverse moral for "The Cock and the Jewel" (James #13), "The Cock was a sensible Cock: but there are many silly people who despise what is precious.…" James likes double morals. On this careful 1996 rereading, I find a few fables told in surprising fashion. The mischievous dog carries not a bell but a clog around his neck (James #88). Strangely, a lion and a goat are fighting to the death over drinking rights at a fountain in James #126; I believe an editor misread boar and printed goat. Lion and goat are not well matched opponents in the fable world! In his #62, the sheep dismiss the dogs at the wolves’ request; they are usually handed over and destroyed. In the course of this analysis, I discovered how dependent V.S. Vernon Jones was on James’ versions.

1848 Fabelen.  W.J. van Zeggelen & A. Ising?  Illustrations by J.J. Grandville.  Paperbound.  's-Gravenhage [Den Haag]: K. Fuhri.  €40 from Peter Everaers, Hulst, Netherlands, Dec., '21.

I am indebted to Peter Everaers for researching this unusual leaflet about 7" x 9¼".  It contains two segments, apparently in reverse chronological order.  Each segment contains thirteen prose fables, printed with blank versos and accompanied by Grandville's illustrations, well printed despite the somewhat browned paper.  The two segments are pages 25-36 (from 1848) and 99-112 (from 1847).  The cover is later marbled paper.  I am particularly indebted to Peter for the information that these two segments come from "Nieuw Nederlandsch Prentenboek", collected by W.J. van Zeggelen & A. Ising.  I will guess that they are responsible for the Dutch prose of the fables.  My, the things one comes upon!

1848 Fables de La Fontaine Illustrées.  Hardbound.  Paris: Chez Delarue, Libraire.  $19.99 from Edward Wood, Victoria Canada, Nov., '15

This book looked very familiar, but it did not seem to line up well with the one book I have of La Fontaine from Delarue.  I noticed on the last page that it was printed by Mame in Tours.  I checked, and Mame in Tours did apparently this same book four years later.  The pagination seems to line up perfectly, as does the title-page.  As I wrote there twenty-eight years ago, this is a complete little edition, with lots of simple engravings.  T of C at the rear.  Morals are italicized within the fable texts.  About 3½" x 5½". 

1848 Fables for Children, Young and Old, in Humorous Verse. By W. Edwards Staite. Illustrations signed by T.H. Jones. Second edition. Hardbound. London: E. Churton. £36 from Abbey Antiquarian, June, '98.

Here is a case where the title-page says "Fables for Children, Young and Old, in Humorous Verse," the cover says "Fables for Young and Old," and the old spine reads "Fables," though physically there may be words missing on the spine. This book is not in Bodemann. About 5" x 6½". The cover is red gilt pictorial cloth, rebacked with part of the old spine laid on. A lovely feature of this book is its eight hand-colored plates, including the frontispiece and pictorial title-page. The signature of T.H. Jones is clear on each of the illustrations. The title-page illustration is strong: an adult with distinctive round glasses reads from a fable-book to an eager group of children. Another attractive illustration is that of "Tom and Harry and the Donkey" (29). A third worth mentioning is that for "The Barber and His Customer" (94). The fables here seem new to the Aesopic tradition. While they are humorous, they are also pointedly didactic. For example, the sparrow that envies ducks sees two of them decapitated (32)! For me the morally focused character of the fables can make them tiresome. Among the best for me--because it does not follow the moralistic pattern--is "The Quack and the Mountebank" (65), which shows that a laugh beats twenty bottles of physic. The following story is also strong; in it a monkey defeathers a thieving crow (68). "The Pedlar's Dream" (86) tells a good joke. Two peddlers are given food enough for only one. They agree to go to bed, and whoever has the unlikeliest dream gets the food. The first arises the next morning to relate that he thought the other was in heaven. The other says he had the same dream, and knowing that in heaven his associate would not want or need a cold fowl, he himself got up in the night and ate it! The barber mentioned above is also a wit. Having been duped by a fruit-dealer who contracted for a shave for himself and "his friend," soon revealed as a donkey, the barber turns the tables and manages in disguise to contract with the fruit dealer to pay a crown for all he can carry. Of course, what he carries is not the dealer's fruit but the dealer's donkey!

1848 Halvhundrede Fabler for Born. Af W. Hey. Oversatte af Christian Winther. Med Billeder af Otto Speckter. Andet Oplag. Hardbound. Copenhagen: Universitetsboghandler C.U. Reitzel. $50 from Scott's Books, Milford, NH, March, '00.

Here is the first Danish book in the collection, I believe. It is a translation of the standard work of Hey and Speckter, which first appeared in Hamburg in 1833 from Friedrich Perthes. The illustrations have no frame and reach to the very top of the page; this presentation creates a good effect, I think. My prize on this trip through goes to the noble crow well illustrated in #43. Second prize goes to the sow in #21. Only the right-hand pages are utilized in this edition. This book has no frills. There is a title-page, and there are fifty pages for fifty fables. Marbled boards and canvas binding.

1848 Kleines Fabelbuch, Enthaltend 237 der schönsten Fabeln zum Nutzen und Vergnügen der Jugend.  Ausgewählt und herausgegeben von August Gebauer.  Hardbound.  Reutlingen: Druck und Verlag von Fleischhauer und Spohn.  €78 from Antiquariat Krikl, Vienna, July, '14.  

This little book is impressive in several ways and curious in another.  It is impressive as a kind of tour-de-force of versification.  Gebauer has taken most of these 237 fables and turned them into (mostly harmless) German verse.  All of the fables before 210 are in verse; all on 210-48 are in prose.  It is impressive secondly for the strong illustrations, starting with the title-page illustration of a woman under a tree holding a fable book dated "1847."  She is surrounded by animals.  This engraving is signed by "F. Reusche sc" and "Xave Roller Muenchen."  Other engravings are signed "Weimer" (or perhaps "Deimer") or "Reusche."  Weimer's FS on 228 is one of the better illustrations in the book.  Another engaging illustration is the unattributed "Der Spiegel" on 238.  Sometimes the illustrations take on a caricature quality, as in the engraving for "The Acorn and the Pumpkin" on 149.  Pages 1-31 got mixed up by the bookbinder.  Krikl notes both that it is an "Erstausgabe" and that it is mentioned in Kosch VI,104 and Wegehaupt I,709.  There is a T of C at the beginning.

1848 The Little Esop. Rebound miniature. Philadelphia: Loomis and Peck. New Haven: Durrie and Peck. $150 from Florence Shay at Titles, Highland Park, August, '96.

Florence's affection for this beautiful little book is touching and well founded. It is a little treasure that she did not want to let go! In the frontispiece, a seated Aesop holds a book before two children. The very first fable, FG, notes that a fox would be more likely in a henhouse than in a vineyard, but then states that we must allow Aesop to tell the fable his way, and does so in verse. Many of the fables are in verse, either whole or in part. Every fable receives a full-page illustration, captioned and blank-backed; most texts are two pages in length. Some foxing.

1848 Truths and Fables (Cover: Truths, Fables, and Pictuers [sic]).  Paperbound.  Boston:  Wm. J. Reynolds and Co.  $35 from oldmapsoldbooks.com through eBay, Sept., '15.

Here is a curious melange in a 64-page booklet that starts with a misspelling on the front cover!  Next, after one endpaper, follows a title-page "Truths and Fables" with the words framed by eight medallions of typical family scenes.  At the bottom of the title page is a signature "Devereux sc."  There follow five pages of pictures in various formats.  The first has a mother and child framed by an arch that seems to say "The Child's Gem. 1844."  The second is an enclosed circle of a young woman drawing and a young man reading.  Then we have an unframed illustration of a peacock and swan in an outdoor setting with a child.  Fourth is a rectangular meeting of two males with a female carrying a basket.  The last page of sheer illustrations combines a father pointing to deer, lake, and mountain.  A second scene below shows two children reading outdoors.  Then comes an illustrated title-page again proclaiming "Truths and Fables," this time with the place and publisher and even his address. A heading "Truths and Fables" stands over then an account of "The Sheep" and its services to humans, including an account of a girl and her pet sheep.  Next is a history of Joppa, especially from the New Testament to Napoleon.  Then comes an account of the horse, followed (at last!) by the fable of the horse wanting revenge on the stag (22).  In "The Boy and the Robin" (28), a robin admonishes a boy for not minding his mother and going to bed on time.  Next follow "The History of a Pin" for 15 pages and "The Battle of Blenheim."  What a curious mixture!  After a description of the ass, there is the fable of the ass and two sheep.  This story uses a traditional fable about the many hard kinds of employment an ass may have to perform.  He admonishes the sheep to be content with what they have.  In a last short story, a boy tries to teach a dog to read.  I gather that a publisher could put together whatever he had and sell it!

1848 Viata si Pildele Preainteleptului Esop (Romanian "Life and Fables of Aesop"). Paperbound. Sibiiu: In Tipografiia lui Georgie de Klozius. $23.50 from Grecu Dan Simion, Deva, Romania, through eBay, April, '04.

I know little about this well-worn 70-page pamphlet. Its title clearly contains "Esop," and the body seems to be one continuous piece of prose in Romanian Cyrillic. The seller has indicated that the following have something to do with this pamphlet: "Austria Transylvania Aesop Life Romanian Cyrillics." The bibliographers note the Romanian language and Cyrillic script and refer to both biography and fables. There is still a cover present, but it is detached. The binding has been (re-)stitched. I am happy to preserve this little treasure! No illustrations beyond the seal of a stag on the title-page. There may also have been an illustration on the cover. 

1848/48? Aesop's Fables. A New Version, Chiefly from Original Sources. By Rev. Thomas James. With more than Fifty Illustrations designed by John Tenniel. NY: Robert B. Collins. Red cover: gift of Rev. Jerry McKevitt, S.J., from Book Mark, Philadelphia, March, '93. Black cover: gift of Jon Lindseth, March, '93. No cover: $10 from Richard Barnes, Evanston, Oct., '94.

Each of these seems a larger edition of my "1848/48?" edition by a firm that somehow either included or excluded a brother! The address is also changed. The red and black covers of these beautiful books add gold to the embossed pattern used on that edition; the red also turns it thirty degrees to the left. These books add a strange pre-title page, which my favorite private collector says is hand-colored. The plates are the same, but the pages have bigger margins. The superior paper here helps the illustrations. The page edges are gilt. My favorite private collector gives the date for these editions as 1848 and writes that they are the first American edition. The original London 1848 James/Tenniel, published by John Murray, includes over one hundred illustrations. Compare with the later Porter and Coates (1848/80?) editions, which use the same plates after the title page. All of these have only two of the six plates for MSA. The black book is in better condition internally, while the red book has a better spine. What great gifts! The Barnes copy is missing not only its covers but the pre-title page, the last five fables, and the index.

1848/48? Aesop's Fables. A New Version, Chiefly from Original Sources, by Thomas James. With more than Fifty Illustrations Designed by John Tenniel. Hardbound. NY: Robert B. Collins. $8.57 from Diana Brooks, Mebane, NC, through eBay, March, '00.

This book, which is in fair condition, makes it into the collection for one reason. It is an exact replica of a volume with the same bibliographical data given to me by Jerry McKevitt. But the printer of that copy had trouble with the designs on both front and back covers. He got the stork eating the frogs crooked by tilting a six-pointed star to the side. This printer gets it right! Let me repeat some of my comments made on that copy. The page edges are gilt. My favorite private collector gives the date for these editions as 1848 and writes that they are the first American edition. The original London 1848 James/Tenniel, published by John Murray, includes over one hundred illustrations. Compare with the later Porter and Coates (1848/80?) editions, which use the same plates after the title page. All of these have only two of the six plates for MSA.

1848/48? Aesop's Fables. A New Version, Chiefly from Original Sources. Thomas James. With more than fifty illustrations designed by John Tenniel. Hardbound. NY: Robert B. Collins. $30 from Turtle Island Bookshop, Sept., '03.

Here is yet a third version of what may be the first American edition of the Tenniel and James book. Earlier I had found versions with black and red embossed covers. This version has a plainer brown cloth cover. Only the title "Fables of Aesop" is embossed on the spine. The elaborate golden pictures on covers and spine in the red and black copies are not here. The strange pre-title page is not hand-colored here, as it is in those other two copies; for color it has only a yellow background. The page-edges do not seem to be gilt here. Otherwise this version seems identical. I will include some of my comments from there. My favorite private collector gives the date for these editions as 1848 and writes that they are the first American edition. The original London 1848 James/Tenniel, published by John Murray, includes over one hundred illustrations. All of these have only two of the six plates for MSA. There is a one-inch chip missing from the bottom of the spine.

1848/48? Aesop's Fables. A New Version, Chiefly from Original Sources. By Rev. Thomas James. With more than Fifty Illustrations designed by John Tenniel. Inscribed in LaCrosse, WI. NY: Collins and Brother. $15 at Brattle Book, June, '91.

Beautiful embossed covers; some staining on pages; weak binding. Browned paper hurts the illustrations. Not the original James/Tenniel edition published by John Murray in London and including over one hundred illustrations, but my favorite private collector gives a date of 1848 for this edition. Compare with my other 1848/48? editions: this book uses the same plates but is smaller, and it does not gild the embossed cover. The publishing firm somehow either included or excluded a brother! The address is also changed. Among the best illustrations: "The Dog Invited to Supper" (129), "The Ass and His Driver" (145), DLS (173), and "The Old Woman and Her Maids" (196). The illustrations are better in the (later?) Porter and Coates "Alta" edition, which uses the same plates after the title page. Both of these have only two of the six plates for MSA.

1848/51 Aesop's Fables. A New Version, Chiefly from Original Sources. The Rev. Thomas James. With more than Sixty Illustrations designed by John Tenniel. Philadelphia: George S. Appleton. Gift of Dan Gleason, Dundee Books, May, '94.

I cannot believe the proliferation of distinct Tenniel editions! This one represents a wonderful gift. A quick check has already revealed several illustrations different from, but modeled on, the original 1848 illustrations. Are these illustrations that the publisher prevailed on Tenniel himself to change? Among them here are the frontispiece, "The Old Hound" (31)," and "The Countryman and the Snake" (35). Or are the illustrations here only "designed" by Tenniel and frequently executed by someone else? A previous owner of this book wanted page numbers in the upper corner and so wrote them in when they were not there! The number of illustrations distinguishes this edition from every other one I have. James' title is as full here as it was in the original edition; it will become shorter in later reprints. Not in my favorite private collector. T of C at the beginning.

1848/52 Aesop's Fables. A New Version, Chiefly from Original Sources. Thomas James. With more than One Hundred Illustrations designed by John Tenniel. London: John Murray. $15 from June Clinton, Glasgow, July, '92. Extra copy for £25 from A.F. Roe and D. Moore, London, May, '97.

A beautiful hardbound edition with a gold-embossed cover. Notice that in this edition, unlike all others I have, James is not listed on the title page as "Rev." Excellent presentation of the engravings, which may be less good only than those in my 1848 first edition. This is an early edition from the publisher of the first edition. Not listed in my favorite private collector. The advertisments at the back are separately paginated. T of C at the beginning; AI at the back. The extra copy has the pre-title-page lacking in the Clinton copy, which shows some repair work at that point; the spine of the Clinton copy is also chipped at the top. The extra copy has some foxing.

1848/52 Aesop's Fables. A New Version, Chiefly from Original Sources. Rev. Thomas James. With more than One Hundred Illustrations designed by John Tenniel. Murray's Reading for the Rail. London: John Murray. Paperbound. Inscribed in 1852. $9.50 at Skoob in London, July, '92.

Though I had never found an 1848/1852 edition before, I found this and the almost identical 1848/52 hardbound edition within one week. Excellent copies of the illustrations. "Reading for the Rail" books are advertised on the back cover as having "large readable type," but the type and in fact the whole plates here are identical with those in that edition. The cover here offers "One Hundred Original Woodcuts" while the title page announces "More than One Hundred Illustrations." The advertisements at the back, separately paginated, have at least one less item (the last on 32) than in the parallel edition. T of C at the beginning; AI at the back. Not in my favorite private collector.

1848/76/90/91 A Fable for Critics. By James Russell Lowell. With Vignette Portraits of the Authors de Quibus Fabula Narratur. Boston: The Riverside Press: Houghton, Mifflin and Company. $3 somewhere well before June, '94.

This strange booklet begins with a "rubricated" title page offering a wonderfully crazy perspective on the work. Multiple prefaces indicate that the work was first published anonymously. It seems to have outgrown its first conception as a fable. I find the word plays and off-rhymes enjoyable in the short run. I lasted some twenty pages. The sections I stayed for featured a long discursus on Daphne and the introduction of the arch-enemy, the critic. Two passages stand out, the first on the critic: "And here I must say he wrote excellent articles/On Hebraical points, or the force of Greek particles;/They filled up the space nothing else was prepared for,/And nobody read that which nobody cared for...." The bored or frustrated reader will find on 33 a helpful list of options for what he can do, including lighting his cigar with the book!

1848/80? Aesop's Fables. A New Version, Chiefly from Original Sources. Rev. Thomas James. With more than Fifty Illustrations designed by John Tenniel. On cover: "Alta Edition." Philadelphia: Porter and Coates. $20 from Laurie, June, '87. Extra copy for $9.50, Spring, '92.

The best runs I have seen yet of the Tenniel illustrations. It is unfortunate that there are only fifty of them here. The book is in great condition and even has a place-marking ribbon! The illustrations are listed on xvii-xviii.

1848/80? Aesop's Fables. A New Version, Chiefly from Original Sources. Rev. Thomas James. With more than Fifty Illustrations designed by John Tenniel. Inscribed in 1881. Philadelphia: Porter and Coates. Gift of Edward Bodnar, S.J., from the estate of his father, Jan., '92.

This book has a different cover from the Porter and Coates "Alta" edition, but interiorly they are the same. This book is in excellent condition, and the printing here of the Tenniel illustrations is excellent. The book is inscribed twice in 1881.

1848/80? Aesop's Fables: A New Version, Chiefly from Original Sources. By Thomas James. With more than Fifty Illustrations Designed by John Tenniel. Hardbound. Philadelphia: Porter and Coates. $10 from Clare Leeper, July, '96.

This book is a near duplicate of a book I have already catalogued that was a gift of Edward Bodnar, S.J. What this printing adds is an address for Porter and Coates on the title-page and a printer on the verso of the title-page. The cover has moved from red to brown cloth, and the spine has changed design and now includes much more gold. This copy is in poorer condition than that. Both are different in cover from the Porter and Coates "Alta" edition, but interiorly they are the same.

1848/80? Aesop's Fables, Chiefly from Original Sources. Rev. Thomas James. With More Than One Hundred Illustrations Designed by John Tenniel. Hardbound. NY: Knickerbocker Nuggets: The Knickerbocker Press: G.P. Putnam's Sons. $10 from an unknown source, August, '98.

This book is almost identical internally with an edition I have listed under "1848/1890?" This edition does not have either the pliant spine of that book or its frontispiece engraving of Aesop narrating his fables. Instead it has blue and green covers (the back cover is separated) with some gold floral designs. It has dropped reference to the Ariel Press and instead belongs to the series of "Knickerbocker Nuggets." It has better runs of the small but fine Tenniel illustrations. This little nugget has knocked around in its time!

1848/90? Aesop's Fables. Chiefly from Original Sources by the Rev. Thomas James, M.A. With more than One Hundred Illustrations designed by John Tenniel. NY: Grosset and Dunlap. Green cover. $4. Extra copy with blue cover for $3.50 from Powell's, Summer, '85.

The engravings are very hard to make out, especially in the green-covered copy. That is a shame; an illustration like that of DLS on 195 would be fun. The blue-covered copy (signed by a John Dempesy) is better but still not satisfactory. The water marks on it do not hurt the illustrations.

1848/90? Aesop's Fables. Thomas James. John Tenniel. Hardbound. NY: Grosset and Dunlap. Gift of Ray and Pat Hanson, July, '09.

I am adding this copy to the collection because it improves on some of the features in a copy I already have. This copy does change one feature in the book I have already catalogued: it adds "Made in the United States of America" at the bottom of the title-page. It is inscribed in 1933, whereas that copy had been inscribed in 1915. This copy has a superior cover and does not show the water-damage that that copy has on a number of pages, though it seems never to reach to the illustrations there. That copy may have some superior printings, for example of the illustration and typeface on the very last page of fables, 248. DLS on 195 is unclear here, as it is unclear there. I am happy to look at Tenniel's work any time!

1848/90? Aesop's Fables. Chiefly from Original Sources by the Rev. Thomas James, M.A. More than One Hundred Illustrations Designed by John Tenniel. The Ariel Booklets. NY: The Knickerbocker Press: G.P. Putnam's Sons. $7.50 at Black Oak, Nov., '83.

This edition shares identical text and engravings with many others, but in a lovely little leather-bound book with gold leaf and better reproductions. The illustrations are the same but the text, while identical, is set differently! One highlight of this little book is its glorious opening picture by R. Fontana of Aesop telling his tales (see 1878 under "Printed Material" early in this bibliography). A real find!

1848/1900? Aesop's Fables. A New Version, Chiefly from Original Sources. By Rev. Thomas James. With more than Fifty Illustrations designed by John Tenniel. NY: Collins and Brother. $25 at St. Croix Books, Stillwater, Dec., '95.

This beautiful book with gilt-embossed green cover (FS) and spine is clearly in the family represented by the 1848/48? edition from Collins and Brother. It shares with that edition the limitation to "more than fifty" illustrations. They also have the same size and pagination. (The only other members of the family established by that number of illustrations are the two 1848/80 editions from Porter and Coates.) What this book adds to the Collins and Brother books includes two photographs. The first, just after the title-page and marked "©1900" shows a painting by Leon Glaize depicting the arrival of Aesop at the house of Xanthus; it is new to me. I wish the engaging little figure of Aesop came out even clearer. The second, just before the list of illustrations, is of Velasquez' portrait of Aesop. Note the same cut in the type for "109" in this list of illustrations. The address of the publisher has changed. There is a frontispiece here of the dog invited to supper (repeated on 129); if it was in the 1848/48? edition, it has been lost there. See my comments there.

1848/1910? Aesop's Fables: A New Version, Chiefly from Original Sources. By Rev. Thomas James. With more than Fifty Illustrations designed by John Tenniel. Hardbound. Printed in Philadelphia: Henry T. Coates & Co. $5 from Joyce Totten, East Windsor, CT, through Ebay, June, '00.

This book is interiorly identical with an edition I have listed under "1848/1880?" and purchased from Laurie. Its differences from that volume include slightly smaller pages, poorer printing, the change from "Porter and Coates" to "Henry T. Coates & Co." and especially two features of its spine and cover. First, the spine lists "Winston" at its bottom. Might this be the John C. Winston Company of Chicago? If it is, what is this name doing on a book published by Coates? Second, there is a picture on the cover of a noble woman standing before trees looking left with her elbow on a pillar and her body draped in heavy clothing. What might she have to do with Aesop's Fables? If it is any clue, there are acorns presented on the cover and spine, which is embossed with several leafy-branch patterns. The mysteries of collecting continue!

1848/1935? Aesop's Fables. Editor (James) and illustrator (Tenniel) not acknowledged. NY: Grosset and Dunlap. $8 from Ed Chesko in Delavan, Nov., '95. $7.50 for an extra blue-covered edition from Selected Works, Chicago, March, '95. Extra copy with a lime cover for $8 from Titles, March, '89.

This book has the same text and illustrations as the earlier Grosset and Dunlap edition (1890?). Very good runs on the illustrations here. The cover and title page are different; the latter lacks not only names but lengthier description. The blue copies have a standard colored frontispiece of FS, while the green copy has no frontispiece. The introduction is here, complete with the date and place name--but no indication of who wrote it!

1849 Aesop's Fables with Upwards of One Hundred and Fifty Emblematical Devices. Text (unacknowledged) and preface by Samuel Croxall. Hardbound. Philadelphia: John Locken. $20.51 from John Angos Books through Ebay, Feb., '02.

This very little book (3¼" x 4½") reproduces almost exactly my 1839 and 1841 editions from Thomas, Cowperthwait & Company, also in Philadelphia. It thus has 228 pages. This book has even smaller margins than those, and so it can--barely--contain the same printed area per page. The green cloth cover has a pleasant gold design of the owner ready to beat the ass in DLS, while the spine has a title and gold floral pattern. The back cover seems to have been embossed without gold with the same DLS design. I repeat some of my pertinent comments from the 1839 edition. One hundred and ten fables, each with a simple woodcut and many with a (sometimes generic) tailpiece. Apparently the first paragraph of Croxall's "Application" is taken in each case. T of C at the front. Thomas Beckman writes that the illustrations are probably by James Poupard, and they were initially used in a Philadelphia edition of 1802 by R. Aitkin. I wrote earlier about the 1839 edition that the illustrations had been copied or reproduced for an 1842 edition by John Locken in Philadelphia. Well, in a slightly later printing, here it is!

1849 Fables from Fenelon (Cover: Fenelon's Fables). Paperbound. Newport, RI: Child's Library: C.E. Hammett, Jr. $24.99 from an anonymous seller on Ebay, June, '03.

Here is a sixteen-page pamphlet measuring a bit over 4" x 2¾" and presenting five fables, each with a simple illustration. "The Two Foxes" presents an older and a younger fox who ravage a hen-house. The former wants to eat all now, while the latter wants to return again to consume his winnings at a measured pace. The result surprises me: the former dies from overeating as soon as he returns home, while the latter is caught and killed when he returns the next day. In "The Wolf and the Lamb," the latter believes the former when he, from just outside the protected sheepfold, praises the grass and water outside the fold. He jumps over the wall and is killed immediately by the wolf. In "The She Bear," a crow advises the title-character not to destroy her shapeless offspring. The mother is patient, rears a fine bear, and is grateful to the crow for the sage advice. "The Two Mice" is my favorite among these fables. One mouse is gnawing a book and reads in it that India treats mice honorably because of the people's belief in metempsychosis. He convinces his mouse companion to travel with him to India. They arrive in Surat, go to the house for mice, and demand the honors which they presume to deserve. In short, they put on such airs about their supposed former births that the local mice strangle them! In "The Bees" a queen bee approaches a prince who has observed the activity of a hive for the first time. She gives him a sermon on working for the good of the community.

1849/65 The First Part of Jacobs and Döring's Latin Reader: Adapted to Andrews and Stoddard's Latin Grammar and to Andrews' First Latin Book. E.A. Andrews. Sixty-fourth edition. Boston: Crocker and Brewster. $10 from Greg Williams, Nov., '96. Extra copy of the sixty-fifth edition from 1866 found in Belview, IL, for $7, a gift of Madonna Braun, Aug., '92.

A fascinating approach to pedagogy 140 years ago. After introductory exercises, this book turns to nineteen pages (31-49) of some fifty-three fables, the last four in verse. The bottom of each page contains copious references to Andrews' First Latin Book. This book goes on from fables to sections on mythology, anecdotes of eminent persons, Roman history in six books, and ancient nations and their geography, There is a very long dictionary then and some notes (for fables on 274-79), which seem in fact to be exercises or questions a teacher could use with the class. Beware: the Latin here is not easy! The terseness of #52 ("Culex et Taurus") is remarkable.

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