(Russian)/Vitae Aesopi versio rossica

Title

en_US (Russian)/Vitae Aesopi versio rossica

en_US Editio Cimelia Bohemica Vol. V

Description

en_US This is a hardbound book (hard cover)

en_US Language note: Russian/Czech/English/French/German

en_US Josef Strnadel

Creator

en_US Aesop See all items with this value

Date

2016-01-25T19:03:10Z

en_US 2001-10

en_US 1968

Date Available

2016-01-25T19:03:10Z

Date Issued

en_US 1968

Abstract

en_US This is one of the most curious and wonderful of the collection's recent acquisitions. Canvas-spined heavy marbled boards enclose a text and sixteen oversized (7½ x 13) heavy-paper reproductions of Russian copper engravings of pictures and text. The text is an introduction by Josef Strnadel in five languages (Czech/English/French/German/Russian) to the prints. Strnadel notes that Aesop was translated into Czech in 1487 and that there were as many as twenty editions of Aesop's fables published in Germany alone between 1476 and 1510. The German editions, particularly that of Steinhöwel, served as models, especially artistic models, for the Russian editions. Strnadel notes the opinion of Alfred Stange that Ludwig Schongauer, one of the creators of the wood-carvings and painted decorations at the Ulm Cathedral, was the author of the illustrations accompanying Aesop's fables and life. The first independent edition of the life of Aesop in Russia was published in 1750 from copper plates. Text was supplemental to illustration. The cradle of Russian engraved books was the Kiev-Petcher monastery. In Russia, the life of Aesop seems to have captured more attention than the fables themselves. For Strnadel, Aesop is the spirit of anti-serfdom. The tsarist censor prohibited the publication of Aesop's life in the first quarter of the nineteenth century. Apparently the only known copy of the 1750 edition is in the Lenin Library in Moscow. The work reproduced here is apparently in the Slavonic Library; Strnadel believes it is one of the last editions of that 1750 original, dating from Russia in the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century. He sees it as a particular treasure of Russian engraving art. After the full-page portrait of Aesop, each page tends to have a top quarter showing several scenes from Aesop's life, while the lower portion of the page is all print. Though some scenes are hard to identify, many are clear from the tradition. All have print identifications and are numbered. The last page includes at its bottom the thrusting of Aesop from the cliff in Delphi.

Identifier

en_US 4238 (Access ID)

uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10504/79514

Language

en_US cze

Publisher

en_US Pragopress

en_US Prague

Subject

en_US PA3855.R8 S7 1968 See all items with this value

en_US Vita See all items with this value

Type

en_US Book, Whole