1750-1774

1750 Esope en belle humeur ou l'elite de ses fables/Esopus bey der Lust oder dessen auserlesenste mit Kupfern, Moralien und Versen gezierte Fabeln. Nachgesehen, verbessert u. vermehret von Carl Mouton. Hamburg: bey Christian Herold. $80 from James Dast (Madison), Nov., '87.

After 99 fables from Aesop, all in both French and German and each with an excellent illustration, several other volumes are bound together (without illustrations): Phedrus and Philadelphus, Pilpai, and les devoirs de l'honnete homme (the latter two only in French). AI for Aesop begins after 513. See Die Bilderwelt im Kinderbuch, 14, 58, for a reference.

1750 Les Plus Belles Fables Morales de Phedre et de Philelphe; Des Phaedri und Philelphi angenehmste Sinn- und Lehr-reiche Fabeln. Carl Mouton. Hardbound. Hamburg: Christian Herold. €70 from Hamburger Antiquariat, Sept., '05.

This book is a separate later printing by another publisher of a part of the edition I have titled "Esope en belle humeur ou l'elite de ses fables enrichies de figures/Esopus bey der Lust" by Johann Christoph Kißner in 1729, right down to its pagination. This little (3½" x 5½") book is really two parts bound together; the title for the second part, starting on 409, is "Fables Choisies/Auserlesene Fabeln" of de la Motte. I suspect that my 1750 "Esope en belle humeur/Esopus bey der Lust" supplies the very pages preceding this edition's abrupt beginning of pagination with 291. Unlike either of those editions, there are no illustrations here. In the 1729 edition, illustrations were limited to the early "Aesop" section. That is, there were no illustrations in its second and third sections, reproduced here. There are 59 fables of Phaedrus and Philelphus in two columns. The following section offers 26 fables of de la Motte, with the two versions given on facing pages rather than in two columns. There are three T of C's at the end, corresponding to the sections of Aesop (which is not in this book!), Phaedrus, and de la Motte. I ask there and ask again here if Philelphus is Bidpai. The number (book and fable) of the de la Motte fable is given under the title in both languages. On 458, there is a sudden shift to naming the number of the fable in both languages without reference to a book. The series starting there with "second fable" continues through "eleventh" on 503. 504-513 covers maxims and short poems. This copy is heavily cropped. Somehow the printer gets 408 instead of the correct 410 for de la Motte's "Les Dieux d'Egipte," which had been "Les Dieus d'Egipte" in the 1729 edition. The printer's designs throughout are different in the two editions.

1750 Phaedri Aug. Liberti Fabularum Aesopicarum Libri V. Cum Indice verborum Locupletissimo. Inscribed 1772. Londini: Typis I. Brindley. $28.50 at Skoob Books, London, July, '92.

Exquisite small-format book, with the five books of Phaedrus followed by an appendix of 34 fables gathered from various manuscripts. Straightforward text followed by an alphabetical list of inscriptiones (titles) and a very extensive AI (phrase list). No notes.

1753 Fables By the Late Mr. Gay (Vol. I). John Gay. John Wootton and William Kent. The Seventh Edition. Hardbound. London: J. and R. Tonson and J. Watts. $42 from Second Story Books, DuPont Circle, Washington, Dec., '98.

Bodemann 110.7. Though she indicates that this is a two-volume work, there is no second volume present or indicated here. This volume includes Gay's original 50 fables, apparently with prints of the original Wootton and Kent engravings. Notice the physical impression these engravings make on the paper of these pages! As to the engravings themselves, they are disappointing to me as I come directly from viewing the Stockdale engravings that imitated them. The imitations there seem to me stronger and livelier than the originals here. I am surprised by the degree to which the Stockdale edition followed the visual motifs set down by Wootton and Kent. This is a great example of an "old book" in my collection. It is in fair condition or better. I am amazed that I found it--and found it for this kind of price.

1753 Fables de Phedre Affranchi d'Auguste, Traduites en François, avec le Latin à coté. Nouvelle Edition, revue & corrigée. Hardbound. Strasbourg: Chez Jean-François Leroux. $113.76 from Antiquariat Dr. Wolfgang Rieger, Freiburg, March, '04. 

This small 3¼" x 5¼" book offers a facing French prose translation for Phaedrus' fables. Its singular contribution, I believe, is that it marks the prose word-order of Phaedrus' text with superscribed numbers. Reading this little book can be slightly confusing because the French and Latin switch sides with every turn of a page! There is a T of C in French at the end. To my surprise, I cannot find this book mentioned in Carnes' bibliography of Phaedrus, nor can I find a close relative among his books. In case the book's purpose is not clear enough from its structure and from that word-counting technique, the title-page tells us: "Pour servir à bien entendre la Langue Latine, & à bien traduire en François." It is, that is, for learning how to understand Latin and to translate it well.

1753 The Fables of Phaedrus translated into English prose. Translated by Joseph Davidson? Second edition. Hardbound. London: Printed for the Assigns of Joseph Davidson. $31 from NobleSpirit LLC, Pittsfield, NH, Jan., '06. 

The book delivers exactly what its longish title promises: "The Fables of Phaedrus translated into English prose, as near the original as the different idioms of the Latin and the English languages will allow. With the Latin text and order of Construction on the opposite page; and critical, historical, geographical, and classical Notes in English." One of the most valuable elements of this book is a section at the left of Phaedrus' verse of each fable. This section is called "Ordo" and it offers a full prose version of what is stated more succinctly in verse at the right. The book has not grown from the first edition's vi+180 pages. The first edition of 1745 is listed in Pack Carnes' unpublished bibliography of Phaedrus. This present copy once belonged to the Ministerial Library in Peterboro; it came there, apparently, as a gift in 1839. The book's binding is leather; its name on the spine is "Davidson's Phaedr."

1754 Phaedri Augusti liberti Fabulae. Ad manuscriptos codices et optimam quamque editionem emendavit Steph. And. Philippe. Accesserunt notae ad calcem. Vita Phaedri a J. Scheffero. De Aetate Phaedri a Gerar. Jo. Vossio. Judicia et testimonia de Phaedro. Appendix Fabularum a M. Gudio. Fabulae latine, pluraeque ejusdem cum Phaedri fabulis argumentis. Flavii Avieni Fabularum Aesopiarum liber unicus, accurante S. A. Philippe. L. Annaei Senecae ac P. Syri Mimi Sententiae et notis J. Gruteri. Edited by Stephan Andreas Phillipe [de PrJtot]. Paris: Typis Josephi Barbou. See 1748/54.

1754 Select Fables by Mr. Charles Denis.  Frontispiece by Hayman and Grignion.  Hardbound.  London: J. and R. Tonson and S. Draper.  $120 from Argosy Book Store, NY, August, '16.

This is a large volume of 120 fables fashioned after La Fontaine, Aesop, and others.  There is a frontispiece: an angel (?) kneels before a ruler as two goddesses hover above.  There is also an introduction commending the work to George, Prince of Wales.  The verse fables seem to follow on La Fontaine's themes, but done in Denis' own way.  Ulysses wants to release his men from their bestiality before he has sex with Circe, but they refuse.  The prince should not follow their example.  I find the rhyming verse tiring.   There is a good moral to FG: "Whenever an attempt proves vain, As well to sneer, as to complain" (227).  I have the impression after reading a few of these fables that La Fontaine was briefer.  I am surprised that this book is not in Bodemann.  A copy is presently on sale on the web for $6000.

1755 Fables Choisies, Mises en Vers par J. de la Fontaine, Tome Premier. Jean Baptiste Oudry. Jean-Jacques Bachelier. C.N. Cochin. First edition, first issue. Hardbound. Paris: Dessaint & Saillant; Durand; Imprimerie de Charles-Antoine Jombert. $1,350 from Dailey Rare Books Ltd., Los Angeles, Oct., '02.

Bodemann #135.1. What a spectacular book! I had not dared to dream that I could find a copy for the collection. Dailey quotes Ray: "one of the most ambitious and successful of all illustrated books." The magnificent Oudry engravings are complemented by Bachelier's woodcut fleurons following each fable. The 275 full-page engravings in the four books are numbered consecutively in Roman numerals through the four volumes following their fables (some with more than one illustration). This numbering of fables runs from I through CCXLIV. Hobbs #20. Fabula Docet #51, which urges viewers to take note of the illustrations for fables I (GA here) and CLXXI ("Les Deux Pigeons"). My favorites on this trip through the first volume are IX (TMCM); XXV ("Le Loup Plaidant Contre le Renard Pardevant le Singe"); XXXII (SS); XXXV ("L'Astrologue Qui Se Laisse Tomber Dans une Puits"); XLIII 4 (MSA); and LIX ("La Belette Entrée Dans un Grenier").

1755 Fables Choisies, Mises en Vers par J. de la Fontaine, Tome Second. Jean Baptiste Oudry. Jean-Jacques Bachelier. C.N. Cochin. First edition, first issue. Hardbound. Paris: Dessaint & Saillant; Durand; Imprimerie de Charles-Antoine Jombert. $1,350 from Dailey Rare Books Ltd., Los Angeles, Oct., '02. 

Bodemann #135.1. What a spectacular book! I had not dared to dream that I could find a copy for the collection. Dailey quotes Ray: "one of the most ambitious and successful of all illustrated books." The magnificent Oudry engravings are complemented by Bachelier's woodcut fleurons following each fable. The 275 full-page engravings in the four books are numbered consecutively in Roman numerals through the four volumes following their fables (some with more than one illustration). This numbering of fables runs from I through CCXLIV. Hobbs #20. Fabula Docet #51, which urges viewers to take note of the illustrations for fables I (GA) and CLXXI ("Les Deux Pigeons"). My favorites on this trip through the second volume are LXIV ("Le Jardinier et Son Seigneur"); LXV ("L'Âne et le Petit Chien"); LXXXVIII ("La Vieille et les Deux Servantes"); CIII (DLS); CXII ("Le Cerf Se Voyant Dans l'Eau"); and CXXIV ("La Jeune Veuve").

1755/1969 Fables de La Fontaine: Tome Premier. Avec les figures d'Oudry dans l'édition Desaint et Saillant de 1755. La Fontaine. Hardbound. Printed in France.  Paris: Jean de Bonnot. 75 Francs from Brancion Used Book Market, Paris, August, '99.

Back in 1988 in Paris I had found the knockoff version of this first volume along the Seine. Now I am delighted to have found the whole set of the good edition. If there is a drawback to this exquisite set of volumes, it lies in their size: about 5" x 8". The excellent paper frequently displays its watermark of two cannon barrels, cannonballs, and a fleur de lis. The Oudry illustrations are very nicely done. Each fable has its own title-page and at least one illustration, all without printing on the reverse. This edition complements my two other complete Oudry sets, dated "1880?" from Tallandier and 1985 from Livre de Poche. Is the pretty gold-embossed red cover really leather? Note that the illustrations are numbered consecutively, not by the twelve book numbers. My favorites on this trip through are BC (XXIV), SS (XXXII), and "Le Goutte et l'Araignée (L, 2e Planche). Examples of the majestic composition overwhelming the narrative may lie in XXVII, "La Chauve-Souris et les deux Belettes" and LVII, "Philomèle et Progné. That apparent fault helps the effect in LIX, "La Belette entrée dans un Grenier," since just a little head sticks out into a big world that the fat little beastie cannot reenter yet. I would like to see or hear something on the relationship between the two illustrations for LX, "Le Chat et un vieux Rat."

1755/1969 Fables de La Fontaine: Tome Deuxième. Avec les figures d'Oudry dans l'édition Desaint et Saillant de 1755. La Fontaine. Hardbound. Printed in France. Paris: Jean de Bonnot. 75 Francs from Brancion Used Book Market, Paris, August, '99.

See my comments on the first volume. My favorites on this trip through are LXIV, "Le Jardinier et son Seigneur" (both plates); LXVIII, "L'Homme et l'Idole de Boix," where the illustration captures the breakup of the statue in mid-air; LXXV, "Le Loup, la Chèvre et le Chevreau; XCIX, "Le Lièvre et la Perdrix"; C, "L'Aigle et le Hibou," where the image seems to have something in common with both Gustav Doré and Caspar David Friedrich; CXII, "Le Cerf se Voyant dans l'Eau"; and CXIV, "L'Ane et ses Maitres." An example of the majestic composition overwhelming the narrative may lie in CVI, SW--or perhaps here Oudry becomes overwhelmed with classical mythologizing at the cost of a good simple narrative! Like many artists, Oudry has trouble with lions' faces.

1755/1969 Fables de La Fontaine: Tome Troisième. Avec les figures d'Oudry dans l'édition Desaint et Saillant de 1755. Avec les figures d'Oudry. Hardbound. Printed in France. Paris: Jean de Bonnot. 75 Francs from Brancion Used Book Market, Paris, August, '99.

See my comments on the first volume. My favorites on this trip through are CXXXV, "Le Curé et le Mort"; CXLVIII, "Les Femmes et le Secret," in which even the child is telling a secret to the dog!; CLXV, "La Torrent et la Rivière," with its surprising view of the man and horse tipping over and struggling in the water; CLXXII, "Le Singe et le Léopard" (both plates); and CLXXXV, "Le Trésor et les deux Hommes."

1755/1969 Fables de La Fontaine: Tome Quatrième. Avec les figures d'Oudry dans l'édition Desaint et Saillant de 1755. Avec les figures d'Oudry. Hardbound. Printed in France. Paris: Jean de Bonnot. 75 Francs from Brancion Used Book Market, Paris, August, '99.

See my comments on the first volume. My favorites on this trip through are CXCIV, "Le Loup et les Bergers"; CCX, "Le Loup et le Rénard": CCXIX, "Le Cerf malade"; and CCXLIII, "La Matrone d'Ephese" (both plates).

1755/1982 Fables de La Fontaine: Tome Premier. Avec les figures d'Oudry dans l'édition Desaint et Saillant de 1755. Paris: Chez Jean de Bonnot. $5 at a stall along the Seine, Aug., '88.

An exquisite book. I went to Paris hoping to find an Oudry. Though this volume contains only the first three books of LaFontaine, the engravings are exquisite. Surprisingly inexpensive on the Seine. The paper is excellent. The cover seems leather.

1755? Fables by the late Mr Gay.  In two volumes.  Hardbound.  Glasgow: Printed for Alexander McKenzie.  £ 6.63 from Philip Need, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, through eBay, Oct., '14.  

This little book of 192 pages, about 4" x 6½", has leather covers -- the front cover is separated -- and marbled endpapers.  There is a 1922 owner's signature on the front endpaper. Light pencil marks in the text highlight certain pieces. The book has generally very clean and fresh contents with a tight text block.  The beginning T of C covers both volumes, which are continuously paginated.  The book has a curious place in bibliographical history, as described by the eBay seller.  163-164 are numbered 164-163. The printer, Foulis, has been identified by the type. This is a very rare title but there are two recorded variants. In one, page 35 has the signature E2 and in the other the signature is lacking. This present volume lacks the E2 signature. On COPAC the Cambridge University copy lacks E2 but their list of identifying features are not found in this present volume and in the Cambridge volume pages 163-164 are correctly numbered.  Edinburgh University and the National Library of Scotland each have a copy where E2 is present. There is no record on COPAC of a copy without E2 but also without the variations listed in the Cambridge copy. This present copy may therefore be a third variant.  I would add that one of the dating points for the book is the presence here of the "long s," that met its demise in the 1790's.

1756 Fables Choisies, Mises en Vers par J. de la Fontaine, Tome Troisieme. Jean Baptiste Oudry. Jean-Jacques Bachelier. C.N. Cochin. First edition, first issue. Hardbound. Paris: Dessaint & Saillant; Durand; Imprimerie de Charles-Antoine Jombert. $1,350 from Dailey Rare Books Ltd., Los Angeles, Oct., '02.

Bodemann #135.1. What a spectacular book! I had not dared to dream that I could find a copy for the collection. Dailey quotes Ray: "one of the most ambitious and successful of all illustrated books." The magnificent Oudry engravings are complemented by Bachelier's woodcut fleurons following each fable. The 275 full-page engravings in the four books are numbered consecutively in Roman numerals through the four volumes following their fables (some with more than one illustration). This numbering of fables runs from I through CCXLIV. Hobbs #20. Fabula Docet #51, which urges viewers to take note of the illustrations for fables I (GA) and CLXXI here ("Les Deux Pigeons"). My favorites on this trip through the third volume are CXXVI ("Le Mal Marié"); CXXIV (MM); CXXV ("Le Curé et le Mort"); CXXIX ("La Fille"); CXLIV ("Le Savetier et le Financier"); CLXIX ("Le Loup et le Chasseur"); and CLXXXIII ("Le Chat et le Renard"). As Dailey points out, the illustration for CLXXII ("Le Singe et le Léopard") lacks the words "Le Léopard" on the flag identifying the building in this first issue of the first edition.

1756 Nouvelle Methode pour Apprendre le Lingue Latine, Tome Premier. M. de Launay. Hardbound. Paris: Veuve Robinot et Babuty Fils. $22.50 from Melissa Hearth, Hauppauge, NY, through Ebay, May, '00.

In this new method, each pair of pages has four elements. The whole left page is taken up with a running vocabulary. The top of the right-hand page is a prose presentation of the Latin, with the appropriate French word written above each word. The middle of this page is occupied by the present portion of the Latin text, which might be three or four lines. The bottom of the page is a French prose translation of these lines into Latin. At the end of the volume there is a straight Latin presentation of just the texts of the fables. All of this work deals only with the thirty fables of the first book of Phaedrus. The second volume, published in 1759, adds another step to the method, still dealing with only these thirty fables. The front cover has separated from the spine. Apparently in neither Carnes nor Lamb.

1756/1969 Poems, Fables, and Plays by Edward Moore. Hardbound. Printed in Heppenheim, West Germany. Original: London: R. and J. Dodsley. Reprint: Westmead, England: Gregg International Publishers. $13.50 from Seattle Book Center, Seattle, July, '00.

This is a photographic reproduction of a collection of works by Moore. Among them we find the same fifteen fables--and in the same order--as in my 1744 edition by R. Francklin. See my comments there. This is a sturdy and even weighty book. There are a few printer's designs but no illustrations.

1757  Fables by the Late Mr Gay. In Two Volumes (here bound and paginated in one). London. Printed for C. Hitch, and L. Hawes, J. and R. Tonson, J. Rivington, J. Rivington and J. Fletcher, J. Ward, W. Johnston, R. Horsfield, J. Richardson, P. Davey and B. Law. $50 from Richard Barnes, Evanston, Oct., '94.

This is my earliest Gay edition except for the 1967 facsimile reprint of the 1727 and 1738 editions by the William Andrews Clark Library. The illustrations here are clearly related to those but not identical with them. Nor are these the later plates several of which William Blake did in 1793 (Hobbs 80-81). Like many, these plates seem to be modeled on the work of Gravelot (Hobbs 70-71). I like these strong illustrations. Were the illustrations perhaps done independently and inserted later into the text? The plates (e.g., between 24 and 25) do not match the surrounding pages well. This title-page design seems to be the reverse of the title-page design in the 1738 edition.

1757 Fables Choisies, Mises en Vers par Monsieur de La Fontaine.  Avec un Nouveau Commentaire par M. Coste.  Illustrations by Picart and Caron.  Hardbound.  Paris: Humblot.  $20 from Purpleaceofbase through eBay, Sept., '13.

This is a lovely little book, the earliest Coste edition I have.  It is certainly in the family of Bodemann #121.  The date matches with #121.2, but the editor there is Prault fils aîné, whereas here it is Humblot.  The description of #121.1, published in 1743, also seems to match up well.  Here as in #121.2 the printer is Didot.  The frontispiece by Picart has Aesop explaining his fables to La Fontaine.  There is a lovely vignette at the beginning of each book, several of them labeled "Caron."  The description for #121.1 refers to two landscapes in conjunction with two dedications, but I cannot find them.  All twelve books are here in two volumes separately paginated.  What a lovely inexpensive find!

1757 Fables Choisies, Mises en Vers par Monsieur de La Fontaine.  Avec un Nouveau Commentaire par M. Coste.  Illustrations by Picart and Caron.  Hardbound.  Paris:  Le Clerc.  £ 25 from John Creek through eBay, Feb., '16.

This book is almost identical with another of the same date but from Humblot as the publisher.  The title page changes the printer's design and the publisher and publisher's address.  The plates inside the book, including the illustrations, seem identical.  The errata page inserted there at 271 at the end of the second volume has been removed, but I cannot locate the erratum in the first volume of that first copy anyway!  Both copies were printed by Didot.  This book is inscribed at its back by Catharine and Sarah Bullock on November 21, 1788.  That is a curious time in history!  At its beginning, there are the names of J. Parry and Fanny Parry in 1833.  This little book has had quite a history!  I will include and slightly reshape my comments from the Humblot edition.  This is a lovely little book, the earliest Coste edition I have.  It is certainly in the family of Bodemann #121.  The date matches with #121.2, but the editor there is Prault fils aîné, whereas here it is Humblot.  The description of #121.1, published in 1743, also seems to match up well.  Here as in #121.2 the printer is Didot.  The frontispiece by Picart has Aesop explaining his fables to La Fontaine.  There is a lovely vignette at the beginning of each book, several of them labeled "Caron."  The description for #121.1 refers to two landscapes in conjunction with two dedications, but I cannot find them here either.  All twelve books are here in two volumes separately paginated.  Both books represent lovely inexpensive finds!

1757/1976 Fabeln aus den Zeiten der Minnesinger. (Johann Jacob) Bodmer. Hardbound. Zurich/Leipzig: Orell und Compagnie/Zentralantiquariat der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik. €16 from Antiquariat Canicio, Heidelberg, August, '12.

This is a fascinating book much of whose treasure is beyond me. What I find before me includes 94 texts many of which are recognizable old German versions of Aesopic fables. The curiosities about the book begin with a book that, if one did not check the cover, never reveals its author. "Bodmer" on the cover and on the spine is all that we get. The next curiosity is that a bit of checking on the web regularly brings up Ulrich Boner's name along with Bodmer's as the author of this book. Is some of what we find in the book identical with Boner? The first text is indeed about the ape and the nuts, the second about a hunter and tiger, the third about a frog and mouse. Comparison with what we find in Der Edelstein would be revealing. This small (about 4" x 6") book itself is very nicely produced. I find it a real triumph of old DDR printing and bookbinding.

1757/1977 Sittenlehre für die Jugend in den auserlesensten aesopischen Fabeln. Samuel Richardson, translated by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing. Mit einer Vorrede von Gotthold Ephraim Lessing. Mit Kupfern. Boxed. Hardbound. Leipzig: Weidmannische Handlung/Insel Verlag. €19 from Dresdener Antiquariat, Dresden, August, '06.

I already have a pair of German editions representing the original German texts and illustrations of the 1757 translation of Samuel Richardson's 1749 London edition, Aesop's Fables, with Instructive Morals and Reflections, Abstracted from all Party Considerations, Adapted to All Capacities; and Designed to Promote Religion, Morality, and Universal Benevolence. Now there is a title! The title of the present book also runs further: "Mit dienlichen Betrachtungen zur Beförderung der Religion und der allgemeinen Menschenliebe vorgestellet." What does this book offer that the other two do not? It is a "Faksimile nach einem Exemplar der Erstausgabe" from the Sächsische Landesbibliothek Dresden. Everything is presented here as it was in 1757. The images in particular are often superior to the reproductions in those volumes. The images occur in groups of six gathered without spacing between them on a single page. Neither the original 1757 German edition nor this reproduction appears in Bodemann, though the 1749 edition, published in London by J. Osborne, appears as #131.1. A reprinting by T. Wilson and R. Spence in York in 1753 appears as #131.2. The texts are presented here, as in the original, in Gothic script. There is an AI at the end. There are two hundred and forty prose fables. This book comes boxed with a paperbound "Nachwort zur Faksimileausgabe" by Thomas Höhle, also from Insel-Verlag in 1977. See my comments on it.

1757/1987 Äsopische Fabeln mit moralischen Lehren und Betrachtungen. Samuel Richardson. Aus dem Englischen übertragen und mit einer Vorrede von Gotthold Ephraim Lessing sowie den vierzig Kupfertafeln [creator unacknowledged] der Erstausgabe von 1757. (Richardson's Aesop's Fables first appeared in 1740.) Berlin: Hennsel. $21 from Herder in Münster, Aug., '88.

Delightful edition with morals and applications, sometimes after a pair of fables. Lessing's prose is a pleasure to read. Each copperplate contains six small engravings, simple and ordinary, numbered to match the fables. The best may be MM (#239). These less successful decorations show the greatness by contrast of someone like Bewick for dealing with small spaces. Alphabetical register on 361.

1757/1999 Äsopische Fabeln mit moralischen Lehren und Betrachtungen. Samuel Richardson. Aus dem Englischen übertragen und mit einer Vorrede von Gotthold Ephraim Lessing sowie den vierzig Kupfertafeln der Erstausgabe von 1757. Mit einer Nachrade von Walter Pape. Paperback. Zurich: detebe-Klassiker: Diogenes Taschenbuch. DEM 11 from Tanja Brozek, Berlin, through Ebay, August, '00.

This is the later paperback reproduction of the Hennsel Verlag edition of 1987. This paperback colors in the cover illustration and adds a few pages of advertisements at the end. Though the book is smaller in every dimension and the print pages seem to be shortened slightly, the illustrations seem to be the same size as they were in the Hennsel edition. See my notes on the original hardbound edition.

1757? Aesopi Phrygis et Aliorum Fabulae. Hardbound. Venice/Bassano: Typis Io: [Johannis] Antonij Remondini. 250000 Lire from Soave, Turin, Sept., '97.

I found this little treasure during a break in Renard meetings in Turin. The bookstore owner had not been aware of it, but recognized it promptly when I found it and was even able to look up a list of Remondini publications for me on the spot. Apparently this publishing house specialized in portable books to be sold by men who walked with them on their backs through northern Italy and Switzerland. Bodemann lists as #64.2 a Remondini edition with this title done in 1743 in Bassano. This may well be a later printing of that book. Someone wrote "1757" at the bottom of this title-page. See Bodemann #64.1 for a full listing of all that is contained in the 1623 Brescia edition with this title. The book begins with a list of authors included and turns next to Planudes' "Life of Aesop" (5-50, not illustrated). Then come selections from Aphthonius and Hermogenes on fable and a dedicatory epistle from Valla. The fables begin on 57. Bodemann counts 76 fable illustrations, double-framed, in her edition, and the number seems right here. The woodcuts are strong and simple, probably done ultimately after the "Aesopus Dorpii." Good examples of their strength might be "Ass and Horse" (70), "The Man Who Found an Axe on the Road" (95), "The Shepherd Up a Tree Whose Cloak Is Eaten Beneath Him" (117), WC (125), and "The Fox and the Hunters" (214). The fabulists listed here are Laurentius Valla, Gulielmus Gudanus, Hadrianus Barlandus, Gulielmus Hermanus, Rimicius, Angelus Policianus, Petrus Crinitus, Plinius Secundus Nonocomensis, and Aulus Gellius, all of whose work is easy for me to identify. The opening list then promises thirteen fables from various writers and a group of fables finally from Gabrius, and these I do not find. AI at the end. A lovely little early treasure!

1757? Les Fables d'Esope Phrygien avec Celles de Philelphe.  Traduction Nouvelle.  Mr. de Bellegarde.  Hardbound.  Copenhagen: DK 2408 from Herman H.J. Lynge & Son, Kopenhagen, July, '14.

"Edition nouv. avec nouvelles Fig."  The date is unfortunately cut off the bottom of the page.  This copy seems to line up perfectly with Bodemann #97.3 except for the frontispiece, which here has Aesop (?) on a pedestal in front of an upper balcony of human beings and behind a ground-level group of animals.  (Bodemann #97.3 has six scenes from the life of Aesop.)  That edition was published by Witwe des Gabr. Christ. Rothen.  The title-page is a mix of black and red ink.  The strength of this edition lies in its 117 illustrations, generally about 2¼" x 2¾".  Except for the last illustration, "The Bear and the Bees" (290), these occur two to a page close to their fable texts.  Among the best of these often dark illustrations I would list FC (102); FK (120); FS (138); "Peacock and Juno" (180); "The Stag and the Horse" (184); "The Mule and the Wolf" (200); 2W (231); "The Bulls and the Lion" (258); "The Boy and the Greedy Man at the Well" (264); and CW (278).  Each fable gets a generous paragraph of French prose and then a full page or more of "Sens Moral," climaxed by a rhyming quatrain.  CJ is first in the order of fables.  The illustrations between 204 and 220 have received additional inking from some hand; so have the numbers above them.  Several other illustrations besides these have been inked; in some of these cases, one can find traces of the ink that seeped through the page.  Some pages of illustrations have large block letters on their lower right.  Were these perhaps a guide to the bookbinder concerning the order of images?  Aesop's fables finish on 292, and on 293 those of Philelphe begin.  They finish on 339, to be followed by "Fables Diverse Tirées d'Esope" by "Gabrias and Avienus."  These conclude on 437, to be followed by "Les Contes d'Esope", which finish on 478.  After 478 there is a T of C for each of the sections of the book, starting with the life of Aesop at the book's beginning.  This book represented my one big purchase during my short stay in Copenhagen.

1759 Fabeln.  Drey Bücher.  Nebst Abhandlungen mit dieser Dichtungsart verwandten Inhalts.  Gotthold Ephraim Lessing.  Hardbound.  Berlin: Christian Friedrich Voss.  Gift of Mark Latta from Müller & Gräff, Stuttgart, Oct., '23.

Here is a fine first edition of Lessing, in fact the first Lessing entry in Bodemann.  The book's information is abundantly supplied by Müller & Gräff's enclosed description.  A special characteristic of this copy is that it has eight illustrations pasted onto the pages appropriate for those fables.  A better scholar than I will someday establish where these illustrations come from.  They are on 10; 11; 43; 51; 54; 59; 67; and 81.  The collection has a 1979 edition that seems to be a fine republishing of this book.  Thank you, Mark!

1759 Fables Choisies, Mises en Vers par J. de la Fontaine, Tome Quatrieme. Jean Baptiste Oudry. Jean-Jacques Bachelier. C.N. Cochin. First edition, first issue. Hardbound. Paris: Dessaint & Saillant; Durand; Imprimerie de Charles-Antoine Jombert. $1,350 from Dailey Rare Books Ltd., Los Angeles, Oct., '02.

Bodemann #135.1. What a spectacular book! I had not dared to dream that I could find a copy for the collection. Dailey quotes Ray: "one of the most ambitious and successful of all illustrated books." The magnificent Oudry engravings are complemented by Bachelier's woodcut fleurons following each fable. The 275 full-page engravings in the four books are numbered consecutively in Roman numerals through the four volumes following their fables (some with more than one illustration). This numbering of fables runs from I through CCXLIV. Hobbs #20. Fabula Docet #51, which urges viewers to take note of the illustrations for fables I (GA) and CLXXI ("Les Deux Pigeons"). My favorites on this trip through the fourth volume are CLXXXIX ("Les Deux Rats, le Renard et l'Oeuf"); CXCVII ("Le Chien A Qui On A Coupé les Oreilles"); CCX ("Le Loup et le Renard"); CCXVI ("Le Thesauriseur et le Singe"); CCXIX ("Le Cerf Malade"); CCXXXII ("Le Singe"); and CCXLIII ("La Matrone d'Ephese").

1759 Francisci-Josephi Desbillons e Societate Jesu Fabularum Aesopiarum Libri Quinque Priores Diligenter Emendati. Hardbound. Editio tertia. Paris: J. Barbou. DM 150 from Buch- und Kunstantiquariat Ernst Hoffmann, Frankfurt, July, '01.

Bodemann #141.1. This seems to be the first Desbillons edition in Bodemann. It is in two parts. Apparently Part 1, including the first five books, was first published in 1754. To it is now added Part 2, which includes five further books. It is not clear to me what other edition lay behind this "third edition," with Desbillons' comment "quam solam auctor agnoscit," the only edition that the writer acknowledges. An appendix includes twenty-two "joci," five "narrationculae," and "selecta philosophorum veterum placita." There are also alphabetical indices of fables and jokes at the back and various permissions and approbations, including, of course, that of the Jesuit provincial superior. As Bodemann points out, there are here 348 verse fables with ending moralisations. Most is inherited material. As Desbillons will do in later editions, he tries to recognize borrowing wherever he knows he has borrowed. This book brings to seven the number of Desbillons books I have. Two are radically different: Phaedrus editions of 1786 and 1825. Following on this present edition is an edition of fifteen books of fables in two volumes in 1768 and a later edition of the same in 1789, also in two volumes. This volume has only a frontispiece involving Phaedrus, the Muse, and, according to Bodemann, Genius. Desbillons offers notes under the fable texts on literary parallels and sources, vocabulary, style, and animal life. As I mention of the later volumes, Desbillons' Phaedrus-like fables are remarkable for their clarity. Seldom have I encountered Latin so intelligible on the first reading. Thus II 15 does GGE well in five lines. My impression of Desbillons' own contributions, like I 7, "Pueruli Fratres," is that they are good but not overpowering. This fable has a boy weeping over his sick brother one day but refusing him a share of his cookies the next day. Upbraided, he answers that nature gives tears, not cookies. Several of the fables seem to have a sad tone. Thus II 29 has a sick man's wife call on death, seeming to offer herself as his victim if necessary. When death appears, she gives up her husband immediately. The introduction covers more than twenty fabulists who lie behind Desbillons' work, from Aesop down to French fabulists who died only a few years before the book's publication. For me, this is certainly another one of the treasures of this collection!

1759 Francisci-Josephi Desbillons e Societate Jesu Fabularum Aesopiarum Libri Quinque Priores Diligenter Emendati. Editio tertia. Hardbound. Paris: J. Barbou. Acquired for $36 from ebay member elf_eldar, Greece., Nov., '12.

Here is a second copy of this book by my favorite Jesuit fabulist. It seems to be lacking the frontispiece at the beginning and the errata page at the end. The binding is different from my original copy, which cost almost three times as much as this copy. I keep this book in the collection because it belongs to the subcollection I am developing of Desbillons copies. As I wrote there, this is Bodemann #141.1. This seems to be the first Desbillons edition in Bodemann. It is in two parts; apparently Part 1, including the first five books, was first published in 1754. To it is now added Part 2, which includes five further books. It is not clear to me what other edition lay behind this "third edition," with Desbillons' comment "quam solam auctor agnoscit," the only edition that the writer acknowledges. An appendix includes twenty-two "joci," five "narrationculae," and "selecta philosophorum veterum placita." There are also alphabetical indices of fables and jokes at the back and various permissions and approbations, including, of course, that of the Jesuit provincial superior. As Bodemann points out, there are here 348 verse fables with ending moralisations. Most is inherited material. As Desbillons will do in later editions, he tries to recognize borrowing wherever he knows he has borrowed. Following on this present edition is an edition of fifteen books of fables in two volumes in 1768 and a later edition of the same in 1789, also in two volumes. Desbillons offers notes under the fable texts on literary parallels and sources, vocabulary, style, and animal life. As I mention of the later volumes, Desbillons' Phaedrus-like fables are remarkable for their clarity. Seldom have I encountered Latin so intelligible on the first reading. Thus II 15 does GGE well in five lines. My impression of Desbillons' own contributions, like I 7, "Pueruli Fratres," is that they are good but not overpowering. This fable has a boy weeping over his sick brother one day but refusing him a share of his cookies the next day. Upbraided, he answers that nature gives tears, not cookies. Several of the fables seem to have a sad tone. Thus II 29 has a sick man's wife call on death, seeming to offer herself as his victim if necessary. When death appears, she gives up her husband immediately. The introduction covers more than twenty fabulists who lie behind Desbillons' work, from Aesop down to French fabulists who died only a few years before the book's publication. For me, this is certainly another one of the treasures of this collection! 

1759 Nouvelle Methode pour Apprendre le Lingue Latine, Tome Second. M. de Launay. Hardbound. Paris: Veuve Robinot et Babuty Fils. $22.50 from Melissa Hearth, Hauppauge, NY, through Ebay, May, '00.

Note that the first of this two-volume set was published in 1756. This second volume spends 328 pages on a questionable task. Each word of the thirty fables of the first book of Phaedrus is thoroughly parsed and construed. Perhaps that is why the title pages, both here and in the first volume, promise a set of four volumes. I wonder if the third and fourth volumes were ever published. I find no reference to this work in either Carnes or Lamb.

1759/1964 The Fables of Jean de la Fontaine. Monograph by Frances J. Brewer. With a Leaf from the Memorial Edition of the Fables Choisies, illustrated by Jean-Baptiste Oudry and printed in Paris by Charles-Antoine Jombert, 1755-59. Boxed. LA: Dawson's Bookshop. Gift of Glen Dawson, May, '90.

An impressive pair of pages with the fable of "l' Hymenee et l' Amour." Beautifully boxed and presented. Unfortunately, the Oudry illustration is lacking. Brewer's monograph seems sensible and direct.

1760 Poesies Diverses du R. Pere (Jean Antoine) du Cerceau, Tome I. Nouvelle Édition. Hardbound. Paris: Chez les Frères Estienne. $49.50 from alkhudra through eBay, Oct., '10.

This volume of du Cerceau's poetry contains three sections: Epitres, Pieces Critiques, and Pieces Mélées. This is a small volume, about 3½" x 5½", containing 336 pages with a T of C at the end. Leather binding, marbled endpapers, and a place-marking ribbon. Jean Antoine du Cerceau (1670-1730) was a Jesuit priest, poet, and man of letters. French Wikipedia has these two curious notes about him: "Il devint précepteur du prince de Conti et périt accidentellement, tué par son élève qui le frappa involontairement en maniant un fusil." Beware, teachers! Volume II of this set contains fables. 

1760 Poesies Diverses du R. Pere (Jean Antoine) du Cerceau, Tome II. Nouvelle Édition. Hardbound. Paris: Chez les Frères Estienne. $49.50 from alkhudra through eBay, Oct., '10.

This is a small volume, about 3½" x 5½", containing 305 pages with a T of C at the end. Leather binding, marbled endpapers, and a place-marking ribbon. Jean Antoine du Cerceau (1670-1730) was a Jesuit priest, poet, and man of letters. French Wikipedia has these two curious notes about him: "Il devint précepteur du prince de Conti et périt accidentellement, tué par son élève qui le frappa involontairement en maniant un fusil." Beware, teachers! This volume of du Cerceau's poetry contains fables, Contes, one "Histoire," epigrams after Martial, other epigrams, two plays, and several texts for musical pieces. The ten fables are on 1-42. I tried three fables. "Le Singe et le Chat" (10) seems to have a monkey asking a wise cat why he has no friends. The cat answers that he pinches and bites and makes fun of people. "Injure people and you set them against you." "La Lionne et le Renard" (11) seems to have the fox convincing the parent lion that her young son should no longer receive her milk but should rather be drinking the blood of victims. Flattering advice is always listened to, and the son soon becomes as silly as his parent. We hear every parent speak of the genius that is his or her son. (Is that word "fan" a form back then of "faim"?) In Fable IX, an aristocrat invites a carter to become a coachman. What dignity! Unfortunately, the coachmen soon wrecks the coach and overturns the master. Not in Bodemann or Shapiro. 

1761 Fables Choisies Mis en Vers, Volumes I and II.  Jean de La Fontaine.  Hardbound.  Leiden, Netherlands: Elie Luzac.  €95 from Thierry Corcelle, Paris, June, '19.

Here are Volumes I and II out of six, covering Books I-IV.  Besides the frontispiece, there are 95 full-page illustrations, matching the details of Oudry's work (Bodemann #135.1) to a remarkable degree in the details.  Volume I was published in 1761, and Volume II in 1764.  The illustrations are remarkably well preserved here.  The outside of the book, by contrast, is not impressive.  The green cloth of the front cover is sun-bleached and the spine is deteriorating.  Bodemann #135.6 seems to list Volume II as published in 1764 and Volume I in 1786, but the title-page of Volume I here has 1761.  The title-page to Volume II, perhaps slightly out of place in this copy, gives a date of 1764.  I find the illustrations strong!

1761 Select Fables of Esop and Other Fabulists. In Three Books. R. and J. Dodsley. Illustrations by Samuel Wale (NA). Including "The Life of Esop, Collected from Ancient Writers" by Mons. de Meziriac and an Essay on Fable by Robert Dodsley. First edition. Hardbound. Birmingham: John Baskerville. £250 from Rose's, Hay-on-Wye, June, '98. Extra copy lacking the frontispiece, with extensive foxing, for $150 from Lighthouse Books, St. Petersburg, FL, Oct., '97.

Here is Bodemann #145.1, with the description fulfilled in every detail. I have been so delighted to find a Dodsley first edition! I had worked with Dodsley at length at the Pierpont Morgan during my sabbatical. The book is in excellent condition. I think I had hoped for more in the original illustrations, presented as a set of from four to (more usually) twelve medallion-like circles on one page. They are simple and straightforward. In the size in which they are presented, there is not much room for detail or nuance. They show up much better on Hobbs' end-papers, since they are so much larger. My Rose's copy is beautifully bound in leather with "1671" at the base of the spine. There are of course here three books, respectively of ancient, modern, and original fables (54, 53, and 52 fables respectively). There is an introductory illustration and a closing vignette for each book. After all three books, there is a comprehensive listing of morals, deliberately kept separate from the stories themselves. Since there is neither a T of C nor an AI, this index also serves as the best way of finding a fable's place within the collection. For my comments on the text of Dodsley, see Crukshank's edition of 1798.

1762 École du Monde, Tome Sixième. Par Monsieur Le Noble. Nouvelle Édition, avec Figures. Hardbound. Liege/Bruxelles: J.F. Bassompierre and J. Van den Berghen (Bruxelles). $29.98 on Ebay from Ebay member elf_eldar, Greece, Oct., '11.

The title continues "Ou Instruction d'un Pere à un Fils, Touchant la maniere dont il faut vivre dans le Monde, divisée en Entretiens." This little book contains four discussions, "Vingt-Unième Entretien" through "Vingt-Quatrième Entretien." Timagene and Aristippe are the dialogue partners. Each discussion ends with a fable. At the end of XXI is "Du Loup et de la Tête de Bois" (59); of XXII "De la Biche et du Rhinocéros" (122); of XXIII "Du Loup et de l'Agneau" (175); and of XXIV "Du Coque et du Diamant" (241). The fables are all in verse. Several are over two pages long. The two illustrations face 1 and 125; the former is "Le Temps et L'Etude menent a la Sagesse" and the latter "La Vertu triomphe de tous ses Ennemis."

1763 Dodsley's Select Fables of Esop and Other Fabulists. In Three Books. As well for the Use of Schools as Young Gentlemen. Including "The Life of Esop, Collected from Ancient Writers" by Mons. de Meziriac and an Essay on Fable by Robert Dodsley. Hardbound. Dublin: T. and J. Whitehouse. Gift of June Clinton, June, '97.

See my comments on the Birmingham first edition by Baskerville in 1761. June had collected this book because, I believe, of her particular interest in books in Ireland. A first difference that strikes the eye here is that the frontispiece is changed from "The Unveiling of Truth" to the same bright mask that so often serves as frontispiece to Gay's fables. The plates seem to be identical. The title-page for the first book occurs here before the first set of illustrations, whereas there it came after these illustrations. The book itself has suffered some wear. The first set of illustrations for Book III has lost its bottom tier; the remaining illustrations have been pasted onto a page facing the first fable of the book (65), which has itself been laid in. The index at the back stops after the first five fables of the third book. Calf binding with marbled boards. A precious gift from a dear friend!

1763 Sammlung vermischter Schriften von C.F. Gellert (bound after Lehrgedichte und Erzählungen von C. F. Gellert).  Hardbound.  €15 from Dresdener Antiquariat, Dresden, July, '17. 

Here is a surprising little treasure!  I had not realized that I did not have an early edition of Gellert.  This volume comes from his lifetime, since he died in 1769.  It is in fact two volumes, as I found when I kept trying to match the closing T of C with the beginning texts.  The first volume does not include fables, while the second does.  Gellert's famous "Fabeln und Erzahlungen" was published in 1746, with a second part in 1748.  I have the sense that the fables here may be later works, and may not be as trenchant as his earlier work.  I notice that the latest paperback version of Gellert includes none of the fables offered here.  I tested three of those here.  "Der Leichtsinn," can indicate recklessness, carelessness, frivolity.  Leichtsinn was banned from human company and came to the gods to find a home.  Zeus had Mercury bring him to Cupid, where his work has been ever since to precede love.  Since then he has done his duty quite regularly (30)!  "The Will":  A dying father gives his son his last will.  "You will inherit little from me except this wisdom.  Be a just man.  That is the true happiness."  "Vergiss es nicht: das wahre Glück allein/Ist ein rechtschaffner Mann zu seyn" (32).  "The Young Man and the Old Man": The former asks the latter how to rise.  Answer: be courageous and wise.  "But those are hard.  I had hoped for easier ways."  Then be a fool.  Fools also often rise (37).  There is no indication of a publisher or place of publication.

1764 Les Fables d'Esope mises en françois.  (Isaac) Benserade.  Hardbound.  Rouen:  R(ichard) Lallemant.  €119 from lepaplione through Ebay, Jan., '23.

The title continues "avec le sens moral, en quatre vers, et des Figures à chaque fable.  Nouvelle Édition, augmentée de la vie d'Esope, avec figures et les quatrains de Bensérade.  Dédié à la jeunesse."  This is a wonderful addition to the collection!  Benserade wrote quatrains for 221 fables originally published with illustrations of the labyrinth at Versailles in 1678.  We have the 1683 second edition of that work.  Lallemant's edition was first done in 1729 but Bodemann has to use this reprint from 1764 as #113.1.  This edition adds four fables to Benserade's and adds prose texts to his quatrains.  The life of Aesop takes up 100 pages, followed by 314 pages of fables, with a final ten pages offering a T of C for both the life and the fables as well as a royal  permission to publish.  The 27 designs for the life and the 157 for the fables, 2¾" x 2¼", follow the traditions of Salomon and Gheeraerts.  The illustrations include several that are apparently two different redoings of the same traditional motif.  Thus the same basic illustration, differently executed, is used for "Ass and Lapdog" (24) and "Ass Changing Masters" (216) and again for "Hares" (37) and "Hares and Frogs" (223).  Some of the strongest illustrations are WL (2); "Fox and Eagle" (21); FS (44); FG (63); "Man and Lion" (89); 2W (125); "Thief and Mother" (135); and TB (151).

1764 Select Fables of Esop and Other Fabulists. In Three Books. R. and J. Dodsley. Samuel Wale (NA). The Life of Esop, de Meziriac; Essay on Fable by Dodsley. (Second edition). Hardbound. Birmingham: John Baskerville. $20 from Serendipity Books, Berkeley, Dec., '07.

This is, by all indications, the 1764 second edition of the Birmingham Dodsley. Tips from Serendipity's markings and from my favorite private collector have helped me. The private collector's description indicates that this second edition lacked the "medallion" illustrations of the first edition. The illustrations here thus include a frontispiece, identical with that in the first edition. Bodemann #145.1 illustrates this frontispiece and describes it this way: "Aesop hebt den mit Fabelmotiven bedruckten Schleier der Wahrheit." Further illustrations occur at the beginning of each of the three books: beehive and bees; swan and stork; and squirrel. There is also an elaborate design at the end of each book. All six of these are signed by S(amuel) Wale. The print of the text is much larger in this edition. Thus the first page presents only about two-thirds of the material presented in the first edition. The cover of this copy has separated, and there is significant foxing throughout. There is a note, perhaps from Serendipity, that fourteen of the fifteen illustrations are missing. I think now that that statement may be incorrect for this second edition, which seems never to have had illustrations beyond those present here. Here is what my favorite private collector writes of his 1764 edition: "In three books. Second edition. 8vo., engraved frontispiece each of the 3 books with an illustration at head of fable 1 and a tail piece at the end of the book. pp. [ii], lxxvii, [i], 186, [28] index." All that information squares with this book. Notice that that "index" at the back of the book is really a T of C, and it lasts for twenty-eight pages. For my comments on the text of Dodsley, see Crukshank's edition of 1798.

1764 Select Fables of Esop and Other Fabulists. In Three Books. R. and J. Dodsley. Samuel Wale (NA). Second edition?. Hardbound. Birmingham: John Baskerville. £140 from Knightsbridge Antiquarian, London, through eBay, Dec., '10.

This book is a delightful anomaly. It stands directly between my first edition Dodsley from 1761 and my second edition Dodsley from 1764, which lacks the medallion illustrations. This copy is marked 1764 on the title-page but has the illustrations. The illustrations here include the medallions and a frontispiece, identical with that in the first edition. Bodemann #145.1 illustrates this frontispiece and describes it this way: "Aesop hebt den mit Fabelmotiven bedruckten Schleier der Wahrheit." Further illustrations occur at the beginning of each of the three books: beehive and bees; swan and stork; and squirrel. There is also an elaborate design at the end of each book. All six of these are signed by S(amuel) Wale. Was there a second edition that had the illustrations and one that did not? Notice that that "index" at the back of the book is really a T of C, and it lasts for twenty-eight pages. For my comments on the text of Dodsley, see Crukshank's edition of 1798. E Libris C.H. Hardy.

1764/1965 An Essay on Fable. Robert Dodsley. Introduction by Jeanne K. Welcher and Richard Dircks. Publication #112 of the Augustan Reprint Society. UCLA: William Andrews Clark Memorial Library. $2.50 from Amaranth, Evanston, Sept., '91.

A well researched introduction finds Dodsley's essay, attached to his edition of fables, the first comprehensive, original study of the genre in English. The essay itself surprises me with its sense and taste. Fable for Dodsley causes the reader to collect the moral. It is better not to express the moral; Aesop never did. If it is expressed, it is better put before the story, to put the reader on the scent. A fable must be clear, unified, and natural; the final criterion has Dodsley criticizing many popular fables. "Apologues" give beasts thought and speech but should not change their characteristics otherwise; foxes should not want grapes, and geese should not lay golden eggs. The style should be familiar, like LaFontaine's, not indelicate and low, like L'Estrange's.

1765 A Poetical Translation of the Fables of Phaedrus with the Appendix of Gudius. Christopher Smart. Frontispiece by S. Wale and C. Grignion. Hardbound. London: J. Dodsley. $100 from Rooke Books, Bath, UK, through eBay, April, '11.

"And an accurate edition of the original on the opposite page, to which is added a parsing index for the use of learners." Whew! Those eighteenth-century titles! The "parsing index" is a special feature of this book. It runs for some sixty-four pages. It seems to be a rather complete dictionary of words used in Phaedrus' fables. The Gudius appendix, as the opening T of C shows, contains five fables: "The Sick Kite," The Hares Weary of Life," "Jupiter and the Fox," "The Lion and Mouse," and "The Man and the Trees." The frontispiece by S. Wale and C. Grignion shows Phaedrus composing in the foreground underneath a statue, perhaps of Aesop. Birds and animals move about in the background. As the title indicates, this little book is bilingual on facing pages, Latin on the left and English rhyming couplets on the right. The frontispiece page has been repaired. There seems to have been a second title-page, perhaps identical with the first, just before the parsing index; its imprint remains on the facing page. Not in Bodemann.

1765 Fables Choisies Mises en Vers par J. de la Fontaine: Nouvelle Edition Gravée en taille-douce, Vol. I. Le Texte par le Sr. Montulay. Les Figures par le Sr. (Etienne) Fessard. Hardbound. Paris: Chez des Lauriers, Md. De Papiers. Gift of the Right Reverend Frank Griswold, Philadelphia, April, '10.

This set of six volumes is one of the treasures of this collection! Apparently one of the causes of the publication was an urge to outdo Oudry's sumptuous edition of 1755-59. Many would say that Fessard succeeded. Metzner writes in Bodemann that this is the first fully engraved LaFontaine edition. Montulay was apparently the engraver for the texts. This first volume has 77 pages before one finds a fable: an engraved title-page and frontispiece, two dedications, a preface, a life of Aesop, a life of la Fontaine by the Abbe d'Olivet, and a Table of Fables I - XLII. When the fables begin, pagination moves from Roman to Arabic numerals. The pagination skips the full engraved plates, which are not printed on the verso. These full-page illustrations are presented in frames similar to those one would find around Oudry's work. Almost every fable receives three illustrations: a full-page engraving, a headpiece, and a tailpiece. Metzner gives a good sense of the artistic sources for each volume, but I am surprised not to find Oudry mentioned. Perhaps these engravings remind me of his work because they reflect the same culture and artistic tendencies. They are suitable for presentation on tapestries, with large outdoor backgrounds. The various smaller illustrations before and after each fable may show more insight, I believe. Contrast, for example, WL's two illustrations on and facing 23. Compare 2W on and facing 39: they form something of a "before and after," as do the pair for FS on and facing 41. GA, the first fable, has an insightful presentation. Though we are given an overwhelming scene by contrast with the minuscule grasshopper and ant, this scene bears on the understanding of the fable. It is a campfire with a number of people around it. The fable is about welcoming the artist and rewarding the artist for singing his song. TMCM's engraving facing 21 is a new perspective: the two rats scamper down a stairway as the servant tidies the table. Other strong images include "L'Enfant et le Maître d'École" (43), OR (50), AD (78), and CW (91). This last engraving gives Fessard a chance to portray both a voluptuous female and a catlike woman -- in one! The engraving -- on a stone -- within an engraving on 93 has the misprint "furea" for "furca," a two-pronged fork. Half-calf over five raised bands on the spine, marbled endpapers, and a page-marking ribbon. This first volume's spine has a piece tearing loose at its top. Appraised at $6200 for the set of six volumes. That figures with the range of costs for the editions presently for sale on ABE. There seem to have been two issues of the first edition. The first issue, pictured as Bodemann #150.1, has several lines commencing with "Chez l'Auteur" between "A Paris" and "MDCCLXV." This second issue has only Chez des Lauriers, Md. De Papiers, rue St. Honoré." Critics seem to agree in finding this issue inferior -- even mediocre -- by comparison with the other. The problem seems to concern the paper and the quality of the impressions. Thomas Fothergill of Hellmut Schumann Antiquariat in Zurich has been helpful to me in sorting out the distinction of issues. There seems also to be a variant of this second issue with "Chez Durand" instead of "Chez des Lauriers" (J. Levine, Bibliography of Eighteenth Century Art and Illustrated Books, 275).

1765 Phaedri Aug. Liberti Fabularum Aesopiarum Livri V et Novarum Fabularum Appendix. Cura et Studio Petri Burmanni. Frontispiece by D. Coster (?). Hardbound. Lugduni Batavorum (Leiden): Apud Sam. Et Joh. Luchtmans. $48.50 from Titcomb's Bookshop, E. Sandwich, MA, Nov., '05. 

This little book is somewhat remarkable for allocating 98 pages for the texts of Phaedrus and then adding an index that is almost as long! There are no comments in this book. There are only a three-page T of C, the Phaedrian texts, and the index. Was this little book, which gives only the texts from Burmann's monumental commentaries, meant to be a textbook for students? It is 3¼" x 5¼" in size. This is a reprint of #190 in Carnes' Phaedrus bibliography. It was originally edited by Johann Gesner and published by Schultz in Berlin in 1739, Carnes notes that this is an edition of the third Pieter Burman (1668-1741) recension of the fables by Johann Mathias Gesner (1691-1761). "Text and notes only" (Carnes) can be misleading, because the only notes are those contained in the index at the end.

1765/1981 Fables Choisies Mises en Vers par J. de la Fontaine: Nouvelle Edition Gravée en taille-douce, Vol. I. Les Figures par le Sr. Fessard; Le Texte par le Sr. Montulay. Limited facsimile edition of 800. Hardbound. Paris: Valmer-Bibliophilie. €7.50 from Librairie de l'Avenue, St.-Ouen, Paris, June, '09.

This is a curious set of six volumes, beautifully bound, replicating the Fessard edition of 1765-75, as the colophon near the end of the book points out.  The good news is that there is now some represention of Fessard's work in the collection. Metzner writes in Bodemann that this is the first fully engraved LaFontaine edition. Montulay was apparently the engraver for the texts. The engraved illustrations are presented in frames similar to those one would find around Oudry's work. The reproductions are, I would say, no better than adequate. Almost every fable receives three illustrations: a full-page engraving, a headpiece, and a tailpiece. Metzner gives a good sense of the artistic sources for each volume, but I am surprised not to find Oudry mentioned. Perhaps these engravings remind me of his work because they reflect the same culture and artistic tendencies. One fable provides several of my favorite illustrations in this volume: "L'Enfant et le Maître d'École" facing 43 and on 43 and 44. Lovely leather bindings, marbled endpapers, a page-marking ribbon, and gilded page-edges all the way around. There are of course a life of Aesop and a life of La Fontaine at the beginning of this volume.

1765/1981 Fables Choisies Mises en Vers par J. de la Fontaine: Nouvelle Edition Gravée en taille-douce, Vol. I.  Les Figures par le Sr. Fessard; Le Texte par le Sr. Montulay.  #766 of 800.  Hardbound.  Paris: Valmer-Bibliophilie.  €27.50 from Librairie de l'Avenue, St.-Ouen, Paris, June, '23.

I came home, having found this set of six volumes at Librairie de l'Avenue, to discover that I had already bought a set of six from the same people fourteen years earlier.  Now, however, a closer look turns up a fascinating addition in this first volume of the newly bought set.  After one turns the front endpaper and a first page, one is looking at a title-page mentioning 1981; Hugues de Fleurville; and 9, Faubourg Saint-Honoré.  Turn the page and we see on the left "Ex-Libris" and on the right Hugues de Fleurville's "Certificat," including "766" and a signature.  None of these three pages appear in the set bought fourteen years ago.  Surprise!  I will include in the collection the other five volumes and their torn box, even though these volumes are apparently exact duplicates of those in the earlier set.  As I wrote then, this is a curious set of six volumes, beautifully bound, replicating the Fessard edition of 1765-75, as the colophon near the end of the book points out.  The good news is that there is now some represention of Fessard's work in the collection.  Metzner writes in Bodemann that this is the first fully engraved LaFontaine edition.  Montulay was apparently the engraver for the texts.  The engraved illustrations are presented in frames similar to those one would find around Oudry's work.  The reproductions are, I would say, no better than adequate.  Almost every fable receives three illustrations: a full-page engraving, a headpiece, and a tailpiece.  Metzner gives a good sense of the artistic sources for each volume, but I am surprised not to find Oudry mentioned.  Perhaps these engravings remind me of his work because they reflect the same culture and artistic tendencies.  One fable provides several of my favorite illustrations in this volume: "L'Enfant et le Maître d'École" facing 43 and on 43 and 44.  Lovely leather bindings, marbled endpapers, a page-marking ribbon, and gilded page-edges all the way around.  There are of course a life of Aesop and a life of La Fontaine at the beginning of this volume.

1766 Fables Choisies Mises en Vers par J. de la Fontaine: Nouvelle Edition Gravée en taille-douce, Vol. II. Le Texte par le Sr. Montulay. Les Figures par le Sr. (Etienne) Fessard. Hardbound. Paris: Chez des Lauriers, Md. De Papiers. Gift of the Right Reverend Frank Griswold, Philadelphia, April, '10.

Here is the second volume of the set of six volumes, published between 1765 and 1775. See my comments on the first volume in 1765. This volume contains only a brief preface and a T of C before it begins with MSA, the 43rd fable in this work and the continuation of the fables of La Fontaine's Book III. Again, when the fables begin, pagination moves from Roman to Arabic numerals. The pagination skips the full engraved plates, which are not printed on the verso. These full-page illustrations are again presented in frames similar to those one would find around Oudry's work. Almost every fable receives three illustrations: a full-page engraving, a headpiece, and a tailpiece. Memorable illustrations include: "The Members and the Stomach" (6); "The Lion Become Old" (34); the tailpiece for "The Lion in Love" (48); and FM (71). FG (28) offers an excellent example of the different conceptions Fessard used for the full-page illustrations -- formal classical tableaux -- by contrast with the more supple and realistic smaller illustrations before and after the fables. The tailpiece for BF (68) pictures the copycat plagiarizing rather than a scene among the birds. Half-calf over five raised bands on the spine, marbled endpapers, and a page-marking ribbon.

1766/1981 Fables Choisies Mises en Vers par J. de la Fontaine: Nouvelle Edition Gravée en taille-douce, Vol. II. Les Figures par le Sr. Fessard; Le Texte par le Sr. Montulay. Limited facsimile edition of 800. Hardbound. Paris: Valmer-Bibliophilie. €7.50 from Librairie de l'Avenue, St.-Ouen, Paris, June, '09.

This is a curious set of six volumes, beautifully bound, replicating the Fessard edition of 1765-75, as the colophon near the end of the book points out. This second volume (Books 3 and 4) was published in 1766. I can find no other number than the "102" that seems part of the printed colophon material, and so I am not sure that this is in fact #102 of 800. The good news is that there is now some represention of Fessard's work in the collection. Metzner writes in Bodemann that this is the first fully engraved LaFontaine edition. Montulay was apparently the engraver for the texts. The engraved illustrations are presented in frames similar to those one would find around Oudry's work. The reproductions are, I would say, no better than adequate. Almost every fable receives three illustrations: a full-page engraving, a headpiece, and a tailpiece. Metzner gives a good sense of the artistic sources for each volume, but I am surprised not to find Oudry mentioned. Perhaps these engravings remind me of his work because they reflect the same culture and artistic tendencies. Notice how nicely the first two illustrations for "Le Loup Devenu Berger" echo each other facing and on 9. The illustrations for FK facing 11 and on 11 and 13 are wonderfully harsh. Similarly harsh is the last illustration for "The Lion in Love" (48). I find the full-page engraving of FM also particularly well done (facing 71). Lovely leather bindings, marbled endpapers, a page-marking ribbon, and gilded page-edges all the way around.

1766/1981 Fables Choisies Mises en Vers par J. de la Fontaine: Nouvelle Edition Gravée en taille-douce, Vol. II.  Les Figures par le Sr. Fessard; Le Texte par le Sr. Montulay.  Limited facsimile edition of 800.  Hardbound.  Paris: Valmer-Bibliophilie.  €27.50 from Librairie de l'Avenue, St.-Ouen, Paris, June, '23.

This volume replicates one already in the collection, except that it belongs to a numbered set.  As I wrote of the volume found earlier, this is a curious set of six volumes, beautifully bound, replicating the Fessard edition of 1765-75, as the colophon near the end of the book points out.  This second volume (Books 3 and 4) was published in 1766.  The good news is that there is now some represention of Fessard's work in the collection.  Metzner writes in Bodemann that this is the first fully engraved LaFontaine edition.  Montulay was apparently the engraver for the texts.  The engraved illustrations are presented in frames similar to those one would find around Oudry's work.  The reproductions are, I would say, no better than adequate.  Almost every fable receives three illustrations: a full-page engraving, a headpiece, and a tailpiece.  Metzner gives a good sense of the artistic sources for each volume, but I am surprised not to find Oudry mentioned.  Perhaps these engravings remind me of his work because they reflect the same culture and artistic tendencies.  Notice how nicely the first two illustrations for "Le Loup Devenu Berger" echo each other facing and on 9.  The illustrations for FK facing 11 and on 11 and 13 are wonderfully harsh.  Similarly harsh is the last illustration for "The Lion in Love" (48).  I find the full-page engraving of FM also particularly well done (facing 71).  Lovely leather bindings, marbled endpapers, a page-marking ribbon, and gilded page-edges all the way around.

1767 A Little Pretty Pocket-Book. John Newbury. Facsimile with introductory essay and bibliography by M.F. Thwaite. NY: Harcourt, Brace & World. See 1744/67/1966/67.

1767 Select Fables of Esop and Other Fabulists.  In Three Books.  R. Dodsley.  Hardbound.  Pall Mall, London: J. Dodsley.  £25 from Bazasbooks, Edinburgh, June, '13.  

I feel as though I have been through this history before but have forgotten too much of it!  Here is a 1767 Dodsley in good condition except for its separated front cover.  It was published by J. Dodsley in Pall-mall in London in 1767.  I seem to find indications of a first such Pall-mall edition in 1765.  The first edition overall, I believe, was in Birmingham in 1761.  This edition is, as far as I can tell, exactly like that Birmingham edition, of which I have a copy.  Frontispiece and medallions are present and intact.  I notice that this edition lists only "R. Dodsley" as editor and "J. Dodsley" as publisher.  The covers have been crudely taped.  The illustrations are presented as a set of from four to (more usually) twelve medallion-like circles on one page.  They are simple and straightforward.  In the size in which they are presented, there is not much room for detail or nuance.  They show up much better on Hobbs' end-papers, since they are so much larger.  There is an introductory illustration and a closing vignette for each book.  After all three books, there is a comprehensive listing of morals, deliberately kept separate from the stories themselves.  Since there is neither a T of C nor an AI, this index also serves as the best way of finding a fable's place within the collection.

1768 Aesop at Court, or the Labyrinthe of Versailles, Delineated in French and English. By Mr. Bellamy, Revised by His Son D. Bellamy. The plates engraved by G. Bickham from the Paris Edition. Hardbound. London: W. Faden. GBP 237.50 from Rhona Workman, Bradford, West Yorkshire, UK, through eBay, July, '10.

Here is a most unusual book. The Labyrinthe of Versailles is printed as pages 209-51 of a book that puts together two works. The first work is Ethic Amusements by Bellamy. Bickham apparently engraved the pictures after LeClerc's engravings in the 1677 and 1679 Labyrinthe de Versailles editions by Sebastian Mabre-Cramoisy. I do not have either of those editions, but I do have the Augsburg edition by Kraus of about 1700, and it is clear that the engravings are not identical with that edition's engravings. Page x is curious: "Directions for placing the Cuts." Only two of these belong to Ethic Amusements. The next forty-seven belong to Labyrinthe. The first portion of the book includes "The Comforts of Philosophy" by Boethius, "Marriage," a theatrical dialogue; fables apparently after de la Motte; and various other poems. 209 presents a title-page for Aesop at Court or The Labyrinth of Versailles. The following map is reversed from the one in my Kraus edition. After a page of verse for Aesop and one for Cupid we find "The Owl and the Day-Birds" in four lines each of French and English verse. There is also a prose paragraph describing the fountain. The French quatrain is evidently that of Benserade. The English quatrain does not seem to follow the French very closely at all. Pictures and text are on facing pages, but pages printed with pictures are blank on their verso. The rhythm is thus text - picture - blank - blank - picture - text. Often the English verse extends beyond the four lines of the French. After the fables finish on 251, there is a wide variety of works, mostly illustrated. Pagination starts over, after various lists of subscribers and odes to high-standing persons, with Fenelon's fables and various other tales and amusements for some eighty-six new pages. The front cover is lacking; the back cover is separated; and the book is falling apart, but what a treasure it is!

1768 Fables. By William Wilkie. Samuel Wale, artist, and T. Simpson, engraver. Hardbound. London/Edinburgh: Edward and Charles Dilly, A. Kincaid and J. Bell. $49 from Knightsbridge Books, through eBay, July, '10.

This is a book of 123 pages featuring sixteen fables, all new creations. Bodemann claims that it also has a dialogue, but I cannot find it. The first fable is true enough: our advice, however well intentioned, fails. So it happened with a willful young woman. Once her mother caused her to see her behavior in a mirror, she got an idea of how she was coming across. Fables hold up to us that mirror, and we can see ourselves as we would not see ourselves in the advice of friends and acquaintances. The fables here generally begin with a short sermon, which is followed by an obvious tale. The poet's project is stated near the bottom of 7: "hinting to the human-kind,/what few deny but fewer mind.." The manner seems to me roughly that of Gay: ideas and advice swirl about, and the stories used as fables seem obvious and thus even labored. There is one strong full-page illustration for each fable. Notice the archaic writing form of "s" within a word. The covers of the book have separated.  Bodemann #153.1.

1768 Fables Choisies Mises en Vers par J. de la Fontaine: Nouvelle Edition Gravée en taille-douce, Vol. III. Le Texte par le Sr. Droüet. Les Figures par le Sr. (Etienne) Fessard. Hardbound. Paris: Chez des Lauriers, Md. De Papiers. Gift of the Right Reverend Frank Griswold, Philadelphia, April, '10.

Here is the third volume of the set of six volumes, published between 1765 and 1775. See my comments on the first volumes in 1765 and 1766. This volume contains only a T of C before it begins with "The Woodcutter and Mercury," the 83rd fable in this work and the first in La Fontaine's Book V. Again, when the fables begin, pagination moves from Roman to Arabic numerals. The pagination skips the full engraved plates, which are not printed on the verso. These full-page illustrations are again presented in frames similar to those one would find around Oudry's work. Almost every fable receives three illustrations: a full-page engraving, a headpiece, and a tailpiece. Memorable illustrations include: "The Horse and the Wolf" (17); the tailpiece for "The Doctors" (26); the headpiece for "The Eagle and the Owl" (37); TB (42); "The Stag Seeing Himself in the Water" (66); and all three illustrations for "Horse and Ass" (80). The full illustration for 2P (5) shows Fessard's inclination to create a huge backdrop, even for a small scene. I enjoy the contrast between light with luxuriousness and dark with demand in "The Old Woman and the Two Servant Girls" (13). The two images of lions for "The Lion Going to War" (40) are particularly poorly rendered. Half-calf over five raised bands on the spine, marbled endpapers, and a page-marking ribbon.

1768 Fables Choisies Mises en Vers par J. de la Fontaine: Nouvelle Edition Gravée en taille-douce, Vol. III.  Le Texte par le Sr. Droüet.  Les Figures par le Sr. (Etienne) Fessard.  Paperbound.  Paris: Chez l'Auteur.  €50 from Librairie Bailly, Marché Dauphine, Paris, June, '19.

Here is a particularly curious unbound publication.  I am delighted to find it for comparison with the hardbound copy printed by des Lauriers and given to us by Frank Griswold.  The differences include, besides the publisher's name, that this copy has "privilege of the king" and a date on its title-page.  A further curiosity of this copy is that it has an overall price written in pencil on its first inside page: €60.  I was surprised to find that individual pages and illustrations also have prices inside, generally €5 or €10.  Noticing that fact led me to notice that no less than 25 of the 42 full-page illustrations are missing.  They had been sold off individually! I will include comments from the hardbound copy.  This volume contains a T of C on its sleeve, beginning with "The Woodcutter and Mercury," the 83rd fable in this work and the first in La Fontaine's Book V.  It finishes with Fable 124, "The Young Widow."  The pagination skips the full engraved plates, which are not printed on the verso.  These full-page illustrations are presented in frames similar to those one would find around Oudry's work.  Memorable illustrations include: the tailpiece for "The Doctors" (26); the headpiece for "The Eagle and the Owl" (37); "The Stag Seeing Himself in the Water" (66); and the headpiece and tailpiece for "Horse and Ass" (80).  The full illustration for 2P (5) shows Fessard's inclination to create a huge backdrop, even for a small scene.

1768 Franc. Josephi Desbillons Soc. Jesu Fabulae Aesopiae, curis posterioribus, omnes fere, emendatae: accesserunt plus quam CLXX Novae, Vol. I. Engravings by Egid Verhelst. Hardbound. Mannheim: Mannhemii Typis Academicis. $37.50 from Bryn Mawr's Lantern Bookshop, Georgetown, June, '98.

Bodemann #152.1. Here is a terrific find! I had known and found copies of Desbillons' work, but here is a major two-volume edition, and it was sitting for $75 at Bryn Mawr's "Lantern" bookshop in Georgetown. Bodemann says that this is the first full edition; Books 1-10 had already appeared in 1754 and 1759. The first volume here contains the first nine books (of fifteen). Desbillons makes clear that, where there is no attribution in his first note on the fable, he believes that he has invented the fable; he admits that he may have forgotten his source for fables that turn out to be built from something he has read. Desbillons offers other notes, too, under the text. They include comments on vocabulary, animal life, and especially literary parallels. Verhelst has one full-page engraving per book. "The Temple of Apollo" precedes Book One; thereafter each engraving presents a particular fable within the book and is found with that fable. As Bodemann points out, there are copious decorations, initials, and vignettes, some with animal motifs. People are right: Desbillons' Phaedrus-like fables are remarkable for their clarity. Seldom have I encountered Latin so intelligible on the first reading. Try II 15 (misprinted as "II 5") as an example. It does GGE well in five lines. My impression of Desbillons' own contributions, like I 7, "Pueruli Fratres," is that they are good but not overpowering. This fable has a boy weeping over his sick brother one day but refusing him a share of his cookies the next day. Upbraided, he answers that nature gives tears, not cookies. Several of them seem to have a sad tone. Thus II 29 has a sick man's wife call on death, seeming to offer herself as his victim if necessary. When death appears, she gives up her husband immediately. This fable is well illustrated (53). VI 6 (162) gives another good example of a Desbillons fable and a good Verhelst engraving. The engravings seem to be of Desbillons' originals rather than of the derived fables. Collection X, #F-0088 I-II, which comments that this edition is particularly sought after because of Verhelst's fine engravings. The spine is deteriorating. For me, this is certainly one of the treasures of this collection!

1768 Franc. Josephi Desbillons Soc. Jesu Fabulae Aesopiae, curis posterioribus, omnes fere, emendatae: accesserunt plus quam CLXX Novae, Vol. II. Engravings by Edig Verhelst. Hardbound. Mannheim: Mannhemii Typis Academicis. $37.50 from Bryn Mawr's Lantern Bookshop, Georgetown, June, '98.

See my comments on Volume I. This volume contains Books X-XV. The illustration to X 27 is out of place at 328; it is a good illustration of the "The Boy and the Nuts in a Jar." XI 16 (347) has fun. The servant who has become rich enough to be a master forgets himself and gets up on the servants' bench instead of into the coach! There is another good illustration for this fable. On 529-48 we find an alphabetical listing of Sententiae from the fables, with references to the appropriate pages. On 549-95 there is an alphabetical "Index Rerum," which includes more than fable titles. Enjoy the erratum on 592: "Idnex" for "Index." 596-612 offers a "Nominum Quorundam Explicatio." There is finally a list of errata--which misses the erratum on 592. I think I can see the hand of a kindred-spirit teacher in this carefully prepared book! Collection X, #F-0088 I-II, which comments that this edition is particularly sought after because of Verhelst's fine engravings. The spine is deteriorating. For me, this is certainly one of the treasures of this collection!

1768/1981 Fables Choisies Mises en Vers par J. de la Fontaine: Nouvelle Edition Gravée en taille-douce, Vol. III. Les Figures par le Sr. Fessard; Le Texte par le Sr. Montulay. Limited facsimile edition of 800, Nr. 102?. Hardbound. Paris: Valmer-Bibliophilie. €7.50 from Librairie de l'Avenue, St.-Ouen, Paris, June, '09.

This is a curious set of six volumes, beautifully bound, replicating the Fessard edition of 1765-75, as the colophon near the end of the book points out. This third volume (Books 5 and 6) was published in 1768. I can find no other number than the "102" that seems part of the printed colophon material, and so I am not sure that this is in fact #102 of 800. The good news is that there is now some represention of Fessard's work in the collection. Metzner writes in Bodemann that this is the first fully engraved LaFontaine edition. Montulay was apparently the engraver for the texts. The engraved illustrations are presented in frames similar to those one would find around Oudry's work. The reproductions are, I would say, no better than adequate. Almost every fable receives three illustrations: a full-page engraving, a headpiece, and a tailpiece. Metzner gives a good sense of the artistic sources for each volume, but I am surprised not to find Oudry mentioned. Perhaps these engravings remind me of his work because they reflect the same culture and artistic tendencies. The horse kicking the wolf (facing 17) is particularly well done. The headpiece and tailpiece for "Eagle and Owl" are strong (37 and 39). Lovely leather bindings, marbled endpapers, a page-marking ribbon, and gilded page-edges all the way around.

1768/1981 Fables Choisies Mises en Vers par J. de la Fontaine: Nouvelle Edition Gravée en taille-douce, Vol. III.  Les Figures par le Sr. Fessard; Le Texte par le Sr. Montulay.  Limited facsimile edition of 800.  Hardbound.  Paris: Valmer-Bibliophilie.  €27.50 from Librairie de l'Avenue, St.-Ouen, Paris, June, '23.

This volume replicates one already in the collection, except that it belongs to a numbered set.  As I wrote of the volume found earlier, this is a curious set of six volumes, beautifully bound, replicating the Fessard edition of 1765-75, as the colophon near the end of the book points out.  This third volume (Books 5 and 6) was published in 1768.  The good news is that there is now some represention of Fessard's work in the collection.  Metzner writes in Bodemann that this is the first fully engraved LaFontaine edition.  Montulay was apparently the engraver for the texts.  The engraved illustrations are presented in frames similar to those one would find around Oudry's work.  The reproductions are, I would say, no better than adequate.  Almost every fable receives three illustrations: a full-page engraving, a headpiece, and a tailpiece.  Metzner gives a good sense of the artistic sources for each volume, but I am surprised not to find Oudry mentioned.  Perhaps these engravings remind me of his work because they reflect the same culture and artistic tendencies.  The horse kicking the wolf (facing 17) is particularly well done.  The headpiece and tailpiece for "Eagle and Owl" are strong (37 and 39).  Lovely leather bindings, marbled endpapers, a page-marking ribbon, and gilded page-edges all the way around.

1769 Ezopische Fabelen van Fedrus, gevryden Slaef des Keizers Augustus. In Nederduitsch Dicht vertaelt en met Aenmerkingen verrykt door D. van Hoogstraten. Met nieuwe Konst-Platen. Amsterdam: Steven van Esveldt. 50 Guilders at Straat, Dec., '88.

A wonderful book, in good shape for being 220 years old! Third edition of 1704 original, with new plates replacing those of van Vianen. Dedicated to the Princess of Nassau. 81-97 (with one picture-plate), 175-6, and 199-202 are missing. Many introductory pages, with a T of C. Two alphabetical registers at the end. The comments are longer than the fables. Excellent small illustrations, six to a plate. Best illustrations: "The Fox and the Mask" (16), FS (50), TW (66), "The Fox and the Goat" (175), "The Hares and the Frogs" (245).

1769 Francisci-Josephi Desbillons Fabulae Aesopiae, Curis Posterioribus Omnes Fere Emendatae: Quibus Accesserunt Plus Quam CLXX Novae. Franciscus-Josephus Desbillons. Editio quinta. Hardbound. Paris: J. Barbou. $85 from Julian's Books, NY, August, '10.

Here is a fifth edition of Desbillons' Aesopic fables, now comprising fifteen books in one volume. The publisher remains Barbou, as it was for the third edition of 1759. The title of that edition was Francisci-Josephi Desbillons e Societate Jesu Fabularum Aesopiarum Libri Quinque Priores Diligenter Emendati, really the title of the first of two parts; the second part included five additional books. Now the title is Francisci-Josephi Desbillons Fabulae Aesopiae, Curis Posterioribus Omnes Fere Emendatae: Quibus Accesserunt Plus Quam CLXX Novae. The mention of the 170 new fables makes the title up to that point identical with the title of the Mannheim 1768 edition, except of course that the Mannheim 1768 edition still identifies him as a member of the Society of Jesus. The frontispiece involving Phaedrus, the Muse, and Genius is the same as in the Barbou edition of 1759, as are the dimensions of the pages. This edition is not mentioned in Bodemann. After the fifteen books of fables follow four sections: "Sententiae," "Notationum Libellus," "Index Fabularum," and "Nominum Quorundam Explicatio." The notes Desbillons had offered under the fable texts thus now appear at the book's end. The addition to the title in the third edition is gone: "quam solam auctor agnoscit," the only edition that the writer acknowledges. Barbou has moved and no longer puts mention of royal approval and privilege on the title-page. The introduction covering more than twenty fabulists who lie behind Desbillons' work now includes an appendicula with mention of several more. The spine of the book is disintegrating. I will shortly add the sixth edition to this catalogue and a reprint of the sixth edition. I am delighted to find members of the Desbillons family!

1771 Fables de Phedre Affranchi d'Auguste, en Latin et en François avec des Notes historiques & critiques. Hardbound. Basel: Chez Jean Schweighauser. $44 from Robert Downie Fine Books, Shrops, UK, Dec., '98.

This small 4" x 6½" book offers a facing prose translation for Phaedrus' fables, with frequently extensive notes at the bottom of the page. There is a two-page "Avertissement" at the book's beginning, and a T of C in Latin at the end. An inscription dated 1795 awards the book as a prize, but the name of the recipient has been pasted over, apparently with a new name! Carnes #256 notes that this book is a reprint of L’Abbé Lallemant de Maupas' edition of 1757 in Rouen. This edition itself is #283 in Carnes. The French translation is, to use his full name, by Richard Xavier Felix L’Abbé Lallement de Maupas.

1771 Fables for the Female Sex. Edward Moore. F. Hayman. Fourth edition. Hardbound. London: T. Davies and J. Dodsley. $21.50 from Isold It, St. Joseph, MI, through eBay, Nov., '05. 

Bodemann lists this edition as the immediate successor (#122.2) of the first edition published by Francklin in 1744. This book, which I have listed under 1744, is Bodemann's #122.1. See my comments there and under the 1744/83? reprinting. Here the illustrations are still signed by Hayman. All sixteen full-page illustrations are here. Perhaps "The Female Seducers" is the strongest of the illustrations (XV, 115). Other strong images are "The Farmer, the Spaniel, and the Cat" (IX, 55) and "The Sparrow, and the Dove" (XIV, 89), Let me quote what I wrote for the 1783 reprinting: The"fable" itself really becomes a derivative illustration of what is basically either sermon or satire. The "woman's world" that emerges here is frightening to imagine today. Frail fair thing, if she loses her honor once, a woman is doomed forever ("The Female Seducers"). Parents giving her to a man whom she has not chosen are the mother sheep giving her lamb to the wolf! Vanity claims in the last fable to rule the whole female race: "Trust me, from titled dames to spinners,/'Tis I make saints, whoe'er makes sinners." The manifold advice may not be easy to put together: character will keep a man much more than looks; clothing should make a man imagine--not see--the best;"striving nature to conceal/you only her defects reveal." A woman has fleeting beauty and gives it to a man for protection; he is grateful for the gift remembered and continues to protect her out of gratitude for what once was. Do not tease the man to whom you have said yes. Leather binding. Very good condition.

1772 C.F. Gellert's Fabelen en Vertelsels, in Nederduitsche Vaerzen Gevolgd. Eerste Deel. B. de Bosch, J. Lutkeman, P. Meijer, J.P. Broeckhoff, H.J. Roullaud, J. Lublink de jonge. Hardbound. Amsterdam: Pieter Meijer.  €13.33 from Antiquariaat Brinkman, Amsterdam, June, '07.

Gellert published his German fables in 1746 and 1748. Here we have a lovely edition in Dutch within a generation of that date. This volume contains fifty-four fables, the exact number in Gellert's first volume, published in 1746. Each translation is signed by its author. There is a T of C at the end. The only illustration in the book is on the title-page: cherubs play around the tombstone of Gellert. I had two days in Amsterdam on my way to Germany. In the rain, I found this bookstore in the neighborhood of the community and got lucky. There are two other volumes in the set. This is of course not the first time that I have bought a book originally owned by a Jesuit institution, in this case St. Aloysius College in 's-Gravenhage. There is also a marking from "Bibl.-Gymn. CATV."

1772 Fables by the Late Mr Gay In One Volume Complete. By the Late Mr. Gay. Hardbound. London: W. Strahan, J. and F. Rivington, J. Buckland, L. Hawes, et al. $100 from Tomasz Wysocki, Annandale, VA, Sept., '00.

Bodemann #110.8. Bodemann identifies the new engraver as James Taylor. These seem to be imitations of earlier themes established for Gay's fables in the early editions, especially by Wootton and Kent. See my editions of 1727, 1733, 1742, 1753, 1757, and 1783. The latter seems to copy this edition, using the same approach of two illustrations per page and the same motifs established here. I think the frontispiece (grave monument of Gay?) is lacking here. Bodemann comments cryptically that this approach of two illustrations per page holds except for one exception. The exception is for Fable 50 facing 134. The illustration for the first fable had been paired with an illustration for the introduction, and thus the numbering was keyed from there on out to odd numbers rather than evens, and there was one number left for the fiftieth fable. Unfortunately the covers of this little book are separating.

1772 Fables Choisies Mis en Vers par Monsieur de La Fontaine.  Avec un Nouveau Commentaire par M. Coste.  Ornée de Figures en Taille-Douce.  Hardbound.  Geneva: J. Samuel Cailler.  €160 from Librairie d'Argences, August, '14.  

I consider this one of the best finds of an unusually successful trip to Europe.  I had finished at Picard and stopped next door at a shop supposedly dealing rather in technical books.  The shopkeeper found this one book containing two volumes.  They are in the family of Bodemann #124.  This edition has a different frontispiece from that of Bodemann #124.1, published by Prault père in 1746.  Here, by contrast with that frontispiece's placement of La Fontaine among animals, we have a cameo bust of La Fontaine by Heubach and Chovin.  This Volume II has a good frontispiece of Aesop among the animals; it looks, by the way, like the perfect complement to the frontispiece of Bodemann #124.1.  This edition has an illustration for each fable.  Among the best of Volume I are "Man and His Image" (23); FS (38); "The Crow and the Eagle" (81); CW (85); MSA (93); "The Fox and the Goat" (103); "The Cat and the Old Rat" (126); BF (149); "The Serpent and the File" (206); SW (220); "The Stag at the Pool" (230); and DS (245).  I believe that Chauveau's illustration is one source for GA here (3).  I recognize the portrayal here of BC (52).  The image for "The Lion and the Mosquito" (66) has been pasted into the book.  On 70, do we have the wrong image repeated from the following fable (72)?  Or is this double fable imaged twice, with LM in the background and AD in the front of both images?  Text and picture overlap in this printing method on 113.  At 161, one illustration serves two fables.  At 219, "The Lion and the Hunter" seems not to be illustrated.  There are several styles of illustration in these two volumes, and they are of varying quality.  In Volume II, bound here together with Volume I, VII 5 lacks an illustration (12).  Page 77's header is "Livre Septième" in the midst of the eighth book.  Among the better illustrations are "The Rat and the Elephant" (79); "The Husband, the Wife, and the Thief" (147); "The Partridge and the Roosters" (182); "The Dream of an Inhabitant of Mogul" (216); "Two Goats" (250); "The Fox, the Flies, and the Porcupine" (274); "The Fox, the Wolf, and the Horse" (286); and "The Matron of Ephesus" (337).  The illustrations of the second volume are perhaps not as consistently strong as those of the first volume.  There is a T of C at the end of Volume II for Books 7-12, even though the second volume contains Books 8-12.  The T of C for Books 1-6 is at the beginning of Volume I.  The last page has a nihil obstat.

1773 Fables Choisies Mises en Vers par J. de la Fontaine: Nouvelle Edition Gravée en taille-douce, Vol. IV. Le Texte par le Sr. Droüet. Les Figures par le Sr. (Etienne) Fessard. Hardbound. Paris: Chez des Lauriers, Md. De Papiers. Gift of the Right Reverend Frank Griswold, Philadelphia, April, '10.

Here is the fourth volume of the set of six volumes, published between 1765 and 1775. See my comments on the previous volumes in 1765, 1766, and 1768. This volume contains only a T of C and the dedication to Madame de Montespan before it begins with "The Animals Sick of the Plague," the 125th fable in this work and the first in La Fontaine's Book VII. Again, when the fables begin, pagination moves from Roman to Arabic numerals. The pagination skips the full engraved plates, which are not printed on the verso. These full-page illustrations are again presented in frames similar to those one would find around Oudry's work. Almost every fable receives three illustrations: a full-page engraving, a headpiece, and a tailpiece. Memorable illustrations include: "The Coach and the Fly" (25); "The Curé and the Dead Man" (30); the tailpiece of "The Head and Tail of the Serpent" which shows the blind leading the blind (51); "The Cobbler and the Banker" (61); and "The Two Friends" (86). Half-calf over five raised bands on the spine, marbled endpapers, and a page-marking ribbon.

1773 Fables Nouvelles, Vol. II, Binder 1. Claude Joseph Dorat? Illustrated by Clement-Pierre Marillier. A la Haye & Paris: (Nicolas-Augustin) Delalain. $33.33 from Bruce Delorme, Conesus, NY, through eBay, Nov., '11.

This set of three items may be a first in this collection. It is not a book but a set of three binders containing together ninety-six cards measuring 6¾" x 4¼" with approximately 190 signed prints, almost all two prints to a card. The eBay seller writes that the three binders/volumes are from a museum de-acquisition from the early 1800's. The set came from an 87 year-old collector. The museum professionally mounted all the illustrated pages onto conservator board. More exactly, what is mounted on the conservator boards is not the pages but the excerpted illustrations, about ninety-five illustrations and about 95 endpieces. The book from which these excerpted illustrations come is apparently the second volume to Claude Joseph Dorat's "Fables ou Allégories Philosophiques" of 1772. The first card is its title-page, expressing "Fables Nouvelles," the publisher, the places, and the date. According to Bodemann, a number of engravers are involved. The artist himself is still Clement-Pierre Marillier. Both artist and engraver typically sign each illustration here of either sort. I am betting that some of the racier illustrations belong to La Fontaine's Contes. Bodemann correctly notes that the book is back-dated, since some illustrations are dated 1774 and 1775, while the book is dated 1773. Many of the subjects in this first binder could easily be fable subjects; I am surprised that not more of them are standard groupings of characters that would give away a La Fontaine fable. I think I perceive an ostrich who cannot fly like the birds winging their way above him. I am quite sure I see an oak and a reed. Is there an endpiece that presents the weasel and the bat? And do I see La Fontaine's two doves, one returning to the other? Two images on one page bring together the lion, the cock, and the ass. The most dramatic illustration occurs near the end: two human figures reach towards two birds, whose beaks touch in midair. Working with these materials presents a challenge: without the book, one can know neither to what work any particular picture belongs nor what order the original materials followed. Each binder could contain material that belongs in a different binder and in a different order.

1773 Fables Nouvelles, Vol. II, Binder 2. Claude Joseph Dorat? Illustrated by Clement-Pierre Marillier. Hardbound. A la Haye & Paris: (Nicolas-Augustin) Delalain. $33.33 from Bruce Delorme, Conesus, NY, through eBay, Nov., '11.

Here is the second of three binders containing together ninety-six cards measuring 6¾" x 4¼" with approximately 190 signed prints, almost all two prints to a card. The eBay seller writes that the three binders/volumes are from a museum de-acquisition from the early 1800's. The set came from an 87 year-old collector. The museum professionally mounted all the illustrated pages onto conservator board. More exactly, what is mounted on the conservator boards is not the pages but the excerpted illustrations, about ninety-five illustrations and about 95 endpieces. The book from which these excerpted illustrations come is apparently the second volume to Claude Joseph Dorat's "Fables ou Allégories Philosophiques" of 1772. Many of the subjects in this second binder could easily be fable subjects; I am surprised that not more of them are standard groupings of characters that would give away a La Fontaine fable. An early card showing peacocks in both pictures could be illustrating BF. The next card has to be "The Bear and the Bees." Among the endpieces, one of the most dramatic here is approximately the seventh card: a prisoner runs away with his burst chains still on his limbs. Another illustration a few cards later uses a dog and a great deal of dead poultry to illustrate "Abstinet esuriens" as a motto. Early on is another illustration that could be picturing "Two Doves." Might that barnyard scene be CJ? The second-to-last card dramatizes "Ant and Dove."

1773 Fables Nouvelles, Vol. II, Binder 3. Claude Joseph Dorat? Illustrated by Clement-Pierre Marillier. Hardbound. A la Haye & Paris: (Nicolas-Augustin) Delalain. $33.33 from Bruce Delorme, Conesus, NY, through eBay, Nov., '11.

Here is the third of three binders containing together ninety-six cards measuring 6¾" x 4¼" with approximately 190 signed prints, almost all two prints to a card. The eBay seller writes that the three binders/volumes are from a museum de-acquisition from the early 1800's. The set came from an 87 year-old collector. The museum professionally mounted all the illustrated pages onto conservator board. More exactly, what is mounted on the conservator boards is not the pages but the excerpted illustrations, about ninety-five illustrations and about 95 endpieces. The book from which these excerpted illustrations come is apparently the second volume to Claude Joseph Dorat's "Fables ou Allégories Philosophiques" of 1772. Almost none of these illustrations show a one-to-one correspondence with fables I know from La Fontaine or Aesop. The seventh card shows a strong scene of King Lion's court. A few cards later horse and ass confront each other in a stable. The sixteenth shows a snail and cicada talking with each other at the base of a tree. A few cards later, a shepherd talks with a wolf in the presence of his dog. A few cards after that we see the popular scene of a man chopping a snake into parts, but here it is outdoors before a huge building with high columns; usually this is the formerly frozen snake that is terrorizing a family inside the house. The fourth-to-last card has one of the best engraved scenes: camel, ox, and rhinoceros (?) listen to donkey. The second-to-last card seems to contrast the earth-bound peacock with the flying birds above her. A number of the endpieces, here usually mounted above the fable illustrations, exhibit the word "Fable," presumably as the first word on the following page. As I mention a propos of Binder 1, working with these materials presents a challenge: without the book, one can know neither to what work any particular picture belongs nor what order the original materials followed. Each binder could contain material that belongs in a different binder and in a different order.

1773 Les Fables d'Esope Phrygien avec Celles de Philelphe.  Traduction Nouvelle.  Mr. de Bellegarde.  Hardbound.  Copenhagen: Chez les Heritiers de Rothe et Proft.  $400 from Kenny Parolini, Vineland, NJ, Sept., '22.

The fact that the bookseller did not include the publisher in the advertisement led to this fascinating incident, that we now have a book very close to but not identical with another in the collection, which is listed under "1757?"  What is different here?  The frontispiece is lacking, as are the page of illustrations for fables CIX and CX, the illustrations for LI and C, and perhaps others.  The title-page has an added small illustration, spells Copenhagen with two "P" letters, has a date (1773) and a publisher: "Chez les Heritiers de Rothe et Proft."  This title-page does not include a line from the other: "Edition nouv. avec nouvelles Fig."  Finally, the illustrations are placed differently, usually two to four pages away from where they are in the other volume.  Bodemann does not have a 1773 edition; this edition is still in the family of #97, sometime after #97.3 but distinct from the German #97.4.  Its title-page is almost unattached.  It is inscribed by previous owners in 1790, 1811(?), and 1917.  As I wrote of the other volume, Bodemann #97.3 was published by Witwe des Gabr. Christ. Rothen.  The title-page is here again a mix of black and red ink.  The strength of this edition lies in its illustrations, generally about 2¼" x 2¾".  Except for the last illustration, "The Bear and the Bees" (290), these occur two to a page close to their fable texts.  Among the best of these often dark illustrations I would list FC (104); FK (122); FS (142); "The Stag and the Horse" (184); "The Mule and the Wolf" (202); 2W (232); "The Bulls and the Lion" (260); and "The Boy and the Greedy Man at the Well" (266).  Each fable gets a generous paragraph of French prose and then a full page or more of "Sens Moral," climaxed by a rhyming quatrain.  CJ is first in the order of fables.  Aesop's fables finish on 292, and on 293 those of Philelphe begin.  They finish on 339, to be followed by "Fables Diverse Tirées d'Esope" by "Gabrias and Avienus."  These conclude on 437, to be followed by "Les Contes d'Esope", which finish on 478.  After 478 there is a T of C for each of the sections of the book, starting with the life of Aesop at the book's beginning.

1773 Select Fables of Esop and Other Fabulists. In Three Books. A New Edition. By R. Dodsley. Including "The Life of Esop, Collected from Ancient Writers" by Mons. de Meziriac and an Essay on Fable by Robert Dodsley. Hardbound. London: J. Dodsley. $50 from Edward Pollack, Boston, Sept., '97.

Compare this book with my 1761 first edition, done by Stockdale in Birmingham. See my comments there. This copy lacks the frontispiece and has experienced some repairs. It is rebound in vellum covered boards, slightly bowed, with labels attached, including a brown illustration of FG on the cover. There is some cartooning, e.g., on the title-page of the "Ancient Fables" section. 131-34 are missing. The illustrations, which have often seen extensive wear, seem to imitate those of the first edition--rather than to be later impressions of them. Compare the illustrations for BF (Ancient Fables 8), for example. The illustrations meant to face "Page 198" occur rather in the middle of the index. A young hand painted with blue all the illustrations facing 108. This little book breathes a sense of history.

1773 Sixty Amusing and Instructive Fables in French and English. Fifth edition, carefully corrected and improved. Paperbound. London: E. Johnson. $75 from Wessel and Lieberman, Seattle, May, '08.

The title-page continues: "Divided into Sections, and the Two Languages answering almost verbatim for the Greater Conveniency of Learners. The Whole adorned with Cuts. Designed principally for Schools." This is a lovely find! The title-page has suffered but the text remains intact. There are several pages added before it for its protection. The covers themselves are paper. There is a T of C at the bottom of the introduction, just before the first fable. Each fable is in two columns for the two languages. Above these two columns is a lively woodcut. Many of the animal faces are rendered as almost human. The fables seem to be standard Aesop, complete with morals in both languages. The work stops abruptly in the middle of the last fable on 138. It is not clear how much may have been lost. The early "s" is evident in this book. The change would come in the next generation.

1773/1981 Fables Choisies Mises en Vers par J. de la Fontaine: Nouvelle Edition Gravée en taille-douce, Vol. IV. Les Figures par le Sr. Fessard; Le Texte par le Sr. Montulay. Limited facsimile edition of 800. Hardbound. Paris: Valmer-Bibliophilie. €7.50 from Librairie de l'Avenue, St.-Ouen, Paris, June, '09.

This is a curious set of six volumes, beautifully bound, replicating the Fessard edition of 1765-75, as the colophon near the end of the book points out. This fourth volume (Books 7 and 8) was published in 1773. (Bodemann inadvertently skips this volume when she records publishing dates).  The good news is that there is now some represention of Fessard's work in the collection. Metzner writes in Bodemann that this is the first fully engraved LaFontaine edition. Montulay was apparently the engraver for the texts. The engraved illustrations are presented in frames similar to those one would find around Oudry's work. The reproductions are, I would say, no better than adequate. Almost every fable receives three illustrations: a full-page engraving, a headpiece, and a tailpiece. Metzner gives a good sense of the artistic sources for each volume, but I am surprised not to find Oudry mentioned. Perhaps these engravings remind me of his work because they reflect the same culture and artistic tendencies. A favorite of mine in this section of La Fontaine is well rendered in all three illustrations here: "Le Curé et le Mort" (30, facing 30, and 32). Another favorite does as well in Book 8: "Le Rat et l'Huître" (80, facing 80, and 82). Lovely leather bindings, marbled endpapers, a page-marking ribbon, and gilded page-edges all the way around.

1773/1981 Fables Choisies Mises en Vers par J. de la Fontaine: Nouvelle Edition Gravée en taille-douce, Vol. IV.  Les Figures par le Sr. Fessard; Le Texte par le Sr. Montulay.  Limited facsimile edition of 800.  Hardbound.  Paris: Valmer-Bibliophilie.  €27.50 from Librairie de l'Avenue, St.-Ouen, Paris, June, '23.

This volume replicates one already in the collection, except that it belongs to a numbered set.  As I wrote of the volume found earlier, this is a curious set of six volumes, beautifully bound, replicating the Fessard edition of 1765-75, as the colophon near the end of the book points out.  This fourth volume (Books 7 and 8) was published in 1773.  (Bodemann inadvertently skips this volume when she records publishing dates).  The good news is that there is now some represention of Fessard's work in the collection.  Metzner writes in Bodemann that this is the first fully engraved LaFontaine edition.  Montulay was apparently the engraver for the texts.  The engraved illustrations are presented in frames similar to those one would find around Oudry's work.  The reproductions are, I would say, no better than adequate.  Almost every fable receives three illustrations: a full-page engraving, a headpiece, and a tailpiece.  Metzner gives a good sense of the artistic sources for each volume, but I am surprised not to find Oudry mentioned.  Perhaps these engravings remind me of his work because they reflect the same culture and artistic tendencies.  A favorite of mine in this section of La Fontaine is well rendered in all three illustrations here: "Le Curé et le Mort" (30, facing 30, and 32).  Another favorite does as well in Book 8: "Le Rat et l'Huître" (80, facing 80, and 82).  Lovely leather bindings, marbled endpapers, a page-marking ribbon, and gilded page-edges all the way around.

1773/2012 Fables from the German of Mr Lessing. J. Richardson. Hardbound. York: C. Etherington/Eighteenth Century Collections Online Print Editions. $20.76 from Grand Eagle Retail on eBay, Oct., '12.

This print-on-demand book is the happy exception to my general loathing for such books. In this case it confirms all the information I earlier guessed about a copy of the original 1773 book that I have. While this book is 7½" by 9¾", that book is about 4" x 6¼". This book confirms that that book is indeed the book published in 1773 by C. Etherington in York, and was translated by J. Richardson. That book is missing the thirteen pre-pages, including the title-page; pages 3-6; and the final pages, namely 161-8. The present book confirms all those guesses and completes the third book of thirty fables each. I read earlier the third through the seventh fables in the first book and found them faithful translations of Lessing. Thus this book helps establish that I found a great and valuable little treasure. Richardson's introduction is fascinating. Lessing for him gets us back to unadorned Aesop. Aesop's great original stories had suffered at the hands of Phaedrus and poets like La Fontaine. For Richardson, one reading La Fontaine does not know if he is reading a fable or a poem. Richardson drops Lessing's dissertation; he commetns that few would agree with it. He praises a recent English fabulist who outdoes La Fontaine. Might that be John Gay?

1773? Fables from the German of Mr Lessing. J. Richardson? Hardbound. York?: C. Etherington? £9.27 from Laura and Dean Conway, Boothby, Graffoe, UK, through eBay, August, '05. 

Here is an old book about 4" x 6¼". Luckily, the first page of text presents the book's title, since, as we will see shortly, the book lacks its first thirteen pages. The book seems to be inscribed on the inside of the front cover in Chesterfield in 1759 (or 1789?). The best record I can find for a book like this is at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. According to them, the book was published in 1773 by C. Etherington in York, and was translated by J. Richardson. This book, if it is indeed a copy of that book, is missing the thirteen pre-pages, including the title-page; pages 3-6; and the final pages, namely 161-8. This book breaks off after 160, in the midst of Fable #25 of Book III. ABE lists a volume of the same title and year, but includes a second publisher and place: John Bell and London. There are no illustrations. There are here three books of thirty, thirty, and (truncated) less than twenty-five fables, respectively. If it is of any help in dating it, this book uses the old form of the letter "s," which died out about 1800. I have read the third through the seventh fables in the first book and found them faithful translations of Lessing. Unless there were subsequent editions of which I have not yet heard, this may be a great and valuable little treasure.

1774 C.F. Gellert's Fabelen en Vertelsels, in Nederduitsche Vaerzen Gevolgd. Tweede Deel. B. de Bosch, J. Lutkeman, P. Meijer, J.P. Broeckhoff, H.J. Roullaud, J. Lublink de jonge. Hardbound. Amsterdam: Pieter Meijer. €13.33 from Antiquariaat Brinkman, Amsterdam, June, '07.

Here, two years after the first volume, is the second volume of Dutch translations of Gellert's poems, which had come out a generation earlier in German. This volume contains sixty-two texts. Each translation is signed by its author; curiously, by contrast with the first volume, there seems no listing of the authors here. There are only the initials after each fable, as in the first volume. There is a T of C at the end. The only illustration in the book is on the title-page, and it is the same illustration that was on the title-page of the first volume: cherubs play around the tombstone of Gellert. I had two days in Amsterdam on my way to Germany. In the rain, I found this bookstore in the neighborhood of the community and got lucky. There are two other volumes in the set. This is of course not the first time that I have bought a book originally owned by a Jesuit institution, in this case St. Aloysius College in 's-Gravenhage. There is also a marking from "Bibl.-Gymn. CATV." The last page advertises that there are a few copies left of the first volume. And the third volume will be coming out very soon!

1774 C.F. Gellert's Fabelen en Vertelsels, in Nederduitsche Vaerzen Gevolgd. Deerde Deel. B. de Bosch, J. Lutkeman, P. Meijer, J.P. Broeckhoff, H.J. Roullaud, J. Lublink de jonge. Hardbound. Amsterdam: Pieter Meijer. €13.33 from Antiquariaat Brinkman, Amsterdam, June, '07.

Here, two years after the first volume and the same year as the second volume, is the third volume of Dutch translations of Gellert's fables, which had come out a generation earlier in German. This volume contains twenty-seven fables and six didactic poems. Each translation is signed by its author; again, by contrast with the first volume, there seems no listing of the authors here. There are only the initials after each fable, as in the first two volumes. There is a T of C at the end and a list of printing errors in all three books. The only illustration in the book is on the title-page, and it is the same illustration that was on the title-page of the first volume: cherubs play around the tombstone of Gellert. I had two days in Amsterdam on my way to Germany. In the rain, I found this bookstore in the neighborhood of the community and got lucky. This is of course not the first time that I have bought a book originally owned by a Jesuit institution, in this case St. Aloysius College in 's-Gravenhage. There is also a marking from "Bibl.-Gymn. CATV." The last page advertises that there are a few copies left of the first two volumes. This volume fulfills the claim in the second volume that the third volume would be coming out very soon.

1774 Fables Choisies Mises en Vers par J. de la Fontaine: Nouvelle Edition Gravée en taille-douce, Vol. V. Les Figures par le Sr. (Etienne) Fessard. Hardbound. Paris: Chez des Lauriers, Md. De Papiers. Gift of the Right Reverend Frank Griswold, Philadelphia, April, '10.

Here is the fifth volume of the set of six volumes, published between 1765 and 1775. See my comments on the previous volumes in 1765, 1766, 1768, and 1773. This and the sixth volume no longer mention an editor on the title-page. This volume contains only a T of C before it begins with "The Untrustworthy Depositor," the 170th fable in this work and first in La Fontaine's Book IX. Again, when the fables begin, pagination moves from Roman to Arabic numerals. The pagination skips the full engraved plates, which are not printed on the verso. These full-page illustrations are again presented in frames similar to those one would find around Oudry's work. Almost every fable receives three illustrations: a full-page engraving, a headpiece, and a tailpiece. Memorable illustrations include: "The Cat and the Fox" (36); all three illustrations for "The Treasure and the Two Men" (41); TT (66); and "The Rabbits" (97). Half-calf over five raised bands on the spine, marbled endpapers, and a page-marking ribbon.

1774 Fables Translated from Aesop and Other Authors. To which are subjoined a Moral in Verse and an Application in Prose Adapted to each Fable. By Charles Draper. Illustrated with Cuts from the best Designs (by Elisha Kirkall). First edition? Hardbound. London: Printed for S. Crowder. $102.50 from Parrott Books, Faringdon, Oxon, UK, through Ebay, Jan., '02.

After searching in Bodemann and in my favor private collector, I finally found Draper in Hobbs. This book is clearly fashioned along the lines of Croxall's, but Draper takes clear exception to Croxall's work. I may be able to give the best sense of this book by concentrating on Draper's stance in his preface, where he describes Croxall as being as partisan on the one side as Croxall had found l'Estrange on the other. He further finds Croxall not communicating effectively with the young audience he had said that he had in mind. While it is "too trifling and puerile for the study of men," Croxall's work is too raised in style (though it sometimes falls into poor familiarities), "too full of reflections on particular persons; too frequently illustrated with characters in the manner of our modern essaists, though not so well drawn; too much crouded with allusions to antient history; and too ostentatiously pieced with Latin quotations, for the perusal of children." Take that, Samuel Croxall! In his dedication to the five-year-old son of the Earl of Halifax, Draper finds Croxall guilty of gross impropriety and ridiculous affectation. He further is "generally prolix in his manner, and bloated in his stile." Croxall is even indecent in his narration of "The Boar and the Ass." Finally, his applications "often deviate from the plain sense and meaning of the fable." Amen! Hobbs comments laconically (85): "Charles Draper's rather more lively prose (published 1774 with Kirkall's cuts) here replaces the loquacious Croxall…." 202 fables (Croxall had had 196) finish on 328, to be followed (329-40) by an index of virtues and qualities. There is an AI at the beginning. This copy of the book is in fair condition at best. But what a treasure to have found on Ebay! Kirkall's illustrations are as always lovely, if somewhat worn here. It would make a fascinating project to compare this book and its fables in detail with Croxall's.

1774/1981 Fables Choisies Mises en Vers par J. de la Fontaine: Nouvelle Edition Gravée en taille-douce, Vol. V. Les Figures par le Sr. Fessard; Le Texte par le Sr. Montulay. Limited facsimile edition of 800. Hardbound. Paris: Valmer-Bibliophilie. €7.50 from Librairie de l'Avenue, St.-Ouen, Paris, June, '09.

This is a curious set of six volumes, beautifully bound, replicating the Fessard edition of 1765-75, as the colophon near the end of the book points out. This fifth volume (Books 9 and 10) was published in 1774.  The good news is that there is now some represention of Fessard's work in the collection. Metzner writes in Bodemann that this is the first fully engraved LaFontaine edition. Montulay was apparently the engraver for the texts. The engraved illustrations are presented in frames similar to those one would find around Oudry's work. The reproductions are, I would say, no better than adequate. Almost every fable receives three illustrations: a full-page engraving, a headpiece, and a tailpiece. Metzner gives a good sense of the artistic sources for each volume, but I am surprised not to find Oudry mentioned. Perhaps these engravings remind me of his work because they reflect the same culture and artistic tendencies. The tailpiece on 27 does a great job of showing the results of the "case" in "L'Huître et les Plaideurs": we see two empty halves of an oyster shell! The engravings facing 41 and on 41 contrast beautifully the two men's different fates today in dealing with treasure. Lovely leather bindings, marbled endpapers, a page-marking ribbon, and gilded page-edges all the way around.

1774/1981 Fables Choisies Mises en Vers par J. de la Fontaine: Nouvelle Edition Gravée en taille-douce, Vol. V.  Les Figures par le Sr. Fessard; Le Texte par le Sr. Montulay.  Limited facsimile edition of 800.  Hardbound.  Paris: Valmer-Bibliophilie.  €27.50 from Librairie de l'Avenue, St.-Ouen, Paris, June, '23.

This volume replicates one already in the collection, except that it belongs to a numbered set.  As I wrote of the volume found earlier, this is a curious set of six volumes, beautifully bound, replicating the Fessard edition of 1765-75, as the colophon near the end of the book points out.  This fifth volume (Books 9 and 10) was published in 1774.  The good news is that there is now some represention of Fessard's work in the collection.  Metzner writes in Bodemann that this is the first fully engraved LaFontaine edition.  Montulay was apparently the engraver for the texts.  The engraved illustrations are presented in frames similar to those one would find around Oudry's work.  The reproductions are, I would say, no better than adequate.  Almost every fable receives three illustrations: a full-page engraving, a headpiece, and a tailpiece.  Metzner gives a good sense of the artistic sources for each volume, but I am surprised not to find Oudry mentioned.  Perhaps these engravings remind me of his work because they reflect the same culture and artistic tendencies.  The tailpiece on 27 does a great job of showing the results of the "case" in "L'Huître et les Plaideurs": we see two empty halves of an oyster shell!  The engravings facing 41 and on 41 contrast beautifully the two men's different fates today in dealing with treasure.  Lovely leather bindings, marbled endpapers, a page-marking ribbon, and gilded page-edges all the way around.