Fabeln nach Desbillons: Zum Vergnügen und Nutzen
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Issue Date
1800
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Type
Book, Whole
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Abstract
Here are five books containing 220 of Desbillons' fables translated into German from their original Latin. The order of poems does not follow Desbillons' order, but the translations here are numbered within their books, and each gives a reference to its place in Desbillons' work. I have sampled the German against Desbillons' Latin and found both surprisingly clear. Those I tried are I 1, I 3, I 10, I 42, and I 43. There are several surprises for me in this book. The first is that the spine's indication -- Passau, 1819 -- probably has to do not at all with the book's title or date but rather with the fact that the book was a school prize for a certain Michael Maier. The second surprise is the extensive introduction to the person and writer Desbillons. I learned a great deal from Weinzierl's loving description. I am happy to get information about Desbillons because we have a great deal in common: Jesuits who love fables and Latin and old books. His library in Mannheim got to 17000 volumes; ours here has just passed 8000, and I am going strong! Among helpful reports to fill out my impressions of him are these. He deeply missed Jesuit community. He got at least some of the money for his books, many antiquarian and bought cheaply, from his well-to-do family. The publisher in Paris wanted to add racy illustrations to his already written large Phaedrus text and commentary, and Desbillons refused. What he published later was a scaled down school edition. The first of his fable books, published in Glasgow in 1754, ran through two editions elsewhere soon afterwards, since it was so popular. Our collection has a little treasure in that first edition! There is a T of C between the introduction and the beginning of the first book of fables. I find no illustrations except the lovely etching of Lisette on the title-page. Not in Bodemann.
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Im Verlag bei Joseph Lentner
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8859 (Access ID)