Les Fables d'Esope Phrygien Illustrées de Discours Moraux, Philosophiques, et Politiques

Title

en_US Les Fables d'Esope Phrygien Illustrées de Discours Moraux, Philosophiques, et Politiques

Description

en_US This is a hardbound book (hard cover)

en_US Language note: French

en_US Original language: lat

en_US #34 of 220

en_US Avec des Reflexions Morales Par J. Baudoin

Creator

en_US Aesop See all items with this value

Contributor

en_US Unknown

en_US Birkenbihl, Michael (Essayist)

Date

2016-01-25T15:37:23Z

en_US 2014-02

en_US 1920

Date Available

2016-01-25T15:37:23Z

Date Issued

en_US 1920

Abstract

en_US Here is a second excellent reproduction of a 1669 book. I had already found Bonnot's 1988 reprint at Librairie Epsilon in Paris nine years ago. Now comes this 1920 version from J. Michael Müller in Munich. This reprint has a larger format because it has larger margins. The size of the reproduced pages seems exactly the same in the space taken up for title, illustration, and text. This copy, unlike that one, does not include a second, larger set of the images. Let me repeat some of my comments from there. If there were a single original behind this book, it would fit between Bodemann #67.2 by Jean du Bray (1659) and #67.3 by Foppens (1682). The moral, philosophical and political tracts promised in the title are left out of this edition, as they are left out of that 1988 edition. In his afterword (345) Dr. Michael Birkenbihl admits that his attempts at establishing the visual artist's identity had failed. Birkenbihl finds these illustrations quite similar to those of Virgil Solis. Here is a remark worthy of the epoch and the country but still helpful as one examines these lovely illustrations: Während Virgil Solis uns in seinem Äsop durch deutsche Innigkeit, durch die heimatlich fränkische Landschaft angenehm beruehrt, bewundern wir an unserem unbekannten Meister die Schönheit der Zeichnung, die entzückende Art der Komposition und die Schärfe des Esprits (349). Bonnot calls the illustrations chosen for this edition les plus délicieuses jamais gravées par un artiste pour les Fables d'Ésope and writes that they come from an unknown Flemish master of the sixteenth century. He takes them from an edition done in Anvers in 1593. 116 numbered fables. I find the glorious frontispiece particularly well done here. As in Bonnot's facsimile of 1988, some fable numbers--like Fable XLIII on 197, LXXXIV on 279, and LXXXIX on 289--have no punctuation after the number. The rest have a period. The figures in the illustrations, both human and animal, are rather full-bodied. Perhaps the most vigorous of the illustrations of the life of Aesop is the last, showing him pushed off of the cliff and losing his cap in the process. Among the fables, some of the liveliest illustrations belong to Fable XXIV (the old dog chases a stag); LIII (stag and horse); LXIII (OR); LXXXI (the book-thief and his mother); and C (the envious and greedy men). This is a splendid volume! Magnificent leather cover with geometric patterns inlaid in gold .

Identifier

en_US 10015 (Access ID)

uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10504/76011

Language

en_US fre

Publisher

en_US Chez François Foppens/J. Michael Müller Verlag

en_US Brussels

Subject

en_US PA3855.F5 B48 1920 See all items with this value

en_US Aesop See all items with this value

en_US Title Page Scanned See all items with this value

Type

en_US Book, Whole