Fables Choisies de M. de La Fontaine
Loading...
Authors
Jean de La Fontaine
Issue Date
1700
Volume
Issue
Type
Book, Whole
Language
Keywords
Alternative Title
Abstract
This book becomes one of the stars of the collection! Bodemann #77 describes a family of editions that starts with Denys Thierry's 1668 publication of La Fontaine's first six books of fables, illustrated by Chauveau (Bodemann #77.1). The first "Gesamtausgabe" of the twelve books was published between 1669 and 1694 in five "volumes," each of which contained one to three "books" of La Fontaine's fables (Bodemann #77.3). Were these five, published by different publishers over twenty-five years, bound together to make one volume? Volume I contained La Fontaine's first three books, and Volume II the next three books. Life gets trickier with Volume III: it contained what we know as Books 7 and 8 of La Fontaine's fables, but they were called "Books I and II" and their pages were freshly paginated. Volume IV contained what we know as Books 9-11 but called them "Books III to V." Volume V contained what we know as Book 12 but called it, mistakenly, "Book VII." Bodemann correctly notes "richtig VI." Henrik von Bulderen published the next version of this book in 1688 (Volumes I through IV) and 1694 (Volume V): Bodemann #77.4. He republished it in 1700 (Bodemann #77.8). This volume continues the unusual numbering of books and the mistaken numbering of the final volume. My understanding is that Henrik Cause is the engraver and he models these engravings after the drawings of Chauveau. Bodemann describes the title-page picture in terms of a satyr pointing to the pictorialized character of fable. In fact, the illustrations are very well preserved here. The book itself is not well preserved. Both front and back cover boards are separated. 270 pages plus 346 pages, separately paginated. Bodemann says of #77.3 that it contains 235 illustrations. The illustrations are surprisingly large: 2¾" x about 3". Some foxing.
Description
Citation
Publisher
Chez Henry van Bulderen
License
Journal
Volume
Issue
PubMed ID
DOI
Identifier
10634 (Access ID)