Le Songe d'un Habitant du Mogol & autres fables de la Fontaine
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Authors
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Issue Date
1989
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Type
Book, Whole
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Abstract
Here is one of those curiosities of book collecting. When the people at Librairie de l'Avénue mentioned this publication to me, I said I already have it. Then I looked closer. This publication comes in a bigger box because it contains a partner volume translating the fables into English. The main book itself, this item, has a single difference from that book. Facing the title-page in both books is mention that the book was done by the Imprimerie nationale from miniatures at Chateaux-Thierry. Below that in this copy is an added statement that the book is offered by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs during the year of la France en Inde as a symbol of cooperation and friendship between the two countries. A card is also laid into the book recognizing all the sponsors of this particular year. Let me repeat my remarks from that printing. This is a delightful large-format book of some 192 pages featuring the fifty-nine miniatures painted by Imam Bakhsh at the court of Lahore from 1837 on. As far as I can understand, these miniatures are now preserved at the Jean de la Fontaine Museum in Château-Thierry. They are exquisite! Let me list some of my favorites: The Crow Wishing to Imitate an Eagle (23); MSA (29); FWT (41); The Horse and the Wolf (42); FG (48, an absolute star!); The Stag Seeing Himself in the Water (53); The Lion, the Wolf, and the Fox (71); The Rat and the Elephant (81); The Wolf and the Hunter (90); CW (103); The Dream of the Citizen of the Mogul's Land (137); and The Sun and the Frogs (169). The introduction and appendices give some of the history of this remarkable set of artifacts. As the opening Avertissement de l'Éditeur points out, the fables that happen to be illustrated here are in many cases not La Fontaine's most famous. T of C at the back. I consider this a very lucky find!
Description
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Publisher
Réunion des Musées nationaux, Imprimerie nationale
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Identifier
10180 (Access ID)